Homiletics and Liturgics

Program Purpose

A Ph.D. in Homiletics and Liturgics prepares individuals for excellence in both research and teaching that engages practices and leadership within the broad trajectory of religious vocations. The program prioritizes an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to the study of theological communication and ritual practices, including, but is not limited to, traditions of preaching and worship. Studies may prioritize these religious practices within public, cultural, and/or faith-based contexts.

Program Objectives

A Ph.D. in Homiletics and Liturgics prioritizes:

…excellence in both research and teaching that engages practices and leadership within the broad trajectory of religious vocations.
- Students will complete area supervised teaching requirements and the Graduate Department of Religion’s pedagogy requirements.
- Students will complete a research assistantship in their first year of study with an area faculty member, as required by the Graduate Department of Religion.
- Students will complete coursework and independent research requirements, including a dissertation.
… an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to the study of theological communication and ritual practices, including, but is not limited to, traditions of preaching and worship.
- Students will gain knowledge germane to the general study and teaching of homiletics and liturgics, in addition to that which supports their own research agendas and interests.
- Students will engage in interdisciplinary and intersectional analyses of religious practices and integrate this work into their research, writing, and teaching.
- Students will gain expertise in practical theological methodology, as they study the connected relationships between homiletical, liturgical, and ritual practices.
… religious practices within public, cultural, and/or faith-based contexts.
- Students will study these disciplines within the broader contexts of contemporary questions impinging on practical theology and religious studies.
- Special attention will be given to the study of practices and their media within and across diverse religious traditions, cultural contexts, histories, and social phenomena, including, but not limited to, concerns such as interfaith engagement, ecumenism, moral imaginations, communicative and ritual ethics, and embodiment.
- Students will have opportunities to study these disciplines at their intersections with the arts, theopoetics, public theologies, and emerging forms of religious practice.

Core Faculty

Stephanie Budwey

Luce Dean’s Faculty Fellow Assistant Professor of the History and Practice of Christian Worship and the Arts
Eunjoo Kim

Charles G. Finney Professor in Homiletics
Lisa L. Thompson

Associate Professor and the Cornelius Vanderbilt Chancellor Faculty Fellow of Black Homiletics and Liturgics

Admissions Requirements

Students applying for admission to the program are expected to have adequate preparation for advanced study in Homiletics and Liturgics. Normally, applicants will have completed professional degree–level coursework (e.g., an M.Div.) that includes study in homiletics, biblical hermeneutics for preaching, practical theology, systematic or constructive theology, ethics, and liturgics. Significant study is also encouraged in related fields such as rhetoric, literary criticism, myth and ritual studies, education (especially educational psychology and philosophy of education), philosophy (especially philosophy of language and epistemology), and communication and the arts.

Competence in Languages

Students will have three options to fulfill language requirements:

One modern language of research (e.g., German, French, Portuguese, Spanish) and one sacred text language (biblical Hebrew or Greek; Aramaic, etc.)
Two modern foreign languages of research
One modern foreign language of research and an approved graduate-level qualitative research course

Typically, a student may satisfy the biblical language requirement with one-semester graduate-level introductory courses in biblical Hebrew and Greek with grades of “B” or better.

International students may petition the Department to substitute their native language for one of the usual modern languages required for the Ph.D. degree.

Range of Studies

In order to qualify for dissertation work, students must demonstrate competence in Homiletics and Liturgics. Such competence includes engagement with questions of method, history, theory, theology, hermeneutics, philosophies of language and rhetoric, performance, the relationship between preaching and worship, practical theology, ethics, diverse contextual perspectives (especially those that attend explicitly to gendered, racial-ethnic, bodily, and cultural matters), pastoral perspectives, and pedagogy. Second in importance is each student’s minor field of study, in which a significant complementary relationship to Homiletics and Liturgics must be established and clearly articulated. Finally, students must demonstrate the ability to develop consistent research methodologies that effectively integrate theoretical disciplines, the study of faith traditions, and careful analyses of religious practices.

Required Coursework

In addition to the language requirement, the Graduate Department requires a total of 72 credit hours for the Ph.D. degree at Vanderbilt.

By the end of a student’s third semester in residence, the adviser will make any appropriate recommendations regarding transfer credit. Students may transfer up to 24 elective credit hours from previous graduate work to their transcripts. The adviser will recommend additional electives to compensate for any deficit in transfer credits.

In addition to the language requirement and transfer and elective hours, doctoral study in Homiletics and Liturgics within the Vanderbilt Graduate Department includes one required GDR core course, 33 hours of required coursework, an area-specific pedagogy requirement, qualifying examinations, and the dissertation.

