Doctor of Philosophy

Dive deep. Aim high.

The Doctor of Philosophy is an advanced research degree for:

Students aspiring to work in teaching, research and leadership in college, university and seminary level education
Professionals in government, law, religious leadership, NGOs, libraries and media seeking high-level credentials as an expert in religious and theological studies

The PhD is the highest academic degree available in the United States.

Students complete coursework and comprehensive exams in three to four years. The dissertation, from prospectus to defense and submission, often takes two years.

Areas of Study

The Theological School’s Graduate Division of Religion (GDR) supports graduate research in the following disciplinary areas of specialization:

Bible and Cultures

Cultivate a biblical hermeneutic that is historically informed, theoretically infused, politically attuned and contextually relevant.

Bible and Cultures is a uniquely forward-looking doctoral program in biblical studies, quite unlike any other in North America. It thinks transtestamentally beyond the frequently artificial partitioning of Hebrew Bible studies from New Testament studies that tends to silo faculty and students and foreclose cross-testamentary dialogue. It also thinks transculturally beyond the equally artificial investigation of biblical texts in their ancient contexts of production in isolation from their multifaceted histories of influence and contemporary contexts of reception. Finally, it thinks transdisciplinarily by continually bringing biblical studies into transformative dialogue with other theological and religious studies fields of study and many of the most consequential theoretical and political currents in the humanities and social sciences.

In the Bible and Cultures program, explorations of the Bible’s rhetoric, its material and political contexts, its interpretation in diverse cultures, its representations of gender, sexuality, social status, the natural environment, group identity and cultural Others are conducted interactively with such contemporary resources as literary and cultural studies, postcolonial theory, gender studies and queer theory, ecological studies, racial/ethnic studies, and theological and pastoral studies. Students in the program develop disciplinary depth and intellectual breadth as well as practical skills in teaching, research, writing, public presentation, building and maintaining a public professional presence, and translating their transdisciplinary knowledge and insights into socially, politically, and ethically relevant resources for ongoing, critically-reflective discourse.

Students in the Bible and Cultures area work closely with faculty specializing in the biblical testaments:

Hebrew Bible: Danna Nolan Fewell and Kenneth Ngwa
New Testament and Early Christianity: Stephen Moore, Althea Spencer-Miller, and Melanie Johnson-DeBaufre

They also work with faculty beyond their area, such as:

Traci West in Christian Ethics and African American Studies
Arthur Pressley in Trauma Studies
Catherine Keller in Process and Eco-Feminist Theology
Terry Todd in Religion in America

Language Requirements

Demonstrated competence at the appropriate level in the relevant ancient languages is a prerequisite for admission into the Bible and Cultures PhD program. Proficiency in these languages is usually demonstrated by evidence of at least two semesters of course work per language at a minimum of 3.0 grade level.

Theological and Philosophical Studies

The area of Theological and Philosophical Studies fosters a transdisciplinary community of inquiry among students, with emphases on philosophical, constructive, pluralist, comparative and systematic approaches to theological themes.

These emphases; supported by the philosophical traditions of pragmatism, phenomenology, process and poststructuralism; entail strong interests in ecology as well as sex/gender, social-political, and decolonial theory.

Our faculty bring their distinct methods in the study of religion and its multiple sites of interconnection and contestation to the common table of open, dialogical discourse. Students are invited participants in this collegial and rigorous table talk, learning the textual content and practicing the theories specific to particular fields of interest.

They come to appreciate and negotiate the complexities of those fields as they take shape within concrete contexts marked by ethical struggle as well as by interdisciplinary and interreligious conversation.

Students in the Theological and Philosophical Studies area work closely with faculty specializing in theology and philosophy:

Constructive and Systematic Theologies: Catherine Keller, Chris Boesel, and Daniel Shin
Comparative Theology: Hyo-Dong Lee

They also work with faculty beyond their area, such as:

Laurel Kearns in Religion and Ecology
Stephen Moore in Critical Theory and Religion
Angella Son in Self-Psychology and Pastoral Theology

Social Ethics

The area of Social Ethics focuses on the social role and moral implications of religion and Christianities in relation to structures of oppression, struggles for liberation, visions of restored wholeness for individuals and communities, and planetary thriving. Students engage methods, histories, and theories of social ethics that respond to human experience and nature as well as social science, theological, cultural studies, and transdisciplinary scholarship that include a concern with praxis.

