The Center for Christianity and Scholarship offers a Certificate in Christian Studies to students who complete at least four program requirements, including at least two Duke courses. The Certificate in Christian Studies equips Duke undergraduates to be faithful witnesses for Christ in your academic studies and future vocations. Certificate programs help students develop a well-rounded Christian mind that includes knowledge of Scripture and theology, formation in the historic Christian tradition, and practice "thinking Christianly" across many domains of life. To earn the Certificate, complete four requirements, including at least two CCS-affiliated Duke courses and up to two CCS-led extracurricular experiences.
Duke courses toward the certificate are taught by Christian professors. The Certificate offers full-credit courses and half-credit House courses. Courses include topics such as "The Christian Story," and "Not-So-Old Testament" Check out some of our upcoming courses below.
The last 150 years, which have seen a decline of Christianity in the West, have also seen brilliant literature and film grapple honestly with the hardest questions that arise in Christianity's shadow: Does God exist? Can this God be trusted? How should we live in the face of suffering and injustice? In this course, we'll read poetry and fiction from great authors like Fyodor Dostoyevsky, T. S. Eliot, Flannery O'Connor, Louise Erdrich, and David Foster Wallace, and watch unforgettable films by directors like Martin Scoresce and Terence Malick. Throughout, we will explore how these works support and challenge traditional Christian teachings, and what they uniquely add as works of art. Our main focus, though, will be open, honest conversation about the ultimate questions these works of art raise.
"Word and Body: Explorations in Healthcare" will explore issues at the intersection of faith and medicine for Christian clinicians and patients alike. Engaging resources from medical scholarship to the Bible, we will discuss topics that include health, suffering, disability, justice, and death. This course will aim to equip students with important questions to guide them either in a healthcare career or in an experience as a patient (or caregiver for a patient). The course is named “Word and Body” because students will explore the landscape at the intersection of the written words of scholars on the human body and the Word breathed out by God about and to his Body, the Church. The course will address several topics in this domain.
Students meet once a month over one academic year to apply Christian thought to their future careers with guidance from Christian faculty.
CCS also offers a trip to Israel and internship opportunities.
CCS-affiliated courses are taught by Christian faculty within their Duke departments, engage with big questions, and are open to Christian answers.
CCS's Faith & Work Summer Internship program gathers students to explore the theology of work and how to integrate faith with daily life in the office, lab, workshop, or clinic. What’s work for? Does my work have to be a calling? How am I responsible to my family, my education, my gifts and talents, my desires, and my faith? What if these are in competition? Participants will learn with one another and from CCS staff and Christian leaders in various fields.
To learn more about the Certificate in Christian Studies, get in touch with Edward Dixon.
