Religious and Theological Studies Program to Launch Concentration in Jewish-Hebraic Thought and Culture

In Fall 2018, as part of the recently launched major in Religious and Theological Studies (RTS), The King’s College will begin offering a new concentration in Interdisciplinary Jewish-Hebraic Thought and Culture. This concentration will provide students within the RTS major with an in-depth look at Jewish history, religion, and politics from ancient to modern times, and will prepare them for career opportunities in international affairs and global reconciliation efforts, among other fields.

Dr. Dru Johnson, Associate Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies, will provide oversight for the concentration. Dr. Johnson’s research accomplishments and professional experience in the field of Jewish-Hebraic studies includes having served as a Templeton Senior Research Fellow in Analytic Theology at The Herzl Institute in Jerusalem. He currently serves as associate director of the Jewish Philosophical Theology Project for the Institute. Dr. Johnson also serves as co-chair for the Hebrew Bible and Philosophy program in the Society of Biblical Literature, and he is the editor of the Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biblical Criticism monograph series.

Other RTS faculty who will contribute to the concentration are Dr. Anthony Bradley, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the Program in Religious and Theological Studies, and Dr. Robert Carle, Professor of Theology. These full-time TKC faculty members will be joined by adjunct professors in Hebrew Bible and Judaic students from other institutions in New York City.

The concentration consists of three required courses, six credit hours of internships or practica, and one interdisciplinary elective, subject to approval. The required courses are Judaism: Second Temple Period to the Present; Introduction to the History and Politics of Israel and Palestine; and Hebrew Thought and the Intellectual World of the Bible. The concentration also provides students with the opportunity to take a ten-day trip to Israel, with the primary costs of the trip funded for qualified students.

Students who graduate with the concentration will have a solid grounding in the history and philosophy of the ancient Near East into which the Hebrew Bible entered, as well as of the Hellenistic world that shapes the Apocryphal texts. The program also prepare students to understand how Jewish cultures relate to majority cultures around the world in both ancient and contemporary settings. With this basis, students will be equipped to engage with complex situations — such as rising anti-Semitism in contemporary Europe or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — with sensitivity and awareness of the needs of the various communities involved.

Dr. Bradley says of the concentration, “We are delighted to offer this new concentration that expands job opportunities for the RTS graduates to include everything from international affairs, peace and reconciliation non-profits, Christian missions, to work in the local church.”

The Religious and Theological Studies major also offers opportunities for concentrations in Interdisciplinary Catholic Studies and Interdisciplinary Orthodox Studies.