Welcome to the School of Theology
The St. John Institute of Catholic Thought School of Theology is a degree granting institution, approved by the Illinois Board of Higher Education to grant master degrees and a graduate certificate in Catholic Theology. The Institute also grants a non-degreed certificate for those without an undergraduate degree.
The School of Theology seeks to have the highest academic quality and rigor at the graduate level but also accommodate the various needs of the community and especially the Catholic dioceses of Central Illinois. Students receive a robust foundation in the Catholic intellectual tradition.
The School of Theology's programs provide the student with a solid formation in classical Catholic thought as well as modern developments in Catholic theological methods. Central to the Catholic intellectual tradition, the School of Theology programs focus on developing the students’ skills in critical thinking, integrating knowledge, and developing the capacity to engage with current modes of thought through an understanding of the complementarity between faith and reason.
The School of Theology's curriculum offerings reflect the research expertise of the St. John Institute of Catholic Thought. The Institute specializes in the Eucharist and its association with the liturgy. The Catholic Church calls the Eucharist the source and summit of Christian life (CCC 1324, Lumen Gentium 11). We also emphasize the work of the modern Communio scholar Karol Wojtyła/John Paul II, and his personalist thought in the context of his Theology of the Body. These emphases find their unity in a theology of a Trinitarian cosmos, the structure of which is Liturgical and Eucharistic. This approach by its nature provides an integrative structure by which the unity of knowledge, and especially the Catholic faith, can be understood.
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" If faith does not think, it is nothing"
—St. Augustine
