The Certificate in Theology and the Arts (CTA) offers M.Div., M.T.S., and Th.M. students firm grounding in the key theological loci and practices relevant to a lifetime’s engagement with the arts in the church, the university, and beyond.

To complete this certificate, students must complete the core course and two other courses from an approved list (normally one of these will be a course offered outside the Divinity School). In addition, all students must complete a research or service learning project. Finally, participants are required to participate in events sponsored by Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts, as well as bimonthly CTA colloquies.

The primary objectives of the Certificate program are:

• to help students recognize and put into practice the constructive possibilities of the mutual enrichment of theology and arts
• to provide students with a firm grounding in the key theological loci and practices relevant to a lifetime’s engagement with the arts in the church, the university, and beyond
• to offer students an appreciation of the current shape of the arts-theology conversation
• to foster and support research and community-service projects which responsibly integrate the arts and theology
• to increase the opportunities for field-education placements in the arts with community and church organizations
• to encourage and facilitate a community of students with a particular interest in engaging the arts as they discern their particular vocations
• to encourage disciplinary education and cross-departmental collaboration within Duke Divinity School and the University

The 2023 cohort of twelve M.Div. and M.T.S. students represents the largest class to matriculate with a Certificate in Theology and the Arts since DITA’s founding in 2009, and their research projects, excerpted below, represent a wide variety of academic engagement with the arts.

• Seeing Mary: Late-Medieval Marian Iconography and the Innovations of Mary Corita Kent
• Adam and Cain: A Literary Engagement with the Scriptures
• Learning the Craft of Love: Participatory Theology in Piers Plowman and the Old Order Amish for the Contemporary Christian

• Communion of Saints: A Reflection on Woodblock Printmaking and Prayer

• Indigeneity, Idols, and Biblical Imagery in Jean Charlot’s Picture Book (1933)

• Theology and Visual Art through Experimental Film: “The Eucharist”