The Department of Theology and Religious Studies has been ranked officially as one of the best research destinations by the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). The RAE confirmed that Nottingham had retained its place in the top ten elite theology departments across the UK, with 95% of its published research ranked as having international recognition in terms of originality, significance and rigour. Over a fifth of published outputs were considered to be 'world-leading'.
Doctoral students from the USA, where the PhD is usually a taught programme, value the special research training provided by the Department’s one-to-one supervision. Alongside supervision, the Department holds staff/student seminars, providing opportunities for visiting scholars, departmental staff and research candidates to present papers in a context of friendly and sympathetic critique.
Research projects in the Department include the areas of Old and New Testaments, hermeneutics, systematic theology, historical theology, philosophical theology, continental philosophy, philosophy of religion, reformation theology, theology and literature, theology and natural science, and Islam and politics.
All departmental staff have proven success in their own research. Staff work to the highest standards, studying primary texts in the original language (whether that be Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic or Arabic) and using secondary sources in various modern languages. The University library has online access to all books published in Britain and Ireland from the beginning of printing to 1800.
The Centre of Theology and Philosophy, directed by Professor John Milbank, is based in the Department. This Centre investigates the historical interaction between Theology and Philosophy, the current relation between the disciplines, the analytic/continental divide and the question of the status of metaphysics. The Centre organises annual international conferences and attracts high quality postgraduate students to Nottingham at both
Masters and Doctoral level.
Postgraduate students in the Department are also eligible to take the Academic German course, which is offered by the School of Humanities and designed for students with little or no German language experience.
The Department is one of six departments in the School of Humanities.
Download the Theology and Religious Studies brochure to explore the Department's postgraduate opportunities.