Immersion Experiences

Select courses culminate in an immersion experience, deepening the class’s theological discourse.  The immersion electives are taught by scholars in the field and are a signature component of the JST curriculum.  Each immersion includes opportunities for comparative studies, interreligious encounter and dialogue, religious experience, and theological reflection. 

Bridge Courses

One-credit courses on various topics that bridge academic theology and ministerial experience.  Bridge courses connect theology with other academic disciplines and vocational ministries and include: Prison Ministry Practicum, Religious Writing for a Broader Context, High School Pedagogy: Concept and Practice, Counseling Principles and Pastoral Care for Victims of Trauma, Social Entrepreneurship for Laudato Si.

Field Education

Some students undertake a supervised field education placement and participate in weekly theological reflection groups.  Field education placements include high school and university classrooms and campus ministry offices, parish and spirituality center settings, prison and hospital chaplaincy programs, and non-profit organizations and social services. 

Faculty Commitment

Since 1995, when our faculty significantly reformed the JST curriculum in order to emphasize culturally contextual theology, JST has remained committed to the academic study of theology that takes seriously the lived realities of the people that our students will encounter, serve, and live alongside.  As a renewal of this commitment, each faculty member contributed to the recently published book, “Doing Theology as if People Mattered: Encounters in Contextual Theology.”