Students in Social Ethics work closely with Traci West as well as faculty specializing in disciplines and signature areas across the Theological School faculty:

Kenneth Ngwa, Althea Spencer-Miller, and Arthur Pressley in Africana Studies and Religion
Laurel Kearns and Catherine Keller in Ecology and Religion
Hyo-Dong Lee in Asian theology and philosophy

Transdisciplinary Signature Areas

To deepen transdisciplinary work, all students also declare a Signature Area major in one of the following:

Africana and Black Studies and Religion

Women, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion

Examines the diversity of expressions and constructions of gender, sex, and sexuality in religious texts, doctrines, practices, and communities, as always experienced in relation to class, race, ethnicity, age, ability, social location, ecological context, and cultural and national identity. Engages theoretical and methodological insights of feminist and womanist thought and gender and queer scholarship that include the lives, voices, and perspectives of women and gender and sexual minorities in order to expand justice practices and thought.

Ecology and Religion

Examines the mounting planetary crisis of environmental degradation, mass extinctions, and climate change in relation to religious practices and discourses. Pursues ecological justice and planetary health in their intersections with struggles of race, economics, coloniality, gender, and queerness. Rethinks Earth with respect to theories and theologies of animality, space, matter, ethics, food, politics and ecospiritualities.

Decolonial and Critical Theory

Explores an assemblage of interdisciplinary strategies that aim to decenter, deconstruct and decolonize Eurocentric paradigms of thought. Critical theory as recently unfolding in decolonial, (post-)poststructuralist, and new materialist perspectives, brings an intersectional pluralism of social, political, and ecological contextuality to theoretically undergird enquiry into the particularity of faith and the multiplicity of religions.

My research at Drew focused on the intersections of queer and feminist theories in and around Paul’s letters, in addition to ancient Greek and studies ways of teaching Greek as a “living language." I have presented multiple papers at the Society of Biblical Literature, and facilitated mentoring sessions for the national SBL’s 'non-traditional' hermeneutics coalition. ”

General Information

Program Requirements

All PhD students take 36 credits of coursework (12 courses) including a common seminar in the History of the Study of Religions and courses in both disciplinary and signature areas. The normal course load for full-time study is three courses per semester. Further requirements for the PhD include proficiency in either one or two modern languages of scholarship, comprehensive examinations, a dissertation and oral defense. All requirements for the PhD degree must be completed within a period of seven years.

Graduate Division of Religion Goals

The GDR aims to equip persons for vocations of teaching and research in theological schools, colleges, and universities, or for the scholarly enhancement of ministerial practice and religious leadership. In general, a student who has successfully completed the degree requirements should be:

Able to contribute scholarly research to an area of study in religious and theological studies
Able to analyze religions, religious and theological studies, and social contexts through a transdisciplinary area of study interested in transformation of the academy, religions, and society
Able to utilize scholarship relevant to student research in at least one language other than English
Able to produce a comprehensive teaching portfolio
Able to develop and make progress on a professional development plan
Able to participate in collaborative inquiry and scholarly exchanges in academic settings or professional societies

For more information, visit our GDR page.

Admissions Requirements

• Deadline: Fall Semester – December 15

• A master’s degree or the equivalent from an accredited institution.

• The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is optional for all applicants, domestic and international. Scores no older than five years are accepted. To present a competitive application, a student should have a minimum score of 153 on the verbal section, a minimum score of 144 on the quantitative section and a minimum score of 4 on the analytical writing section.

• Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is required for all international applicants. Scores no older than five years are accepted. To present a competitive application, a student should have a minimum score of 80. Applicants that have completed at least one year of full time study at an accredited College or University in a country where English is the primary language of instruction may request a waiver. The TOEFL is waived for applicants that come from any of these listed countries.

• A personal statement describing the applicant's personal and intellectual interests that have led him or her to the proposed disciplinary field of study, and what directions those interests will take at Drew, particularly in relation to a possible signature area, and preferably with reference to the specific faculty with whom they hope to work.

• An academic writing sample, ordinarily an academic paper or essay.

• Two letters of recommendation. These should be from academic professors or persons familiar with the student’s academic ability and with the academic rigors of a graduate degree. They should comment on the critical thinking and writing skills, the research ability and the general suitability of the applicant for graduate study.

• A resume. Students cannot be enrolled simultaneously in more than one school of the university, or in more than one program.

Apply Now

I earned a Bachelor in Theology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa where I focused on oral histories of HIV/AIDS in churches, hospitals and communities. My master’s thesis, “Hagar, Sarah and the Abrahamic Religions: Exploring their Postcoloniality and Polygamous Identities,” prepared me for my current reading of the Hebrew Bible in relation to Africa and its diaspora(s). I am able to make connections between my field work and my research because of the kind of scholarship I am now exposed to at Drew. ”

Drew

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