MA Program

Scholarship that Seeks Transformative Impact

The GTU Master of Arts is designed for the scholars and the changemakers. At the GTU, we recognize that each student has their own unique why for pursuing a graduate degree. Whether you are preparing for a doctoral degree, advancing your career, pursuing your passions, or making a substantial, lasting contribution to your local and global community—your academic journey is just that, yours.

Our MA program prioritizes each student's academic, research, and professional interests while ensuring maximum flexibility. The GTU values every student, supporting them in their current circumstances while preparing them for their next steps.

The GTU MA is available in a fully online, in-person, or hybrid experience. The next deadline to apply is July 1st, 2025, for Fall 2025 enrollment. 

The GTU’s interdisciplinary training will uniquely position you to:

  • Lead groundbreaking initiatives and research, with a focus on service, social change, and care for our local and global communities
  • Connect with faculty, alumni, community networks, and global institutions as a launching pad for purpose-driven, fulfilling, and impactful work
  • Honor a wide array of perspectives on spiritual practice and religious traditions with a commitment to active and respectful dialogue
  • Pioneer discovery in one or more of the world’s great wisdom traditions and transcend traditional theological boundaries

Interreliglious Chaplaincy

  • Prepare for meaningful work as a spiritual caregiver in today’s deeply intricate and diverse world. Our Interreligious Chaplaincy concentration equips students with the essential skills to offer holistic, compassionate care across faith traditions. Combining ethical professionalism, deep self-reflection, cultural humility, and practical training in chaplaincy, education, and leadership, students emerge ready to serve in dynamic and inclusive settings.
  • Sample Courses: Soul Care; Mental Health, and Addiction; Death Theologies, Grief, and Rituals; Care for Marginalized Communities

Psychedelics and Spirituality

  • Our first-of-its-kind MA concentration in Psychedelics and Spirituality offers an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the powerful connections between psychedelics and spiritual practices, including various mystical traditions. By engaging with historical, theological, scientific, and clinical perspectives, students will gain the expertise to navigate and shape emerging conversations at the nexus of spirituality, science, and the human experience.
  • Sample Courses: Entheogens, Psychedelics, and Spiritual Care; Plants and Religion; Kenosis: the Art & Theologies of Self-Emptying; City Magic: San Francisco, Art, Esotericism; Jewish Counterculture

Arts and Religion

  • Discover how the arts give voice to the sacred. Our Arts and Religion concentration invites students to explore the historical and cultural significance of visual, performative, and literary expression across global faith traditions. Rooted in interdisciplinary inquiry and creative practice, this program nurtures the imagination and empowers students to lead, teach, and inspire in a multifaith, multicultural world.
  • Sample Courses: Art and Pilgrimage; Christian Iconography; Composing Sacred Spaces; William Blake and Religious Countercultures; Religion, Literature, and Climate Change; Sacred Objects, Secular Spaces: Museums and Religion

Theology and Natural Sciences

  • This concentration invites students to explore the intersection of faith, science, and ethics through topics like cosmology, evolution, neuroscience, and AI. Ideal for those pursuing careers in education, research, bioethics, or public policy, the concentration bridges faith and scientific inquiry and equips you to lead thoughtfully in a rapidly changing world shaped by scientific and technological advancements.
  • Sample Courses: Theology and Science and Artificial Intelligence; Ethics and Technology; Bioethics in Light of Theology and Science; Evolution and Theological Anthropology

Jewish Studies

  • Jewish Studies offers a rigorous and integrative academic experience, blending critical scholarship with personal exploration. Students deepen their knowledge of Jewish texts, languages, and culture all within a supportive, dynamic learning community. This concentration prepares graduates for careers in academia, rabbinical schools, Jewish education, and community leadership.
  • Sample Courses: Jewish Mysticism; Homeland, Exile, and Diaspora in Jewish Tradition; Rabbinic Literature; Hasidism and Neo-Hasidism; Jewish Countercultures

Islamic Studies

  • Students in this concentration engage in the interdisciplinary study, research, and teaching of Islam in its theological, historical, cultural, and comparative contexts, with a focus on Islamic texts in contemporary contexts, Islam as a lived tradition, and the global expressions of Muslim diversity, both past and present.

