Our Identity: Who We Are
Santa Clara University’s Jesuit School of Theology is an international center of scholarly and ministerial formation. The faculty and student body are comprised of lay men and women, Jesuits, clergy, and members of other religious orders. Rooted in the Catholic and Ignatian traditions, we engage in ecumenical, interfaith, and intercultural dialogue through the Graduate Theological Union. Distinguished faculty encourage students to think critically about theology and how to justly live out their faith in service of the Church and the global community.
JST is the only school west of Chicago with an ecclesiastical faculty approved by the Congregation for Catholic Education to grant degrees in the name of the Pope. JST is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the American Association of Theological Schools, and by the Vatican Congregation of Catholic Education as an Ecclesiastical Faculty of Theology.
Our Mission: What We Do
The Jesuit School of Theology educates scholars and ministers to serve the Church and society by enlivening faith, promoting reconciliation, laboring for justice, and participating in God’s mercy. We bring theology into dialogue with communities, with their particular histories and cultures, serving people and learning from them in a spirit of solidarity.
What does it mean to be part of the GTU?
As one of the eight schools that comprise the interreligious and ecumenical Graduate Theological Union, JST is located in proximity to these other schools, a neighborhood affectionately referred to as "holy hill." JST students have access to a wide array of theological resources, as they may take courses at any of the GTU schools, interact with other GTU students in their JST classes, and utilize the GTU's Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, one of the most comprehensive theological libraries in the country.
Our Vision: Where We Want to Go
The Jesuit School of Theology will offer an integrative, interdisciplinary theological education, blending intellectual and spiritual formation, to empower students and faculty to respond concretely to the hopes and needs of God’s people.
Our Values: How We Learn and Serve Together
- Depth: We commit ourselves to intellectual and spiritual depth in our scholarship, teaching, reflection, and service.
- Accompaniment: We thoughtfully and reverently engage and listen to one another and the communities we serve, paying particular attention to people on the margins of Church and society.
- Apostolic Audacity: With a generous spirit, we respond boldly and creatively as missionary disciples of Jesus Christ, internalizing the Gospel summons to justice as we strive to meet the needs and challenges of our Church and world today.
- Prophetic Dialogue: In a politically, racially, ethnically, and religiously divided world, we choose encounter, not confrontation, fostering dialogue among different religions and peoples, across academic disciplines, and with cultural, civic, and business communities.
- Collaboration: Recognizing that theology and ministry are collaborative endeavors, we labor together as faculty, staff, and students, and as Jesuits, lay persons, clergy, and members of other religious orders.
- Global Perspective: Serving a global Church, we value diversity of culture and thought and intentionally engage theologies and practices that arise in different cultural, ethnic, and religious contexts.
- Generous Hospitality: We aspire to imitate the radical hospitality of the Gospel by welcoming people from all walks of life, especially those marginalized in our Church and society.
- Discerning Community: Seeking the freedom to love and serve more authentically, we utilize Ignatian discernment to respond to the call of discipleship and adapt to meet changing needs and circumstances.
- Joyful Witness:Desiring to reflect the joy of the Gospel, we delight in our intellectual inquiry, companionship, and service.
- Culture of Care: Grateful for all that God has entrusted to us, we reverence human beings and our common home in the natural world and wisely steward our material resources.