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Exploring theological connections
The Theology Department has launched three new minors—offered in collaboration with other departments and programs in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences and the Carroll School of Management—that explore the theological connections in such topics as the economy, the environment, and arts, literature and music.
“Giving students the opportunity to integrate diverse fields with the study of theology is an essential task in our increasingly fragmented world,” said Associate Professor of the Practice of Theology Matthew Kruger, director of undergraduate studies in the Theology Department. “Bringing economics, the environment, and the arts into direct conversation with theological understandings helps students to develop a complex picture of the problems of our world and the potential benefits that reflection on the whole person can bring. Our hope is that students will benefit from learning the distinct methods of different disciplines and bringing them together in a capstone course, which, in turn, will form them to bring to the world their theologically inspired perspectives.”
Matthew Kruger
The Theology and Economy minor, offered with the Carroll School and the MCAS Economics Department, calls students to an interdisciplinary engagement with God, self, and society through the fields of theology, economics, and business. The minor will encourage students to explore the overlap and make connections between these academic approaches to the world and to provide the means for them to consider these domains in a unified way. Professor of the Practice in Theology Meghan Sweeney, former director of the PULSE Program for Service Learning, directs the minor. Can Erbil, a professor of the practice in Economics, serves as co-director.
The Theology and Environment minor, in partnership with the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department and the Environmental Studies Program, is directed by Assistant Professor of Theology Megan Loumagne Ulishney and co-directed by David Kurz, an assistant professor of the practice in Environmental Studies.
“Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si' brought the environment into the center of Catholic reflection on the moral life. This document emphasized the importance of spiritual conversion for ecological change, and it highlighted the need for interdisciplinary conversation to address climate change that includes theological reflection,” said Ulishney. “Our vision for this new minor is for students to have opportunities to expand their disciplinary toolkits to approach the complexity of climate change with holistic depth.
“Ultimately, we hope that this minor will play a role in sending BC students out into the world equipped both with sophisticated abilities to think well about climate change and hearts motivated to protect our common home and all creatures that live within it.”
The Theology, Arts, Literature, and Music minor is being offered with the Art, Art History, and Film, English, and Music departments. This minor is intended to foster an appreciation for the intersection of these disciplines, which express human creativity and beauty and contribute to a person’s spiritual well-being and to societal flourishing.
“Because theology concerns the meeting of ultimate reality with the human, the arts, literature, and music have always accompanied and integrally aided the theological quest, for human persons and communities continually make sense of their encounters with transcendence through these media,” said Assistant Professor of the Practice in Theology Roberto De La Noval, director of the minor. “Students who pursue coursework in this new theology minor will find their theological studies enriched as they learn how the arts have carried theology deeper into the mystery it seeks and how theology in turn has birthed some of history's greatest art.”
Art, Art History, and Film Department Chair and Associate Professor Aurelia Campbell serves as co-director of the Theology, Arts, Literature, and Music minor.
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Andrea Vicini, S.J. (Caitlin Cunningham)
These new minors are the latest in a series of academic enhancements the Theology Department has developed in recent years. Under the leadership of Theology Chair Andrea Vicini, S.J., seven new minors and an expanded theology major have been added to the department’s offerings since 2024.
“Many of our students are passionate about multiple disciplines and long for ways to deepen their familiarity with them as well as enrich their interactions,” said Fr. Vicini, the Michael P. Walsh, S.J., Professor of Bioethics. “In each one of these minors, by relying on its long tradition and its engagement with contemporary issues and challenges, theology strives to be an integrative discipline that fosters these multiple interests and provides the context to articulate interdisciplinary and intersectional syntheses. As a department, together with the other colleagues involved in these minors, we enjoy these new opportunities for collaboration that embody the richness of the formative experience of the liberal arts.”
Fr. Vicini expressed gratitude to Campbell and English Department Chair and Professor Min Hyoung Song, Economics Department Chair and Professor Robert Murphy, Environmental Studies Program Director and Professor of the Practice Tara Pisani-Gareau, Music Department Chair and Professor of Theatre Crystal Tiala, and Ethan Sullivan, senior associate dean for the undergraduate program in the Carroll School for their collaboration on this year’s new minors.
Fr. Vicini added that the department has launched Bring to Light, a series of one-credit electives that provide students with the opportunity to become familiar with culturally significant texts, authors, and ideas without having to fit a full course into their schedule.
The courses will include reading from classic works and engaging in important topics—from Christian contemplative practices to concepts like the Trinity.
“Bring to Light courses will contribute to the scholarly life of the Boston College community and provide an introduction to seminal texts and ideas,” said Fr. Vicini. The first Bring to Light course, The Brothers Karamazov and Theology, has enrolled 14 undergraduates this semester.