Emphasis: Worship, Theology, and the Arts | Fuller Theological Seminary

Worship, Theology, and the Arts

Do you see the arts playing an important role in theology and the Church? Do you search for signs of God in cultural movements? Or does your passion lie in weaving creativity—art, drama, film, the music of other cultures—into the worship experience?

There is a vibrant movement to integrate the arts with theology and worship—and Fuller's Brehm Center is helping lead the way. When you pursue an MDiv or Master of Theology and Ministry with an emphasis on Worship, Theology, and the Arts, you will study with faculty who are artists, musicians, and pastors as well as scholars, and who will help you think biblically about incorporating the arts into your worship and ministry.

How will you engage culture, theology, and the arts?

Featured Faculty

Todd Johnson
William K. and Delores S. Brehm Associate Professor of Worship, Theology, and the Arts, has a wide range of experience in education, ministry, and social services. Before coming to Fuller, he served on the faculties of North Park Theological Seminary and Loyola University, Chicago. Ordained in the Evangelical Covenant Church, he has 20 years of experience in church and campus ministry and has been involved in inner-city youth work and community projects in the Chicago area. Johnson is the editor of Common Worship in Theological Education (2010) and The Conviction of Things Not Seen: Worship and Ministry in the 21st Century (2002). He is co-author of Performing the Sacred: Theology and Theatre in Dialogue, part of the Engaging Culture series edited by Fuller professors Robert Johnston and William Dyrness. profile

Roberta King
"What should worship and witness look like at home and around the world? What varying roles do the great diversity of music forms play in the lives of differing peoples? What should we change or re-envision as the gospel penetrates each culture?" These are questions Professor Roberta King likes to ask in the communication and ethnomusicology courses she teaches, as she helps students learn what it means to impart the gospel in a diversity of contexts. profile

Alumni in Action

Don Hatfield (MDiv 1973)
Fuller graduates use their degrees to pursue callings as scholars, theologians, psychologists, and leaders in mission and ministry. But many have heard God calling them to other arenas. For alumnus Don Hatfield, that arena has been the visual arts. Based in Napa, California, Hatfield is, as expressed by one art gallery, "one of America's greatest living impressionist artists"--with paintings displayed in galleries in several U.S. states, as well as corporate and private collections around the globe. read more

Walt "Baby Love" Shaw (MA 2005)
He was 21, a paratrooper on leave from the 82nd Airborne, when a childhood friend invited Walter Shaw to New York City for a taste of entertainment radio high life. It was an even greater culture shock than he would find in his tour of duty in faraway Thailand. Dressed in the only nice clothes he owned—his well-pressed uniform—he called home from a swanky Manhattan apartment to whisper to his excited family: “I’m at a party with Aretha Franklin!’” It spun his head around, sending him in a different direction than the military career he hoped to be his ticket out of small-town Pennsylvania. read more

Emphasis Requirements (24 Units)

Take the following courses:
TC581 Worship, Theology and the Arts Touchstone Course (take in your first Fall quarter)

Choose Five (20 units):
Any Communication course in the School of Intercultural Studies (ME)
Any Theology and Culture course (TC)
Any Worship Studies course (WS)

Recommended Electives