Faculty of Theology

In 2010, the Faculty of Theology had just under 130 students, making it the smallest at the university. Until the nineteenth century, it enjoyed the largest enrollments of the university’s faculties and was able to offer a comprehensive range of courses in teaching. Today, it conveys the discipline in its full breadth while also aiming for a stronger interdisciplinary orientation.

For the 126 students enrolled in the Faculty of Theology in the fall semester of 2008, the university offered a faculty of nine professors. This exceptionally good student-to-teacher ratio follows from the diversity of subjects that must be completed for a degree in theology. Today, each of the theological core areas – Old Testament, New Testament, church history, ethics, systematic theology, and practical theology – is headed by a full professor.

Covering a broad range of topics 
In addition to these fields, faculty chairs also exist for ecumenism and mission studies, the history and literature of Judaism, and religious studies. Two assistant professors – one in practical theology, and another in “religion, economy, and politics” – currently focus on the economics of religion. The eleven professorships in total are now split between two different departments. All positions focused on theology fall under the Department of Theology, while the professorships for Jewish studies and for religious studies belong to the Department of Religious Studies, which was founded in the spring of 2008 and operates under a joint sponsorship with the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

External networking
In collaboration with various academic institutions in Lausanne, Lucerne, and Zurich, as well as the Collegium Helveticum, the Faculty of Theology also participates in the Center for Religion, Economy, and Politics (Zentrum für Religion, Wirtschaft und Politik, or ZRWP), which offers its own master’s degree program. The multilateral cooperative efforts of the Faculty of Theology are motivated by two, closely linked developments. On one hand, the experiences of growing religious and cultural pluralism, resulting from globalism in Europe and elsewhere, pose a significant challenge for theology, as a field that is inherently tied to Christianity. On the other hand – and precisely for this reason – theology faces a potential decline in student numbers, which it can only counter by expanding its efforts in interdisciplinary collaboration. This entails increasingly featuring events that highlight the manifestations of Christianity within the context of other religions, including those from outside of Europe.