Theology, Bible, and the Arts King's College London

Overview

Building on King’s historic strengths in theology, biblical studies, and engagement with the arts, the course draws on disciplines including philosophy, art history, literary theory, and visual culture to explore questions within and beyond Christianity. Theology, Bible, and the Arts degree is offered at King's College London.Through critical and creative study and our partnership with the National Gallery, you’ll consider how people have made sense of life and how we might live wisely in the world today.

Key benefits

• Enables students to deepen and expand their understanding of the formative texts, contexts, and traditions of thought and practice that mark both Christianity’s past and its present. Addresses contemporary questions in ways that are resourced by rich historical traditions of thought and imagination.
• Reap the experience of a 180-year rich history of Theology & Religious Studies at King’s.
• Enables students to work across disciplinary and specialism boundaries, including certain disciplines (like theology and art history) that are commonly pursued in isolation from each other.
• Develops competence in using a variety of theories and methods of study to engage in critical analysis of relevant material and to develop constructive arguments.
• Fosters the capacity to engage sensitively and critically with primary sources (works of art and literature as well as biblical texts/written theology/aesthetic theory/art criticism).
• Makes extensive use of London’s cultural resources specifically the artistic, human and web-based resources of the National Gallery in London, providing opportunities for students to learn in the context of one of London’s (and the world’s) greatest treasuries of art, with additional visits/links to institutions with related collections, like the Courtauld Gallery, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
• Allows students to develop their knowledge of all of its main three areas while being structured in a way that permits them to specialise: e.g., to focus primarily on theology’s relationship with the arts, or to work intensively in areas of doctrinal and/or biblical studies (for example, as part of their preparation for doctoral research).