Theology and Religion MA (Taught)

Explore faith, spirituality and religion in depth with the MA Theology and Religion. You'll build critical thinking and understanding across different beliefs, developing key skills for careers where empathy and diverse perspectives matter.

Design your own degree pathway based on your interests and choose from a wide range of modules. This course offers teaching on a variety of religions based on the expertise of our staff, such as Jainism, Islam, Sikhism, and Christianity. At Birmingham, we provide focussed opportunities to study historical traditions, theologies, rituals and practices, contemporary spiritualities, world religions, religious texts, politics, histories and ethical issues.

You’ll benefit from our engaging, small-group teaching approach and you'll be encouraged to discuss, debate and analyse your viewpoints, preconceptions and theories. In your module assessments and dissertation you'll be guided by tutors and your dissertation supervisors to think critically about different theories and approaches to theology and religion.

• Learn from our experts - the Department is ranked in the top 50 Theology and Religion departments in the world (QS World University Rankings 2025).

• Attend research seminars and events like our speaker series, workshops, reading groups and academic conferences throughout the year.

• Immerse yourself in one of the most religiously and culturally diverse cities in Europe. Make the most of the Department's links with faith-based communities across the city.

• Get ready for your future career with the option to take a placement-based dissertation. This is ideal if you'd like to connect academic research with gaining more practical experience.

• You’ll have a variety of historical and theological manuscripts at your fingertips. Birmingham's Cadbury Research Library houses many texts and books with religious significance, including the Mingana Collection consisting of over 3000 Middle Eastern manuscripts in over twenty languages, including Arabic, Syriac, Ethiopic, Georgian, Hebrew, Samaritan and Armenian.