Christian Studies

  • The Christian Studies concentration is ecumenical in nature with faculty and students from a wide variety of Christian traditions. Students will study the histories, ideas, spiritualities, and practices of the world’s largest religion. Designed for those in ministry, community leadership, or planning for further academic work, students may pursue any aspect of Christian history, traditions, spirituality, and thought.
  • Sample Courses: Christian Virtue Ethics; Prayer, Faith and Belief; God’s Sacred Earth; Religionless Christianity; Jesus and Being Human—Flourishing Amid Finitude

Hindu and Yoga Studies

  • Delve into the profound wisdom and lived practices of Hindu and Yoga traditions. Students engage with core texts like the Yoga Sūtras and Bhagavad Gītā, while exploring themes such as self-inquiry, devotion, sound and movement, and paths to liberation. With emphasis on Hinduism’s diversity and its evolving relations with global traditions, this concentration fosters a deep understanding of the spiritual, philosophical, and cultural dimensions of Hindu and Yoga traditions.

Interreligious Studies

  • Building on the GTU’s long-established leadership in interreligious scholarship, this concentration explores various religious traditions and their interreligious dimensions. In today’s increasingly pluralistic world, there is a growing desire to expand beyond the study of any single tradition to instead learn about the connections between two or more traditions as well as their relation to art, the natural sciences, and the most pressing issues of our time.

Swedenborgian Studies

  • A concentration for those preparing for ministry in the Swedenborgian Church of North America.
  • Sample Courses: Swedenborg and Divine Providence; Incarnational Theology; Swedenborg and the Arts; Swedenborg’s Spiritual World; Swedenborgian Biblical Exegesis

Worship and Liturgy

  • For practitioners or scholars interested in Christian worship, this concentration encompasses the history, theology, spirituality and praxis of worship. With a focus on worship in both formal and informal settings as well as its liturgical and non-liturgical forms, students will delve into the roles associated with worship leadership. Ecumenical in nature, the GTU's faculty and students represent a diverse collection of Christian worship traditions.
  • Sample Courses: Feast and Fast in Christian Life; Livestreaming Worship; Preaching Towards Social Transformation; Liturgical Anthropology; Biblical Preaching

Eastern Orthodox Studies

  • An in-depth exploration of the Eastern Orthodox tradition, this concentration encompasses the history, theology, liturgy, spirituality, and praxis of Eastern Orthodox Christianity from its origins to the present day. This program is designed to enrich understanding of the Orthodox Church, providing a robust academic framework for theological inquiry and preparing students for doctoral studies. It also serves as a foundation for service and leadership within Orthodox parish or diocesan ministry.
  • Sample Courses: Byzantine Virgin Mary; Orthodox Christian Theology of Person;  Eastern Christian Spirituality; Early and Eastern Christian Sanctity and Saints

Self-Designed Concentration

  • Offering unmatched flexibility and personalization, the Self-Designed Concentration allows students to create an academic path that blends their unique interests. With the guidance of your faculty advisor, you’ll design a curriculum that aligns with your goals through the combination of courses, research, and projects tailored specifically to you. Students in this concentration will be provided the freedom and mentorship to explore new, interdisciplinary fields.

The GTU Master of Arts provides the opportunity to translate innovative scholarship into actionable service. In a dynamic, diverse, and collaborative environment, this program empowers scholar-leaders with the intellectual framework and practical experience to drive global change.

Below are the basic requirements of the MA program.

  • 2 years or less of full-time study
    • Part-time and full-time study options are available
  • 36 credits
    • 1 required methodology core course to be taken during the student’s first semester
    • 3 core courses pertaining to the student’s concentration
    • 6 elective courses
    • 6 capstone credits, with the option to choose from a research thesis or a professional portfolio project
  • Choose your capstone: Research Thesis or Practical Portfolio

The Capstone is yours to design—tailored to your aspirations, your path, and your future.

