Interreliglious Chaplaincy
- Prepare for meaningful work as a spiritual caregiver in today’s deeply intricate and diverse world. Our Interreligious Chaplaincy concentration equips students with the essential skills to offer holistic, compassionate care across faith traditions. Combining ethical professionalism, deep self-reflection, cultural humility, and practical training in chaplaincy, education, and leadership, students emerge ready to serve in dynamic and inclusive settings.
- Sample Courses: Soul Care; Mental Health, and Addiction; Death Theologies, Grief, and Rituals; Care for Marginalized Communities
Psychedelics and Spirituality
- Our first-of-its-kind MA concentration in Psychedelics and Spirituality offers an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the powerful connections between psychedelics and spiritual practices, including various mystical traditions. By engaging with historical, theological, scientific, and clinical perspectives, students will gain the expertise to navigate and shape emerging conversations at the nexus of spirituality, science, and the human experience.
- Sample Courses: Entheogens, Psychedelics, and Spiritual Care; Plants and Religion; Kenosis: the Art & Theologies of Self-Emptying; City Magic: San Francisco, Art, Esotericism; Jewish Counterculture
Arts and Religion
- Discover how the arts give voice to the sacred. Our Arts and Religion concentration invites students to explore the historical and cultural significance of visual, performative, and literary expression across global faith traditions. Rooted in interdisciplinary inquiry and creative practice, this program nurtures the imagination and empowers students to lead, teach, and inspire in a multifaith, multicultural world.
- Sample Courses: Art and Pilgrimage; Christian Iconography; Composing Sacred Spaces; William Blake and Religious Countercultures; Religion, Literature, and Climate Change; Sacred Objects, Secular Spaces: Museums and Religion
Theology and Natural Sciences
- This concentration invites students to explore the intersection of faith, science, and ethics through topics like cosmology, evolution, neuroscience, and AI. Ideal for those pursuing careers in education, research, bioethics, or public policy, the concentration bridges faith and scientific inquiry and equips you to lead thoughtfully in a rapidly changing world shaped by scientific and technological advancements.
- Sample Courses: Theology and Science and Artificial Intelligence; Ethics and Technology; Bioethics in Light of Theology and Science; Evolution and Theological Anthropology
Jewish Studies
- Jewish Studies offers a rigorous and integrative academic experience, blending critical scholarship with personal exploration. Students deepen their knowledge of Jewish texts, languages, and culture all within a supportive, dynamic learning community. This concentration prepares graduates for careers in academia, rabbinical schools, Jewish education, and community leadership.
- Sample Courses: Jewish Mysticism; Homeland, Exile, and Diaspora in Jewish Tradition; Rabbinic Literature; Hasidism and Neo-Hasidism; Jewish Countercultures
Islamic Studies
- Students in this concentration engage in the interdisciplinary study, research, and teaching of Islam in its theological, historical, cultural, and comparative contexts, with a focus on Islamic texts in contemporary contexts, Islam as a lived tradition, and the global expressions of Muslim diversity, both past and present.
Christian Studies
- The Christian Studies concentration is ecumenical in nature with faculty and students from a wide variety of Christian traditions. Students will study the histories, ideas, spiritualities, and practices of the world’s largest religion. Designed for those in ministry, community leadership, or planning for further academic work, students may pursue any aspect of Christian history, traditions, spirituality, and thought.
- Sample Courses: Christian Virtue Ethics; Prayer, Faith and Belief; God’s Sacred Earth; Religionless Christianity; Jesus and Being Human—Flourishing Amid Finitude
Hindu and Yoga Studies
- Delve into the profound wisdom and lived practices of Hindu and Yoga traditions. Students engage with core texts like the Yoga Sūtras and Bhagavad Gītā, while exploring themes such as self-inquiry, devotion, sound and movement, and paths to liberation. With emphasis on Hinduism’s diversity and its evolving relations with global traditions, this concentration fosters a deep understanding of the spiritual, philosophical, and cultural dimensions of Hindu and Yoga traditions.
Interreligious Studies
- Building on the GTU’s long-established leadership in interreligious scholarship, this concentration explores various religious traditions and their interreligious dimensions. In today’s increasingly pluralistic world, there is a growing desire to expand beyond the study of any single tradition to instead learn about the connections between two or more traditions as well as their relation to art, the natural sciences, and the most pressing issues of our time.
Swedenborgian Studies
- A concentration for those preparing for ministry in the Swedenborgian Church of North America.
- Sample Courses: Swedenborg and Divine Providence; Incarnational Theology; Swedenborg and the Arts; Swedenborg’s Spiritual World; Swedenborgian Biblical Exegesis
Worship and Liturgy
- For practitioners or scholars interested in Christian worship, this concentration encompasses the history, theology, spirituality and praxis of worship. With a focus on worship in both formal and informal settings as well as its liturgical and non-liturgical forms, students will delve into the roles associated with worship leadership. Ecumenical in nature, the GTU's faculty and students represent a diverse collection of Christian worship traditions.
- Sample Courses: Feast and Fast in Christian Life; Livestreaming Worship; Preaching Towards Social Transformation; Liturgical Anthropology; Biblical Preaching
Eastern Orthodox Studies
- An in-depth exploration of the Eastern Orthodox tradition, this concentration encompasses the history, theology, liturgy, spirituality, and praxis of Eastern Orthodox Christianity from its origins to the present day. This program is designed to enrich understanding of the Orthodox Church, providing a robust academic framework for theological inquiry and preparing students for doctoral studies. It also serves as a foundation for service and leadership within Orthodox parish or diocesan ministry.
- Sample Courses: Byzantine Virgin Mary; Orthodox Christian Theology of Person; Eastern Christian Spirituality; Early and Eastern Christian Sanctity and Saints
Self-Designed Concentration
- Offering unmatched flexibility and personalization, the Self-Designed Concentration allows students to create an academic path that blends their unique interests. With the guidance of your faculty advisor, you’ll design a curriculum that aligns with your goals through the combination of courses, research, and projects tailored specifically to you. Students in this concentration will be provided the freedom and mentorship to explore new, interdisciplinary fields.