Theology and Theological Studies Master’s program at Harvard University

The master of theological studies (MTS) degree offers students the opportunity to explore how different elements of religion relate to language, culture, and the evolution of different faith traditions.

The MTS program is a two-year full-time degree with eighteen areas of focus that allow for diverse educational interests and vocational goals.

The program may be preparatory work for a doctoral program in religion or related discipline the program may also inform another field or profession, such as law, journalism, public policy, education, arts, or medicine, from a perspective enriched by theological study.

View a comparison chart of MTS program and other HDS degree offerings.

Conduct research using the methods appropriate to at least one subfield within the academic study of religion, or apply the fruits of research to a particular problem.

African and African American Religious Studies Courses in this area explore various dimensions of the religious experiences and expressions of the African and African American peoples, including the African diaspora.

Buddhist Studies Courses in this area foster the understanding of Buddhists and the life-worlds they have created, historically across Asia as well as in contemporary settings around the globe. This understanding is cultivated through self-reflective interpretations of Buddhist ideas, values, texts, languages, institutions, practices, and experiences, with the expectation that these interpretations will lead to both appreciation and critique of Buddhism, in all its diversity, as a human heritage.

Comparative Studies Courses in this area include the comparative study of religion and anthropology, comparative theology, and comparative ethics. They involve the disciplined study of the complex relationships among themes and concepts, as well as the study of texts, practices, and images, in two or religious traditions. Such studies by definition involve a self-reflexive, critical analysis of comparison itself. Some courses may be entirely methodological and or theoretical in content, but the emphasis is normally on concrete comparative practice. Students are urged to cultivate knowledge of at least two traditions by the study of them throughout their program.

While many courses focus on a particular religious community and or tradition, others consider the richly complex interactions among various religious communities in China, Japan, and Korea.

The courses are designed to serve both students with no knowledge of biblical languages as well as those who have studied Hebrew, Greek, and or other ancient languages relating to the Bible and who seek to continue building their linguistic foundation for further study.

Hindu Studies Courses in this area foster the understanding of Hindu thought and practice both in India and throughout the global Hindu diaspora. Students are also encouraged to undertake the study of Sanskrit and other relevant languages.

History of Christianity Courses in this area study Christianity in its evolving institutional, theological, devotional, social, cultural, and intellectual expressions from the first century to the present. In addition, the area offers courses in historical method, historiography, and interpretive issues in secondary literature.

Islamic Studies Courses in this area study different dimensions of the long and varied history and contemporary reality of the Islamic tradition. Islamic art, law, politics, and theology, Islamic mysticism, Islamic constructions of gender, pre-modern Islamic culture, and other topics are explored within the Arabic-, Persian-, and Turkish-speaking societies of the Muslim-majority world, South, Central, and Southeast Asia, Africa, and or the modern Western world.

Jewish Studies Courses in this area explore the Jewish tradition as it has developed over the millennia. Methodologically, it makes use of a number of diverse but interrelated approaches: literary, historical, theological, philosophical, and sociological. The language most relevant to Jewish Studies is Hebrew, though for work in some areas, others, such as Aramaic or Yiddish, may also prove essential.

New Testament and Early ChristianityCourses in this area focus on the interdisciplinary study of Christian literature (canonical and extracanonical), history, exegesis, and theology in the context of the ancient Mediterranean world, with special emphasis on hermeneutics, feminist interpretation, and material culture.

Philosophy of Religion Courses in this area engage in the philosophical interpretation and evaluation of religion, religious belief, and religious practice. Questions include the nature of religion, religious experience, and religious language the status and justification of religious belief the relationship between religion and ethics, and between religion and aesthetics and theories of practice relative to the interplay of religious subjectivity and ritual. Work in this area can be pursued in relationship to European and American philosophy, the philosophical traditions of Asia, and or comparative studies.

Religion and the Social Sciences Courses in this area attempt to explicate and account for connections between religious phenomena and several aspects of society including the organization of cultural, political, economic, and reproductive life. This area approaches forms of religious faith, religious experience, and religious organization from post-enlightenment perspectives associated with the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, social psychology, political and economic science, and sociobiology.

