Building on the pioneering legacy of the Graduate Theological Union’s interdisciplinary study of faith traditions and the arts, the program is devoted to this study in its many dimensions, including the historical, theological, and aesthetic. Students pursue this study through an emphasis on the history of art and faith traditions or through philosophical and theological aesthetics.

Objectives
The program in Art and Religion engages doctoral students in a dynamic scholarly learning community, focusing on critical reflection on the arts as a locus of religious meaning. The program prepares students to find where art and faith traditions meet in academic, religious, and art institutions. Students who complete the program will be able to interpret the language of religious symbolism embodied in the arts and they will acquire expertise in discerning how the interrelationship between art and religion impacts history, culture, spirituality, and ritual. Our graduates are able to teach, research, and write in the areas of art and faith traditions, especially the visual arts, or aesthetics.

Admission Requirements
Persons applying for the program are expected to have an MA, or the academic equivalent, in art history, theology and art, or aesthetics.

Language Requirements
Students must have proficiency in two languages other than English. One of these must be German, Spanish, or French. Plans for acquiring sufficient language proficiency are established on an individual basis by the student in consultation with the academic advisor.

Course work
During this phase, students pursue pre-dissertation coursework, research and writing of papers, as agreed with the academic advisor. Furthermore, students are expected to take the doctoral seminar as well as upper division (4000-6000 level) courses or seminars with GTU and UC Berkeley faculty in the history of western art, aesthetics, and theology. In addition, the student defines and gains expertise in a field of specialization, as a preliminary step towards the dissertation. The student will write two substantial research papers (one methodological in emphasis) to fulfill the research readiness requirements; and, if necessary (consulting with the advisor), the student will do additional qualifying seminar work.

Comprehensive Examinations
Written Examinations A) The student will write a research paper of 30 to 40 pages on some subject dealing with the major focus of his or her discipline (either aesthetics or history of art and religion). B) The student will be expected to write a composition, in a closed book examination of 3 hours, on question/s given by the committee that deal with the student’s major focus of his or her discipline. C) The student will write another research paper of 30 to 40 pages dealing with the minor focus of his or her discipline (either aesthetics or history of art and religion) or an allied field approved by the Area. D) The student will do a critical paper on a specific art form or do a creative project designed to display the student’s knowledge of an art form within the context of theology.

Oral Examination
The oral examination will follow the written exams and involve the following: A) Questions and Analysis on the part of the student’s Committee regarding what was stated in all of the written exams. B) Any new questions the Committee might want to pose to the student in order to determine his or her comprehensive grasp of the discipline. C) A review of a critical paper on a specific art form or of a creative project designed to display the student’s knowledge of an art form within the context of theology.

Dissertation
The program’s course of study, research, writing, and examinations culminates in a dissertation focusing either on the philosophical or theological aesthetics of an art form, or on the visual arts within the religious and cultural context of a selected period in the history of Western art and religion. Dissertation proposals conform to the general rubrics of the GTU doctoral program.

CORE DOCTORAL FACULTY IN ART AND RELIGION

ALEJANDRO GARCÍA-RIVERA • Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, JSTB
Theological aesthetics; human suffering; soul and neuroscience; creation and evolution.

MIA M. MOCHIZUKI • Assistant Professor of Art History and Religion, GTU/JSTB
Reformation and seventeenth century Dutch and Flemish art; impact of iconoclasm and exploration on the early modern image; art theory and criticism.

MICHAEL MORRIS, OP • Professor of Religion and the Arts, DSPT
Christian iconography; biography; oral history; film studies; art history; hagiography.

RONALD Y. NAKASONE • Professor-in-Residence, CARE
Buddhist art and aesthetics; interfaith aesthetics; Buddhist medicine; aging and spirituality.

CONSORTIAL FACULTY

JANE DILLENBERGER • Professor Emerita of Theology and the Arts, GTU
The visual arts and Christianity, early Christian to the present, including the United States.

Philosophical aesthetics.

CHRISTOPHER RENZ, OP • Academic Dean and Adjunct Professor, DSPT
Poetry and spirituality.

AFFILIATED FACULTY IN THE CENTER FOR THE ARTS, RELIGION, AND EDUCATION

MEL AHLBORN • CARE (Studio Art)

CAROL ANNE BERRY • CARE (Studio Art)

STEVEN E. BERRY • CARE (Communications)

JOAN CARTER • CARE (Theology/Worship and the Arts)

HARRY CRONIN, CSC • CARE (Theater and Film)

DANIEL DAMON • CARE (Church Music)

DIRK DAMONTE • CARE (Arts in Youth Ministry)

CARLA DeSOLA • CARE (Dance)

GORDON DRAGT • CARE (Arts Ministries)

ERIC ELNES • CARE (Arts Ministries)

CHINA GALLAND • CARE (Comparative Religion, Iconography and the Arts)

STEVEN GEORGIOU • CARE (Art and Religion)

BONNIE HARDWICK • CARE (Art and Religion)

STEWART HELLER • CARE (Television & Electronic Media)

SALLY HINDMAN • CARE & SKSM (Art and Liberation)

SALLY JUAREZ • CARE (Drama)

JACQUELINE LEWIS • CARE (Arts Ministries)

ELIZA LINLEY • CARE (Architecture)

HILARY MARCKX • CARE (Photography and Environment)

DONNEL MILLER-MUTIA • CARE (Arts in Youth Ministry)

SYLVIA MILLER-MUTIA • CARE (Arts in Youth Ministry).

MICHAEL MOYNAHAN, SJ • (Drama and Mime)

TIM NUVEEN • CARE (Poetry)

DAVID JAMES RANDOLPH • CARE (Communications)

MICHAEL RHODES • CARE (Film and Ministry)

DAVID STEADMAN • CARE (Art History)

MARGO WESLEY • CARE (Poetry)