Master of Theological Studies

Welcome from the Director

Come to an Extraordinary Community

Welcome to the M.T.S. Program in Theology at the University of Notre Dame. At Notre Dame, we share a vision of theology as faith seeking understanding. This means that all of us, faculty and students alike, take our religious traditions and ecclesial communities seriously, be they Roman Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish. Yet because we also seek to understand what we believe, we also apply the best forms of critical thought to the traditions we receive, so that we might pass on the heritage of our faith in the most responsible way possible.

The M.T.S. Program is designed to help facilitate faith seeking understanding for two important constituencies: those seeking to do future doctoral work in the various disciplines within the study of theology, and those seeking to be highly effective teachers of theology at the high school level. Many students combine both vocational goals by teaching first before applying to doctoral programs, so these are not mutually exclusive career paths.

One of the greatest benefits of the M.T.S. program at Notre Dame is the student-to-faculty ratio. We have approximately 30 M.T.S. students in residence at any given time. However, our Department has over 40 full time teaching and research faculty in residence, giving us a student-to-faculty ratio of almost 1-to-2. This means that master's students have the opportunity to work very closely with some of the best scholars in the field of theology today—forging relationships with these faculty, and with one another, that will last a lifetime.

The smaller size of our master’s program also allows our students to form a closer community of support and encouragement than is possible in larger programs. Although all our students strive for excellence, they do so without a sense of competition and rivalry—but rather in a community of joint inquiry, in which students learn as much from one another as they do from their faculty. Indeed, the community of our master's students is the single most attractive aspect of our programs to students thinking of coming to Notre Dame, in conjunction with the excellence of our faculty and courses.

I encourage you to give serious consideration to our M.T.S. program. We have tried to make as much information as possible available on this website and in the brochure we send out, but please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions concerning our program. I am confident you will find the Department of Theology at Notre Dame to be a welcoming and invigorating place in which to come to a greater understanding of your faith.

With warmest regards,

Randall C. Zachman
Director, M.T.S. Program in Theology