Theology Department Records

Record Group — Multiple Containers

Identifier: UA-05-A41

Staff Only

The Theology Department records include many materials relating to the structure of the department over the years as well as the creation and content of the department’s course offerings. This includes correspondence between professors, the work of professors within the department, and discourse of what the school offers to students. There are also materials pertaining to the establishment of the graduate program in theology.

Additionally, significant material is related to several different visiting lecturer series over the years, including the Spirituality Series, established 1979, and the Goodman Series, established 1982, as well as programming, correspondence and readings concerning the Theological Insights retreat, which began in 1987.

Dates

1940-2018

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open.

About the Theology Department

The Theology Department began in 1906 as the Department of Religion soon following the founding of St. Catherine University. The department was later combined with the department of Philosophy in 1916, and Philosophy and Religion were combined with the Psychology department in 1944. Religion was split again as its own department in 1969, becoming for the first time the Department of Theology, offering Theology as a major program. The graduate program was established in 1985 after petitioning on the behalf of professors and students alike, offering a Masters of Arts for both men and women. There was debate in the 1980s and earlier regarding the creation of a graduate program. The inclusion of men was questioned as straying from the original intent of St. Catherine as an institution. There were also concerns about the much larger overhead costs involved in offering graduate programs.