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STEUBENVILLE -- Franciscan University of Steubenville is set to launch its Ph.D. in sacred theology program this fall, officials said.
With recent approval from the Higher Learning Commission and Ohio Department of Higher Education, the program will be the university's first doctoral program.
"At Franciscan University, we have a wonderful legacy of providing faithfully Catholic undergraduate and graduate programs in theology and catechetics," said Stephen Hildebrand, vice president for academic affairs at the university. "The Ph.D. in sacred theology program builds upon our strengths and allows us to deepen and broaden our contribution to higher education, theological scholarship and the hurch."
The program has a threefold purpose, officials explained. First, it will offer students a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to contemplate the mysteries of the Catholic faith at the highest academic level on the local campus. Second, it will equip students to form the next generation of Catholic leaders, to become faculty at universities and seminaries throughout the country and the world and to serve at the highest levels of the church and Catholic institutions. Third, it will advance important theological research and scholarship that deepens understanding of the Catholic faith, promotes the development of doctrine and addresses contemporary questions and controversies from the heart of the church.
"We have this beautiful mission of Franciscan University to evangelize to the ends of the earth. In academia, one of the most significant ways to do that is by bringing the Gospel to the people who are going to teach the teachers," said Jacob Wood, the director of the program. "Franciscan University's doctoral program emphasizes the studying of theology by returning to the sources of the theological tradition and encountering them anew for the service of the church today."
Students will earn a doctorate in sacred theology and can specialize in one of five concentrations: Systematic theology, historical theology, moral theology, biblical theology and catechetics. At the program's outset, two doctoral students will receive complete tuition remission and an annual stipend, with a limited number of additional students will also be accepted.
An average course of study will take approximately five years, with two years of coursework in graduate-level classes and doctoral seminars, followed by a comprehensive exam and a doctoral dissertation. A key component will be the mentorship for teaching and research that students will receive from the university's theology faculty.
"Doctoral students will receive an academic formation that is not only robust on a scholarly level but also integrated with a life of prayer," Wood said. "Especially with the writing of doctoral dissertations, there's an opportunity for the student to learn and do research not just from a textbook but from a person who is an expert with experience in that field."
Theology was introduced as an undergraduate major at the then-College of Steubenville in 1976 and went on to become the largest undergraduate theology program at any Catholic university in the United States. In 1989, Franciscan University was the first Catholic college in the nation whose theology faculty and priests publicly professed the Oath of Fidelity to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. In addition to the new doctoral program, the theology department includes on-campus and online associate, bachelor's, and master's degree programs.
The application process will open on Feb. 1.
For information, contact the admissions office at (800) 783-6220 or admissions@franciscan.edu.