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Department of Theology and Religious Studies

Welcome to the University of Portland’s Department of Theology and Religious Studies. Our mission is to cultivate a vibrant community of student-scholars passionate about exploring the rich tapestry of religious traditions from a global perspective. Our goal is to empower student-scholars to engage critically, creatively, and compassionately with the inter-connected world in which they live. Central to our mission is the cultivation of knowledge and skills for understanding, analyzing, interpreting, and reflecting on religion, faith, and ethics, with depth and nuance, drawing from sacred texts, beliefs, and practices.

Using a holistic approach, our programs engage rigorous study and transdisciplinary dialogue meant not only as an academic pursuit, but also as a transformational journey of self-discovery and personal growth that is brought to bear on the formation of students as agents of social change. They will hopefully emerge as competent, informed, and empathetic global citizens who will lead with integrity, courage, wisdom, and grace as they navigate an increasingly diverse and complex world.

Who We Are:

Coming from multiple cultures, countries, religions, and working in different specializations, the Department of Theology and Religious Studies engages in religious and theological education and scholarship broadly understood through multiple lenses. Our work as scholar-teachers responds to local, regional, national, and global realities in all their intercultural, contextual, transcultural, interreligious expressions and intersectionalities.

Why We Do What We Do:

The Theology and Religious Studies Department exists to be in dialogue with students so that they may be able to embrace their own agency and articulate their own vision to question and challenge systems of injustice. As persons of secular or religious faith, justice, and compassion in a torn and divided world, the students may lead by the witness of their lives.

As scholar-teachers, we continue this dialogue in a wider context in the university, the academy, the church, and all local and global communities of life.

Who We Aspire to Be and Become:

In a world of profound and rapid changes, the Department continues to embrace diversity and plurality in its curriculum, teaching, learning, research, and its production of knowledge.

These are the challenges and invitations of the special liberal arts discipline of reflection known as theology. We invite you to join us! Welcome to the journey!