| Boston College School of Theology and Ministry | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1922 |
| Type | Private |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic, Jesuit |
| Dean | Rev. Mark S. Massa, S.J. |
| Academic staff | 60 (including the Department of Theology) |
| Students | 402 |
| Affiliations | Boston College, Boston Theological Institute |
| Website | http://www.bc.edu/schools/stm |
The Boston College School of Theology and Ministry in Brighton, Massachusetts, United States is the graduate divinity school of Boston College and an ecclesiastical faculty of theology that trains men and women, both lay and religious, for service, especially within the Roman Catholic Church. The School is operated by the Jesuits.
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Founded in 1922 as Weston College in the Massachusetts town of Weston, the school was integrated into Boston College in 1959.
In 1974, Weston College became independent but coordinated with Boston College under the Boston Theological Institute. In 1975, Weston College was renamed to Weston School of Theology and operated from facilities in Cambridge, Massachusetts in a cooperative arrangement with the Episcopal Divinity School. In 1994, the school was renamed to Weston Jesuit School of Theology.
In December 2004, Boston College announced plans to create a School of Theology and Ministry by merging the Institute for Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry and the Weston Jesuit School of Theology.[1][2] The reaffiliation of Weston Jesuit with Boston College took place in 2008, and the school was moved to the Boston College campus in Brighton, Massachusetts, purchased in 2006. These buildings formerly housed the chancery of the Archdiocese of Boston and portions of St. John's Seminary.[3][4]
The Boston College School of Theology and Ministry is a fully accredited member of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada and offers the following degree and certificate programs:[5][6]
Three of the School's programs offer ecclesiastical degrees recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. The programs offering these ecclesiastical degrees are subject to the oversight of the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education, and faculty members teaching in these programs are required to have the approval of the Congregation:
The School also offers the following dual-degree programs in collaboration with other graduate schools at Boston College:
Students must be independently admitted to both schools prior to beginning a dual-degree program at the School of Theology and Ministry.
The School also offers a Certificate of Advanced Educational Specialization, Religious Education (C.A.E.S.)
The Theology and Ministry Library is located on the Brighton Campus. It is open to all Boston College students, faculty and staff, and is a part of the Boston College Library System. Integrating the former collections of Weston Jesuit School of Theology and St. John's Seminary, it contains more than 2.44 million volumes. The library also participates in the Boston Theological Institute library program, which allows STM students to borrow materials from any of the other BTI libraries.[7]
The School of Theology and Ministry publishes New Testament Abstracts, a scholarly journal that abstracts at least 2,150 articles selected from over 500 periodicals in different languages, as well as over 850 current books annually. New Testament Abstracts is published three times per year and is edited by professors Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. and Christopher R. Matthews.[8]
The current Dean of the School is Rev. Mark S. Massa, S.J.[9] The previous Dean was Rev. Richard J. Clifford, S.J., who oversaw the merger in 2008 and served in that capacity until 2010. Clifford is currently a Professor of Old Testament at the STM.
There are 27 full-time faculty members at the School of Theology and Ministry, in addition to 33 members of the Boston College Department of Theology with which students are able to work and take classes. The faculty at the STM can be divided according to their research in the following fields:[10]
As of 2010, the current number of students at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry is 402 students during the academic year (and 380 students in the summer institute). While the majority of students at the STM are Catholic, it is also home to a number of Anglican/Episcopal, Methodist, Lutheran, Evangelical, Orthodox, Presbyterian, Unitarian Universalist, Nondenominational, Buddhist and Hindu students. The student body includes representatives from 27 nations and 6 continents, and students range in age from 21 to 74 years old. 65% of students at the STM are laypersons, with 35% representing a religious order or diocesan priests. Lay students in all programs study alongside Jesuit scholastics.
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