Distribution of Required Hours

72 hours total

24 hours of transfer or elective coursework
33 hours of required coursework (24 of which must be formal coursework - not independent/directed study)
3 hours for the Study of Religion course
Non-credit earning GDR Practicum in the Teaching of Religion I (REL 8004) & II (REL 8008)
12 dissertation hours

Coursework is spread in the following way:

GDR Core Courses. 3 credit hours of the Study of Religion course or its equivalent, and the non-credit earning Teaching of Religion course or its equivalent offered by the GDR. Normally, the Study of Religion course or its equivalent is taken during the first year, concurrent with service as a Research Assistant. GDR Practicum in the Teaching of Religion—REL 8004.01 (Part I, Fall) & II and REL 8008.01 (Part II, Spring)—is typically begun during the first year, concurrent with service as a Teaching Fellow.

Core Course in Methodology. 3 credit hours of a Ph.D.-level methodology seminar supporting studies in Homiletics and Liturgics. It includes the Practical Theology Seminar or an equivalent course that integrates a wide range of methodological partners for research, with approval by the area faculty. Depending on enrollment, this requirement may be fulfilled through a reading course.

Homiletics and Liturgics Courses. 18 credit hours of area courses. Any course taken outside the area must be approved by the student’s adviser in consultation with the faculty member offering the course.

Minor Field Courses. 12 credit hours of coursework in a minor field within the Graduate Department of Religion or, with approval, in another department of the University.

Students may elect to complete a minor in Worship, the Arts, and Contemporary Culture. The Homiletics and Liturgics Area, the Historical Studies Area, and the Religion in the Arts and Contemporary Culture Program coordinate this minor. It includes courses that emphasize ritual theories, art history, aesthetics, cultural studies, and the integration of homiletics and liturgics.

Minor Field Certification. Competence in the minor field must be certified before the student may proceed to the qualifying examinations. Certification will be determined through an examination, paper, or another appropriate instrument by the faculty in the minor field in consultation with the student and the Homiletics and Liturgics advisor. Once the requirement has been satisfactorily completed, the advisor will notify the GDR office so that the student may continue to complete the qualifying examinations.

Academic Prospectus

One semester prior to taking the Qualifying Examinations and (generally) no later then the end of the fourth semester following matriculation, the student will meet with Area faculty to present a prospectus for the remainder of the course of study. Upon approval of this prospectus by this faculty, the student will be allowed to continue toward QE's and dissertation proposal preparation. A copy of the prospectus will be filed in the Area office. The prospectus will include the following items:

Course program sheet (showing completion of language requirements, required coursework including methodology seminars, Area approved coursework, minor area coursework, electives, transfer courses, and non-credit requirements (e.g., pedagogy requirement).
Statement of how the bibliography and perspectives of the minor area will be integrated into the Qualifying Examinations (although not through a separate exam) and how competence in the minor area will be certified. This statement must be approved and signed by the minor area advisor. Note: student's competence in the minor area must be certified prior to taking the Qualifying Examinations (see discussion under minor area requirements).
Identification of which Qualifying Examination will be taken orally.
List of projected Ph.D. committee members (specifying first reader, second reader, GDR member outside HL area, and any non-GDR member of the Graduate School Faculty). The minor area advisor normally will also be a member of this committee.
Preliminary statement of the dissertation topic (approximately 250 words).
Reading lists for the Qualifying Examinations.

Qualifying Examinations

Qualifying Examinations will occur within no more than four semesters after the fourth semester following matriculation, and after the filing of the Academic Prospectus. One qualifying examination will be taken orally. All others are written examinations.

Normally, the components of the Qualifying Examinations are as follows. Appropriate revisions can be made for those whose work is focused significantly on a liturgical practice or medium of theological communication other than preaching, or ritual beyond traditional worship spaces.

Practical Theology and Pedagogy
History and Theology
Theories and Methods
Cultural Hermeneutics and Theological Ethics
Religious Practices and Contemporary Contexts (i.e. global concerns, the arts, aesthetics, theopoetics, social movements, interfaith and interreligious engagement, etc.)

Dissertation Proposal

In most cases, the student will present the dissertation proposal to the Ph.D. committee three to six months after successful completion of the Qualifying Exams. The proposal is prepared in consultation with the primary adviser(s), is then to be reviewed and approved by the Ph.D. Committee.

Upon approval by this committee, the proposal will be distributed for full GDR faculty consideration and approval, for no less than two full calendar weeks (during the academic term).

Guidelines for the preparation of proposals are available in the Departmental office.

Dissertation

During the writing of the dissertation the student should, as appropriate, consult with members of the committee. For details on submitting the final draft of the dissertation and arranging the defense, consult the Departmental guidelines.

NOTE: This description of requirements supplements The Bulletin of Vanderbilt University Graduate School and "The Guidelines of the Graduate Department of Religion." Students are expected to meet all of the common requirements of the graduate program as described in those publications.