Distance learning postgrad programmes in Catholic Theology

The Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University has gone from strength to strength since its founding in 2007. Its latest initiative, the launch of a suite of Distance Learning postgraduate programmes in Catholic Theology, is a way of making the strength and riches of the Centre available to a wider audience.

The desire to study Theology is often something people come to a little later in life, when they are already busy with family, work and other obligations, not able to upend life and move to a new place to study. It's with this in mind that the new Certificate, Diploma and MA programmes have been set up, designed to be rigorous but flexible, intellectually challenging and supportive at the same time.

The first cohort of students are varied in age (from their 20s to their 70s) and in their occupations. Some have studied theology before, but others come with a first degree in subjects such as history, medicine, English, linguistics or philosophy. They have different working situations-in ministry, working in hospitals or NGOs or for other institutions, looking after families, retired. The courses have been designed to fit round all these situations and more, with students finding their own working rhythms during the week and across the months of study.

Distance Learning can sometimes be associated with a less academically rigorous forms of study, but Durham's Centre for Catholic Studies is committed to making these programmes every bit as challenging and intellectually rich as a Durham residential programme. A Distance Learning MA can be a means for personal enrichment and development, but it can also be the launch point for a student wanting to go on to a PhD.

Professor Karen Kilby is the programme director. She sees the new Distance Learning programmes as an extension of something which has always been vitally important to the Centre for Catholic Studies: an orientation towards outreach. "You can see this in all kinds of ways in the CCS," she says. "One of my colleagues, Anna Rowlands, has been at the heart of the Synod in Rome; another, Paul Murray, has been deeply involved in ecumenical work at a global level; a third, Carmody Grey, is a regular participant in BBC2's The Moral Maze, among other things. Carmody, Anna and Paul are all teaching on the new Distance Learning programme, and so each continues to expand the ways they reach out to as broad an audience as possible." Kilby herself, as part of her role in the Bede Chair in Catholic Theology, gives 20% of her time to outreach in the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle.

All students on the new programmes begin with a module called 'Catholic Theology: A Preliminary Tour'. They then make a choice among a rich range of possibilities: one module on the theology of St Thomas Aquinas, another on High Medieval Franciscan Theology; others on Faith and Reason, Catholic Social Thought and Practice, Twentieth Century Catholic Theology and Conceiving Change in the Catholic Church. Those doing the full MA finish the course with a dissertation on some topic in Catholic Theology of their choice.

LINK

Distance Learning programmes in Catholic Theology: www.durham.ac.uk/study/courses/v8k807/