Dean's Welcome

Dear Visitor:

I welcome you to the School of Religion of Claremont Graduate University.

Claremont Graduate University is a unique institution: it is the only university in the United States that is both exclusively devoted to graduate studies (no undergraduates) and comprehensive in its offerings (nine different schools).

The School of Religion has been home to such outstanding scholars as John Cobb, John Hick, James Robinson, James Sanders, and D. Z. Phillips among others. We have an outstanding faculty that include Richard Bushman, Ingolf Dalferth, Tammi Schneider, Karen Torjesen, and Vincent Wimbush as well as Philip Clayton, Monica Coleman, Roland Faber, and Susan Nelson (the last four by special agreement with Claremont School of Theology). We boast of outstanding graduates such as Rosemary Ruether, Thomas Gillespie, David Griffin, and Catherine Keller.

We study each religion in its own right and in its own depth. We also study each religion in relation to one another and in the concrete conditions of history that make each religion unique but also interrelated. We study each in the context of the cultural, political, and economic conditions of the globalizing world, using a plurality of approaches and methodologies from the classical to the postmodern.

We are part of the Claremont University Consortium that includes five of the nation’s most prestigious liberal arts colleges such as Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Scripps, Harvey Mudd, and Pitzer Colleges, sharing courses, libraries, and faculty resources. We have a concentration of some forty scholars teaching and researching on various aspects of religion within walking distances. Where else could you find such a concentration of religious scholarship?

Without sacrificing discipline and coherence our programs are most flexible, allowing each student to pursue a very individualized curriculum in consultation with his or her advisor. Classes range from five to fifteen students, a small group most conducive to interaction and discussion. Faculty members are easily accessible for individual consultation. Classrooms, libraries, faculty offices, the bookstore, cafeterias, and parking lots are all within walking distances of one another. The School of Religion of Claremont Graduate University is a very friendly place.

We offer the Ph.D. in six areas, Philosophy of Religion and Theology, History of Christianity and North American Religions, Women’s Studies in Religion, Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and Theology, Ethics, and Culture. We will continue the last three areas until current students graduate. In their place we are now in the process of instituting three new programs, Comparative Scriptures, Religions of the Americas, and Religion and Politics, utilizing the rich resources of locally available faculty. Those interested in these programs, please come back for another visit in the months ahead.

We also offer opportunities to study in Cairo, Egypt, and Zurich, Switzerland on exchange programs.

I welcome you to the School of Religion of Claremont Graduate University. If you would like to learn more about us, please arrange a visit by emailing or .

Anselm K. Min, Dean
The School of Religion
Claremont Graduate University