The Theology Department at Carroll College teaches Christian theology in the Roman Catholic tradition. We explore the nature of the Christian faith, its biblical and intellectual heritage, and how this heritage has informed and continues to inform Christian belief and practice.
The goal of our inquiry is three-fold: (1) to help you understand the particularity of Catholicism in relation to the broader Christian tradition, (2) to consider important questions about the role of the Christian faith in contemporary culture, and (3) to provide you with a solid knowledge of and appreciation for different faith perspectives.
At Carroll, we believe that theology should never be disengaged from the rest of one's life. Rather, the study of theology informs and forms the whole of one's life. The theology major at Carroll is built to allow you to "explore the deep" of your faith in conjunction with your individual professional aspirations and we highly encourage you to pursue a major in a second field to broaden your skills and career options.
Worried you can't get a job with Theology? Hold your horses! Our emphasis on doubling a major in theology with a major in another discipline sets our students up for success in a wide range of endeavors. Our theology graduates have pursued careers in the medical sciences, politics, and education. They have also pursued graduate work in both theology and other fields at such prestigious institutions as the Harvard Divinity School, Union Theological Seminary, Fordham University, University of Notre Dame, Weston Jesuit School of Theology, Iliff School of Theology, and the Gregorian University in Rome.
Why does theology allow for such a diverse set of options? Instead of studying how we live, theology studies why we live. So, what we're saying is this: come study Theology with us and get a job and become a better person, thinker, and believer in the process. That's what we want, too!
As the Department of Theology, we seek to serve the Carroll College community and the Diocese of Helena by cultivating an intellectual setting that encourages students to reflect critically and academically on the role of theology in their transformative pursuit of Truth. We challenge our students to explore and examine their beliefs morally, spiritually, and intellectually; and we enjoin them to manifest their faith through service to our diocese, to the broader church, and to the wider world.
The Carroll College Department of Theology will be a premier theology program that listens to Catholic intellectual tradition while engaging the challenges of the 21st century, intellectually, academically, pastorally, and in service to its community. While the department remains faithfully Catholic in all the nuances and traditions that Catholicity entails, it also continues to welcome all persons of good-will, offering them the same excellent educational opportunities. In this cord, the department will tap into the inherently integrative and transformative nature of theology and, upon earning a degree from Carroll College, theology graduates will be intellectual and practical, dialogical and faithful.
Intellectually, graduates will add thoughtfulness to their communities as priests, pastors, lay-ministers, and parishioners. They will be pursuers of Truth, who neither shun nor avoid difficult questions of faith, life, or morality. They will seek not merely to believe but, as Augustine beckons us all, to understand.
In practice, theology graduates will be able to engage in advanced communication: the ability to write well, think critically, present convincingly, speak fluidly, and act creatively. They will likely double-major so as to gain for themselves a full array of skills necessary for succeeding both professionally and personally in the contemporary world. They will be able to combine the skills and attitudes that they have developed as theology students with their work in other majors so as to excel in their chosen professions.
Dialogically, theology graduates will be able to think through all aspects of their lives integratively. They will be able to systematically combine their knowledge of theology within a broader intellectual framework while also using theology as the context that can define the value of any academic discipline. They will come to know the principles and precepts of another discipline and be able to discern, evaluate, and act on the truth from within it.
Through faith, theology graduates will be able to see the major principles and teachings of the Catholic Church, the broader Christian world, and all traditions of good will. They will be able to decipher how they can live these principles out both within and beyond the mind. They will be able to reflect deeply on their faith and its applicability to everyday life. They will dedicate themselves to promoting good-will by serving their communities. They will enact especially charity and justice toward the poor.
An introduction to the study of theology in the Core aspects of theological inquiry-the Bible, the Creed, moral theology- enable students and faculty to jointly explore the nature of Christian faith and the embodiment of Christian faith in concrete historical contexts.
The course explores the development of a theology of mysticism that emerged in the context of neo-platonism and its chief proponent within the Christian context, Pseudo-Dionysius. The course explores several texts by women mystical writers of the High Middle Ages as one access point to the interconnections that exist between mystical experience and lay piety.
This course will provide students with a chance to reflect on ministry, its point and purpose, some of the challenges they might face in ministry, and whether ultimately the student wants to take on the responsibility of an internship with a ministerial or religiously affiliated institution in our area.
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