About the GTU

An institution of higher learning unlike any other, the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley brings together scholars of the world’s diverse religions and wisdom traditions to advance new knowledge, seek fresh insight, and collaborate on solutions. We carry out our work by:  

  • Educating scholars for vocations devoted to study and service
  • Equipping leaders for a world of diverse religions and cultures
  • Teaching patterns of faith that encourage justice and care of the planet
  • Serving as an educational and theological resource for local communities, the nation, and the world

The GTU is the most comprehensive center for the graduate study of religion in North America. With a focus on interreligious and interdisciplinary perspectives, GTU faculty and students engage the world’s great religions and wisdom traditions in contemporary contexts. The GTU educates innovative leaders for the academy, religious organizations, and the nonprofit sector, equipping scholars to embody the critical thinking, ethical frameworks, compassionate values, and spiritual foundations essential to building a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world.

More than a school of theology, the GTU is a union of schools and programs that, together, represent the world’s major religions in collaboration. More than a graduate school, the GTU is an enterprise that cultivates the highest scholarly standards and provides opportunities to translate scholarship into solutions with impact. The GTU provides a unique community where scholars and practitioners from across the world's great religions gather for academic study of their own and of other traditions and disciplines.

Quick Facts
30 +

Unique Degree Concentrations

Ranging from Aesthetics to Yoga

50 +

Core Doctoral Faculty Members

From diverse faiths and fields

200 +

Faculty Across the Consortium

To guide your academic career

39% of GTU Ph.D. Students are Women

Enrolled in Fall 2023

111

Doctoral Students

Studying in the GTU Ph.D. program in Fall 2023

10

Faith Traditions

Available for study through GTU's many programs, centers, and schools

Diversity at the GTU

8% Asian/Pacific Islander

7% Black

0% Hispanic

0% Native American/Alaskan Native

30% White

20% Unknown/Other

35% Non-Resident Foreign Students

Among GTU Ph.D Students Fall 2023

Member Schools and Academic Centers

More than twenty member schools, academic centers, programs, and affiliates join together to make the GTU an unparalleled place for interdisciplinary and interreligious thought, study, and practice.

Our History

Discover how a unique ecumenical partnership among several Bay Area seminaries in the early 1960s grew to become a hub of innovative multi-religious scholarship for the twenty-first century.

Skylight

The symbol of our union takes inspiration from the skylight at the heart of the GTU library, and symbolizes intersecting paths and converging ideas, expressing the illuminating, collaborative spirit of the GTU.

Land Acknowledgement

The Graduate Theological Union values the world’s diverse religions and  wisdom traditions. In a spirit of appreciation and respect, we acknowledge that our Berkeley campus stands on the ancestral land of the Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone people, in the territory of Xyčun (Huichin), previously the land of the sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County. Today, the land continues to be important to our neighbors from the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, as well as Verona Band descendants. 

The GTU makes this Land Acknowledgement Statement to recognize the Indigenous Peoples as traditional stewards of this land, and to affirm the enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous Peoples and their traditional territories.

 

GTU Alumni in Conversation at AAR-SBL

We've created a beautiful view book to help you see yourself at the GTU

Leaf through the view book now

While our on-campus visits and in-person information sessions are limited at this time, we are excited to welcome you to this virtual visit experience. We invite you to explore all that the GTU has to offer through this tour.

Begin your Virtual Visit

Association of Theological Schools Reaccreditation Visit

2400 Ridge Rd

Zotero Workshop

Organize and cite sources with just one click using Zotero.

Online Event
3:00pm to 4:00pm

CANCELLED: Toward a Holy Ecology: A New Book Conversation with Author Rabbi Ellen Bernstein

Please join us for a special CJS event featuring a conversation with author Rabbi Ellen Bernstein on her new book Toward a Holy Ecology: Reading the Song of Songs in the Age of Climate Crisis (Monkfish 2024).

Collaborative Learning Space, Taube Conference Center, Flora Lamson Hewlett Library
5:30pm