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Certificate in Theology and the Arts

Program Code: D-TA-C
Degree Designation: Certificate
Department: Divinity School
Website: divinity.duke.edu/academics/certificates/certificate-theology-and-arts

Program Summary

The certificate in theology and the arts aims to provide Duke Divinity School students a firm grounding in the biblical resources, key theological loci, and practices of art making and reception relevant to a lifetime’s engagement with the arts in the church, the university, and beyond. The certificate is open to students in the MDiv, hybrid MDiv, MTS, MA, and ThM degree programs.

Academic Requirements

  • THM, MTS, and MDVR Requirements (complete 3 courses)

    • Core Course (complete any)

      • XTIANTHE 773 (Introduction to Theology and the Arts)

      • XTIANTHE 972 (Advanced Studies in Theology and the Arts)

    • Electives (complete any) - see list below

    • Project

    • Participation in Events

  • MDVH Requirements (complete 3 courses)

    • XTIANTHE 773 (Introduction to Theology and the Arts)

    • Electives (complete any) - see list below

    • Project within Formation for Ministry

    • Participation in Events

  • MACP Requirements (complete 2 courses)

    • XTIANTHE 773 (Introduction to Theology and the Arts)

    • Electives (complete any) - see list below

    • Arts Assignment in a Non-Arts class 

    • Participation in Events 

    • Vocational Integration

  • Electives

    • BCS 768 (Religion, Race, & Relationship in Film)

    • BCS 769 (Popular Apocalypse: Religion, Race, Popular Culture, and the Eschatological Imagination)

    • LTS 804 (The Role and Function of Music in Corporate Worship)

    • LTS 830 (Survey of Christian Hymnody)

    • NEWTEST 803 (The Passion Narratives)

    • OLDTEST 861 (Classical Hebrew Poetry)

    • OLDTEST 972 (The Psalms, Theology, and the Arts in Jewish and Christian Traditions)

    • PARISH 762 (Christianity and Contemporary Literature)

    • PARISH 764 (The Poetic Imagination)

    • PARISH 800 (Women and Spiritual Memoir)

    • PARISH 807 (The Theology and Spirituality of Place)

    • SPIRIT 802 (Spiritual Writing Workshop)

    • XTIANTHE 812 (The Doctrine of Creation and Theological Anthropology)

    • XTIANTHE 815 (Theology and Music)

    • XTIANTHE 852 (Modern Theological Anthropology I: Pascal)

    • XTIANTHE 857 (Love and Desire)

    • XTIANTHE 968 (The Theological Aesthetics of the Image)

    • XTIANTHE 781 (Modern Catholic Writing: Faith, Witness, Ecology)

    • XTIANTHE 782 (Poetry and/as Theology: Part I - G. M. Hopkins, Paul Claudel, R. M. Rilke)

    • XTIANTHE 783 (Poetry and/as Theology II: T. S. Eliot, Czeslaw Milosz, Geoffrey Hill)

    • XTIANTHE 859 (Christianity and Western Literature)

    • XTIANTHE 970 (Modern Christology and Chalcedon)

    • XTIANTHE 972 (Advanced Studies in Theology and the Arts)

    • XTIANTHE 860 (Theology and Film)

    • HISTTHEO 760 (Images of God)

    • LTS 834 (The Role and Function of Music in Corporate Worship)

    • XTIANTHE 856 (Theology through Visual Art and the Theology of Art)

    • XTIANTHE 845 (Beauty, Suffering, and the Cross)

    • XTIANTHE 780 (Recent Catholic Theology: Movements and Figures)

    • XTIANTHE 861 (Latinx Theological Aesthetics)


Guidance for MDiv (Residential and Hybrid), MTS, and ThM Students Requirements

  • Courses may be taken in any order

  • Completion of a research or service-learning project in theology and the arts. The project may be conducted in one of the following ways:

    • within a course (but not within any of the three courses that fulfill the previous requirement)

    • within a directed study

    • as an internship with a director of music or arts pastor at a church

    • as an independent community-building project

    • within the context of a field education placement (MDVH - within Formation for Ministry)

  • Regular participation in bimonthly certificate colloquies and events sponsored by Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts

Guidance for MA Students Requirements

  • Courses may be taken in any order

  • Completion of one assignment related to theology and the arts for a non-theology and the arts course, with permission from the instructor

  • Completion of a 500-word summary of how coursework integrates with current vocation, with specific reference to the certificate in theology and the arts

  • Regular participation, if feasible, in bimonthly CTA colloquies and DITA-sponsored events