Master’s Degree

Through a partnership with the Graduate Theological Foundation, the SCSS offers a Master’s in Theology in Catholic Social Thought.

Catholic social teaching and the body of thought growing up from it is perhaps the Catholic Church’s best-kept secret. Even in most Catholic universities today Catholic social thought is given little attention, and relatively few scholars and professionals are well-versed in it and build their work in their fields with reference to it. This is even though the modern social teaching of the Church contains a well-developed set of moral principles relating to socio-politico-economic life dating back to the late nineteenth century, with its roots in the Gospel. The Society of Catholic Social Scientists (SCSS) Master of Theology (M.Th.) program in Catholic Social Thought aims to provide graduate training in this tradition in a manner that puts the social science disciplines into a distinctly Catholic framework—and in a way that fits the student’s schedule and life situation.

The SCSS’s M.Th. Program in Catholic Social Thought should be of particular interest to students planning to go on for a doctorate in:

• One of the social science disciplines or moral theology.
• Clergy and religious.
• Individuals working in Catholic social service agencies.
• Individuals working in diocesan offices dealing with social questions.
• Anyone wanting to gain a deeper understanding of the authentic social teaching of the Church.

The Program is open to students regardless of sex, race, color, ethnic or nationality group, or religious profession (though non-Catholic students must understand that the Program is a distinctly Catholic one, which accepts the teaching of the Catholic Church’s magisterium and emphasizes that teaching as the truth).