Religion, Ethics, and Politics Courses in this area focus on a range of normative issues that arise within political cultures. This area encourages students to understand the many social, cultural, and political contexts in which human agents are formed and take action. Special attention is given to the distinctive role that religious beliefs, practices, codes, and s play in shaping ethical subjects or instructing their dispositions and choices. The area is intentionally interdisciplinary and exposes students to normative issues within a variety of the world religious traditions.

Religion, Literature, and Culture Courses in this area provide students with the historical and critical methods necessary to analyze literary texts from a variety of genres (poetry, biography), religious traditions (Buddhism, Christianity), and cultural perspectives (Latin America, South Asia). Recognizing the intersectionality of religion, literature, and culture, this area combines literary and cultural criticism with theological and religious analysis. It also recognizes the aesthetic dimension of religion as a basis for understanding such themes as myth, ritual, and transcendence in much of world literature.

Religions of the Americas Courses in this area explore the diverse religious traditions and expressions of the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Historical, ethnographic, and comparative approaches are brought to bear on immigrant, indigenous, diasporic, and new religions. While some courses take broadly hemispheric and multireligious perspectives, others focus in depth on particular geographical areas, traditions, or themes.

While many courses focus on a particular religious community and or tradition, others consider the richly complex interactions among various religious groups in South Asia and the South Asian global diaspora. Students in this area are encouraged to explore the religious cultures of the region broadly, including relevant classical and or modern languages.

Theology Courses in this area focus on all modes of the Christian tradition self-understandings of its faith and practice in historical, contemporary, and comparative contexts. The study of theology involves the articulation of diverse understandings of central topics such as God, salvation, and the Church analyses of the contexts of, constraints on, and methods of theological reflection and reasoning the relation of Christianity to other religions and the relation of theology to other pursuits of knowledge and practices of self-understanding.

Women, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion Courses in this area use gender and or sexuality as categories of analysis across the disciplines of religious and theological studies. The area engages feminist theory in relation to the experiences, thoughts, texts, and practices of both men and women as well as highlighting previously neglected areas of women religiosity.

(Note: individually designed programs should be created based on the course offerings and capacity of HDS to support that area as a field of study.) Not all courses available and of interest belong to an area of focus. The program is designed with sufficient flexibility to allow selection from among all course offerings. Students are encouraged to select these courses when appropriate to their interests or program.

The courses must be taken for a letter grade and the student must receive grades of B or higher.

Residency requirement: students must complete four courses each in two of their first three consecutive terms.

Thirteen of the sixteen required classes must be taken for a letter grade, three may be taken on a satisfactory unsatisfactory basis.

B average must be maintained throughout the program.

Language study at Harvard Divinity School is one of the highlights of many students' experience. Master of theological studies (MTS) students must satisfy a language competency requirement by demonstrating intermediate reading competency in a language of scholarship in theological and religious studies.

HDS offers instruction in several languages, including Pali, a written language of early Buddhism. Students are expected to address their language requirements as early in their programs as possible.

There are four ways MTS students may demonstrate intermediate-level reading competency to satisfy the language requirement with one of the seven languages examined by HDS:.

By completing with a grade of B or better the second semester of an HDS intermediate-level course in Greek, Hebrew, Pali, or Arabic (e.g., 4021 Intermediate Classical Hebrew II, 4221 Intermediate Greek II, 4055 Intermediate Pali II, or 4361 Intermediate Arabic II) or one semester of an HDS advanced intermediate-level course in Latin (e.g., Readings in Christian Latin: Hildegard of Bingen and the Gospels).

By receiving a grade of A or higher on the final exam in a modern language course in the School Summer Language Program.

For languages taught at Harvard University other than those offered and examined by the Divinity School, the same principles will apply for satisfying the language requirement. Students must achieve intermediate competency, which is usually measured as finishing with a B or better the fourth semester of a language course that follows the four-semester model.

Master of Religion and Public Life (MRPL) Program.