Theology at Boston College
Boston College is a world-class center of theological study, comprising both the Clough School of Theology and Ministry (CSTM) and the Theology Department in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences. This page highlights the opportunities available to CSTM students through the Theology Department.
Meet the Nation's Largest Theological Faculty
Students at CSTM have access to courses and faculty in the Theology Department, enhancing the breadth and depth of theological study at BC. Combined, the two entities are home to 70 full-time faculty members—the largest theological faculty in the United States. Below are select faculty members from the Theology Department.
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Theology Department Course Listings
Theology Department Publications
Shared Resources & Expertise
Mentorship
The Boston College Theology Department is home to a premier Ph.D. program in theology. CSTM students are able to take doctoral seminars as part of their master’s coursework, enabling them to experience doctoral study and to build relationships with faculty members they may wish to work with in the future.
Theology Department faculty are also available to serve as informal advisors to CSTM students and to serve on students’ theses and/or comprehensive exam committees.
Research Development
Faculty within both CSTM and the Theology Department are eager to support student research at both the master’s and doctoral levels. Every year, we bring both entities together formally through an annual colloquium featuring doctoral research from the Theology Ph.D. program and CSTM’s Ph.D. in theology and education.
Theology Ph.D. students and CSTM students in the Doctorate in Sacred Theology program also gather regularly with faculty for research colloquia within discipline areas.
Events
In addition to public lectures hosted by CSTM each year, the Theology Department sponsors lectures featuring scholars both internal and external to Boston College. Signature events include:
- Annual Brien O'Brien and Mary Hasten Lecture in Interreligious Dialogue, given in 2023 by Robert Ellsberg on “Without Gandhi I
Would Not be Christian” - Annual Candlemas lecture, given in 2024 by James Alison on “Catholicity, Sacrifice, and Shame: Subverting Polarization in our Contemporary Ecclesial and Political Cultures.”
Theology Department Events
13th Annual John Paul II Lecture in Christian-Jewish Relations: Philip A. Cunningham, “The Presence of the Holy in the Other: A Spirituality of Christian-Jewish Relations in Polarized Times” (HYBRID)
September 09
5:00 PM – 6:30 PM
Hybrid
Gasson Hall, 100
The Center for Christian-Jewish Learning’s 13th Annual John Paul II Lecture in Christian-Jewish Relations
Philip A. Cunningham, “The Presence of the Holy in the Other: A Spirituality of Christian-Jewish Relations in Polarized Times”
Sixty years ago, on October 28, 1965, the Second Vatican Council helped launch an unprecedented new era of rapprochement between Jews and Christians. In the following decades, Christians and Jews have been able to speak, as had never been possible before, about even essential differences of belief. In the process, they sometimes had the powerful and transformative experience of discerning holiness in each other’s texts, rituals, and people. This presentation explores the spiritual significance of this historic development and its meaning in today’s context of polarization and war.
Dr. Philip A. Cunningham is Professor of Theology and co-director of the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations of Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA. With a background in biblical studies and religious education, he specializes in theologies of the Christian and Jewish, and especially the Catholic-Jewish, relationship. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books, most recently 2022's Maxims for Mutuality: Principles for Catholic Theology, Education, and Preaching about Jews and Judaism (Paulist Press Stimulus Series) and dozens of articles or book chapters. Dr. Cunningham has served as president and honorary president of the International Council of Christians and Jews and on the Advisory Committee on Catholic-Jewish Relations for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He is also the webmaster of the Internet resource Dialogika of the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations.
In-Person Registration: Email cjlearning@bc.edu
Zoom Registration
Contact
cjlearning@bc.edu
Dror Bondi, "Is God Religious? The Significance of Abraham Joshua Heschel on Interreligious Relations" (HYBRID)
September 10
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Hybrid
In-Person: Stokes Hall N325; Virtual: Zoom Webinar
Is God Religious? The Significance of Abraham Joshua Heschel on Interreligious Relations
This lecture explores Abraham Joshua Heschel’s vision of religion not as a fixed institutional system, but as a dynamic response to God. Drawing on his Depth-Theology of divine pathos and human responsibility, we will examine how Heschel challenges us to transcend religious exclusivism and rediscover faith as an encounter grounded in compassion, justice, and humility. Heschel’s vision of God as a loving parent of all humanity leads to a theology that demands solidarity among God’s children. Interreligious dialogue, in this light, becomes not merely an option but God's moral imperative. Special attention will be given to Heschel's role in shaping Nostra Aetate and to his vision for authentic interfaith dialogue in times of crisis.
Dr. Dror Bondi is Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Schechter Institute in Israel and the 2025-2026 Corcoran Visiting Chair in Christian-Jewish Relations at Boston College. He completed his Ph.D. and M.A. in Jewish Philosophy at Bar-Ilan University. He is an author, translator and editor of several of Abraham Joshua Heschel’s books in Hebrew. Dr. Bondi’s book Ayeca? about Heschel’s thought earned him the 2006 Shalem Prize. In 2019, his edition of Heschel’s groundbreaking Torah Min HaShamayim (Torah From Heaven), based on newly discovered manuscripts, introduced critical new insights into Heschel’s thought and won the Mifal HaPais Prize.
RSVP in-person (space is limited): cjlearning@bc.edu
Register to join by Zoom Webinar
Contact
cjlearning@bc.edu