Whether through the Research Thesis or Practical Portfolio, the Capstone is a powerful opportunity to bring your knowledge and passion together.

At the heart of your graduate journey, the Capstone will transform your academic journey into something deeply personal and purposeful. From your first day in the MA program, you’ll work with your faculty advisor to craft a final project that reflects your individual vision and goals.

The Research Thesis: For the Scholar

The Research Thesis is perfect for students looking to deepen their expertise and produce new knowledge in the academic world. If you’re considering further academic work, such as a PhD, or if you’re passionate about advancing scholarly understanding and research, this option allows you to develop new insights, contribute to academia, and leave an intellectual legacy.

The Practical Portfolio: For the Changemaker

The Practical Portfolio is for those who want to take their knowledge beyond theory and into real-world impact. Whether you’re preparing for a career as an interfaith chaplain, launching a spiritually driven business, or making a difference through nonprofit leadership, this option allows you to channel your learning to purpose-driven, tangible outcomes.

About The GTU

The GTU community includes Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Buddhists, people of other faiths, and scholars without a faith tradition, all committed to shaping visionary leaders who are prepared to make a transformative impact.

As the most comprehensive center for the graduate study of religion in North America with the largest theological library west of the Mississippi, we are more than a school of theology. The GTU is a union of schools and centers that represent the world’s major belief systems.

“It is becoming more and more rare to find a place where learning, people, the arts, spirituality, religion, academia, come together. They come together at the GTU.

– Deena Aranoff, PhD, Director of the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies

With a 93% professional and academia placement rate over the last 3 years, the GTU Master of Arts will launch you from passion to profession.

Continuous Academic Scholarship

Ministry & Chaplaincy

Non-Profit Leadership & Administration

Writing & Publishing

Academic Leadership & Administration

Teaching & Professorship

Entrepreneurship

Communications, Marketing, & Media

Health Care

 

Government

 

 

MA Recent Graduate Highlights

  • Ineda A. (MA 2015) - Chaplain, Director of Religious and Spiritual Life
  • Liusamoa S. (MA 2015) - Lecturer
  • Paula T. (MA 2016) - Doctoral Student
  • Brandon V. (MA 2017) - Peggy Browning Fellow
  • Sterling S. (MA 2017) - Director of Strategic Planning
  • Zelig G. (MA 2017) - Founding Director 
  • Aaron G. (MA 2018) - Executive Director 
  • Jonathan G. (MA 2018) - Doctoral Student
  • Ria A. (MA 2018) - Religious Studies Head of Department
  • Thomas C. (MA 2021) - Adjunct Faculty
  • Thomas L. (MA 2021) - Chaplain Missioner for Young Adults 
  • Susan J. (MA 2022) - Associate Director of Community and Culture
  • Sok K. (MA 2022) - Director of Educational Department
  • Michaela E. (MA 2022) - Minister of Faith Formation
  • Austin K. (MA 2022) - Firefighter
  • Henry M. (MA 2024) - Pastor
  • Yusuf M. (MA 2024) - Lecturer 
  • Eleanor S. (MA 2024) - Social Media Manager

Somanjana Chatterjee (MA ’24) 

Somanjana's thesis, "In the Womb of the Divine Feminine," offers a visionary exploration of eco-spirituality in Hinduism and Judaism. Drawing from Śakta Tantra and Eco-Kosher practices, Somanjana challenges corporate-driven ecological destruction by reimagining sustainability as a sacred practice.

 

 

Faisal M. Azar (MA ’24) 

Faisal's research on ibādah (worship) in Islam reimagines intellectual inquiry as a sacred act of devotion and growth. His thesis, "The Pursuit of Knowledge: Rethinking Worship in Islam and Contemporary Muslim Thought," challenges us to see learning itself as an expression of faith.

 

Ready for Next Steps?

Apply Now

Tuition & Financial Aid

The GTU is committed to making theological education as accessible and affordable as possible. To understand the costs, financial aid resources, and funding opportunities available, please visit our Tuition and Financial Aid pages.

Application Requirements

Prospective MA students should have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution. To find out more about the online application and required documentation, please visit Application Requirements.

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