Majors and Minors  

Theology

Highlights

Subject Areas

Bible, history of Christianity, survey of different religions, theological issues, ethics

Electives

Large number of general electives available, allowing for extensive work in a second area of interest

Senior Seminar

Required of theology majors

Program Description

Students major or minor in theology for various reasons. Some aim to study the past origins and present day uses of Jewish and Christian Scriptures. Some become interested in the history of Christianity — Eastern and Western, Catholic and Protestant. Other students become interested in the way diverse contemporary theologies address issues of God and Jesus Christ, evil and suffering, the Church and the modern world, belief, and unbelief. Still others aim to pursue issues in ethics: Christian ethics, medical ethics, contemporary moral issues, war and peace. Some students become interested in the diverse relationships between theology and some other area: philosophy, world religions or the sciences. Still others find themselves attracted to a God of love who calls them to think, speak, read and write about God’s relation to a world of many joys and griefs.

Curriculum

The study of theology embraces all these interests, and our theology courses are addressed to these diverse students (Jew and Christian, Catholic and Protestant, believer and unbeliever). All students take an introductory course aimed at learning to interpret the Bible, understand the history of Christianity and become people who can respond intelligently, in thought and life, to the way these texts and traditions challenge our contemporary cultures.
A second theology course focuses these aims on one of four general areas: Jewish and Christian Scriptures, the History of Christianity, Christian Theology and Theology and Culture. Our core ethics courses are either case-oriented or theme-oriented explorations of the crucial struggle of our time: the struggle for faith and that struggle for justice which it includes. The theology department’s electives aim to introduce students to the way scholarly research is conducted in the various divisions of theology. These courses cover topics such as Hebrew prophets, Jesus in the Gospels, reading the Bible in the modern world, the theology of St. Augustine, American Catholic intellectual life, religion in children’s literature, divine power and human freedom, issues in medical ethics and theology and the sciences.

Other Activities

Qualified students may be inducted into Alpha Omega, Loyola's chapter of Theta  Alpha Kappa, the national honor society in religious studies and theology. 

Faculty

Each student’s program is constructed in consultation with a faculty advisor. All faculty teach, while also doing research on a wide range of topics — for example, Biblical hermeneutics, St. Augustine, the relations between Jews and Christians in early Christianity, medieval woman theologians, the involvement of American Catholics in the founding of the United Nations, arguments over the identity of Jesus Christ in modernity, Eastern Orthodox Roman Catholic ethics and other areas. This diversity in faculty backgrounds and interests enables the faculty to advise students on a broad range of issues.

Christopher Michael Barczak

Adjunct Assistant Professor 

B.S., Loyola College in Maryland

M.A., Ecumenical Institute of Theology

Areas of interest: Biblical studies, ethics, pastoral/practical theology

 

Frederick Bauerschmidt

Associate Professor of Theology 

B.A., University of the South

M.A.R., Yale Divinity School

Ph.D., Duke University

Areas of interest: historical thought

 

John R. Betz

Associate Professor 

B.A., Wake Forest University

Ph.D., University of Virginia

Area of interest: philosophical theology

 

John Buchner

Adjunct Assistant Professor 

B.A., M.A., M.Div., Mount Saint Mary's College

D.Min., St. Mary's Seminary and University

Area of interest: pastoral theology

 

James J. Buckley

Professor

B.A., Cardinal Glennon College

M.A., M.Ph., Ph.D., Yale University

Areas of interest: Catholic and Protestant theology, philosophical theology, and theology of religions

 

Angela Christman

Professor of Theology

B.A., Ph.D., University of Virginia

M. Div., Virginia Theological Seminary

 

Will Cohen

Adjunct Assistant Professor

B.A., Brown University, 1988

M. Div., St. Vladimir's Theological Seminary, 2002

 

Stephen Fowl

Department Chair, Professor

B.A., Wheaton College

M.A., Wheaton Graduate School

Ph.D., University of Sheffield

Areas of interest: New Testament, hermeneutics and ethics

 

Claire R. Mathews

Associate Professor

B.A., Swarthmore College

M.Div., Yale Divinity School

Ph.D., Yale University Graduate School

Area of interest: Old Testament

 

R. Trent Pomplun

Associate Professor

B.A., Rice University

M.A., Ph.D., University of Virginia

Area of interest: early modern theology

 

Rev. Joseph S. Rossi, S.J.

Associate Professor

B.A., University of Pittsburgh

M.A., Hartke School of Drama (Catholic University of America)

S.T.M., M.Div., Jesuit School of Theology (Berkeley)

Ph.D., Catholic University of America

Area of interest: American Catholic life and thought

 

Arthur M. Sutherland

Associate Professor 

B.A., Harding University

M.Div., S.T.M., Yale University Divinity School

Ph.D., Princeton Theological Seminary

 

W. Valkenberg

Associate Professor

M.A., Catholic Theological University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, 1980

M.A., Catholic Theological University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, 1981

Ph.D., Catholic Theological University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, 1990

Placement

Theology majors and minors move into a variety of careers. Some study in graduate schools, divinity schools or seminaries. Others enter into fields as diverse as teaching and publishing, journalism and law, counseling and ministry in Catholic and Protestant churches.

Course Sequence

1st year

Introduction to Theology
Core courses (7)
General electives (2)

2nd year

Theology electives (2)
Core courses (7)
General elective

3rd year

Theology electives (3)
Fine Arts elective
Core courses (2)
General electives (5)

4th year

Theology electives (4)
Senior Seminar
General electives (4)

Theology electives include:

Catholic Intellectual Life in
the United States
Controversies Among Christians
Culture and World Religions
Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Heroes/Heretics of the
Past and Present
Introduction to Judaism
Introduction to the Old and
New Testaments
Prophets and Prophecy
Women in the Christian Tradition

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