Duke Divinity School has announced a new Certificate in Catholic Studies, designed to engage students in the study of the global Catholic experience, practices, and teachings over the centuries and in the present.

The certificate can be earned alongside the residential M.Div. and M.T.S. degrees beginning in Fall 2024.

The programming of the certificate combines academics with experiential and formational growth. Requirements include courses in Catholic Studies, participation in Catholic fellowship, and, for M.Div. students, a field education placement in a Catholic setting or other project of engagement in Catholic ministry, leadership, or education.

Said Peter Casarella, professor of theology and director of the certificate: “In the recent past Catholic students or even those just interested in the traditions of learning associated with Catholicism have received superb offerings at Duke Divinity. New here is the opportunity to earn a certificate and undertake spiritual and intellectual formation in Catholic Studies with a cohort. Catholic fellowship adds a much-needed dimension to the Divinity School’s long-standing ecumenism and will greatly help master’s students seeking to advance to Catholic graduate schools or lay ecclesial ministry in the Catholic Church.”

Students need not be Roman Catholic to earn the certificate; Catholic is defined as being in communion with the bishop of Rome even though it is recognized that many other tributaries besides the Latin and Roman one contribute to the Catholic tradition.

The launch of the certificate follows the launch of the Fons Vitae initiative at the school last fall. That initiative aims to strengthen the Catholic intellectual presence and its cross-disciplinary engagement at Duke and to serve as a Catholic think tank. Most recently, it hosted a six-part seminar-style course on John Henry Newman’s "The Idea of a University," led by Professor Reinhard Huetter, visiting professor of Catholic theology.

Said Janet Martin Soskice, William K. Warren Distinguished Research Professor of Catholic Theology: “Duke Divinity School has long history of ecumenism and of outreach to the Catholic church. Here students, Catholic or non-Catholic, can find a vibrant center of Catholic intellectual life, encompassing early church, medieval and early modern thought, as well as strong philosophical and ethical offerings, and theology through the arts.”