For the fourth time in six years, the University of Notre Dame’s theology program has been ranked number one in the world, a track record of elite performance that has coincided with the department’s recent reemphasis on rootedness in the Catholic faith.

According to supporters of the department, the theology program’s ability to beat out peers at institutions like the University of Oxford and Harvard University offers important lessons for Notre Dame as a whole, as the university seeks to integrate its pursuit of worldly prestige with fidelity to its Catholic mission.

“The reputational excellence of the theology department indicates that one need not choose between serious academics and a faithful Catholic identity,” said Charles Camosy, a bioethicist at Creighton University Medical School who earned a doctorate in theology from Notre Dame in 2008.

In the latest iteration of the QS World University Rankings of theology, divinity and religious studies programs, Notre Dame placed ahead of other top-five finishers Oxford, Harvard, Cambridge University and Duke University.

Boston College and KU Leuven (Belgium), which ranked 13th and 15th respectively, were the only other Catholic universities to finish in the top 15 of the U.K.-based publication’s rankings, which were determined by academic reputation, employer reputation and research impact.

Notre Dame has now finished in the top three of the rankings every year since 2019, including one second-place finish and two third-place finishes. The string of top finishes comes after the theology department was ranked seventh in 2018 and 16th in 2017, the first year QS World University Rankings offered specific rankings on the subject.

Pursuit of Truth First

According to those most responsible for the string of success, the theology program’s elevated status isn’t the result of a concerted effort to rise in the rankings. Instead, it’s the fruit of “faith seeking understanding,” which is both St. Anselm of Canterbury’s famed definition of theology and the Notre Dame department’s guiding ideal.

“The key to our top-ranking consistency is the combination of our rootedness in the whole historical breadth of the Christian intellectual tradition and our openness to the engagement with contemporary culture and present-day concerns,” said Father Khaled Anatolios, the department chair, in the university’s April 8 statement announcing the latest first place finish.

John Cavadini, whose tenure as department chair from 1997-2010 is widely recognized for setting Notre Dame theology on its current trajectory, told the Register something similar, stressing that “rankings should follow excellence in pursuit of truth, not the other way around.”

At the same time, the theologian thinks it’s unsurprising that a serious and faithful intellectual exploration of the Christian faith would yield a top finish in the QS World University Rankings.

“Catholic identity and academic excellence are natural partners,” he told the Register. “Thirsting to understand the mysteries of revelation makes one strive for creativity and precision in studying and articulating them.”

Fueled By Faith

That Notre Dame’s theology program is now a model for faith-first success is remarkable in its own right. Many joked in the 1980s and 90s that it was the least orthodox department on campus.

During that time, Notre Dame theology was marked by controversial figures like Father Richard McBrien, an influential public commentator and longtime department chair who supported the attempted ordination of women and downplayed ecclesial authority. Academic freedom and faithfulness to Church teaching were often pitted against each other, such as in 1989 when Notre Dame president Father Monk Malloy said that the university’s theologians would not be making the Vatican’s required “oath of fidelity” because it would harm the department.

But Notre Dame theology’s orientation began to change under Cavadini’s leadership.

“My priorities were to build an intellectual culture fueled by faith, where commitment to the mind of the Church was an engine for academic excellence, instead of seeming like an obstacle,” said Cavadini. He described the approach as “digging deep” into the mysteries of the faith in order to “live in the midst of the burning questions of our own time.”

Holy Cross Father Wilson Miscamble, the former chair of Notre Dame’s history department, said that the theology department’s approach from Cavadini onward has been notably different from the “anemic Land O’Lakes model,” a reference to a 1967 manifesto spearheaded by then-university president Father Theodore Hesburgh that said Catholic universities must have “true autonomy” from Church authority for the sake of academic freedom.

In contrast, Father Miscamble said the theology department has “emphasized its Catholic identity and the importance of its connection to and service of the local and universal Church.”

“This has helped attract excellent scholars and teachers of theology to Notre Dame who are unafraid to share their faith and commitment with their students,” the Holy Cross priest said.

Among them is the Irish theologian Cyril O’Regan, who came to Notre Dame in 1999 and received the prestigious Ratzinger Prize last year.

More recently, Notre Dame has increasingly attracted theologians from places with reputations for fidelity to Church teaching, like The Catholic University of America. In the past 10 years, moral theologians William Mattison, David Cloutier, and Paul Scherz have all made the switch from CUA to South Bend.

Scholars aren’t the only ones drawn to Notre Dame’s theology program — students are, too.

The program boasts more than 800 majors and minors, representing roughly one in every 10 undergraduates. Since 2015, the total number of undergraduates studying theology has doubled, with annual growth averaging 7%. It’s a striking trend, especially as humanities majors — and religious studies in particular — continue to decline nationwide.

The department’s success is even more impressive considering that, in 2015, university administrators proposed cutting the undergraduate theology requirement in half — a move that likely would have significantly limited the size of the department. The proposal was ultimately defeated after significant pushback.

Cavadini is grateful for the popularity of the program among Notre Dame’s student body, but says that the boosted numbers aren’t “the point.”

“The point is reigniting a love for the mysteries of Christian faith and thereby a love for the Church.”

Counter-Cultural on Campus

But not everyone on campus is following the theology department’s formula for success.

According to Camosy, the theology program’s recommitment to its Catholic identity has come at the same time that other Notre Dame departments, especially in the liberal arts, “have become more and more hostile to a full Catholic vision.”

“Theology, by contrast, puts a full Catholic vision at the center in a way that troubles the dominant academic paradigms and especially the political and moral orthodoxies which dominate the academy,” he said.

At the same time, Camosy noted that some more traditionally inclined Catholics in the United States unfairly dismiss Notre Dame and its theology department “simply because they don’t know about the beautiful things that have developed there in more recent years.”

Father Miscamble also thinks more people — including the university’s leadership — should take a second look at Notre Dame theology’s success.

“There are lessons here for the university as a whole,” said the Holy Cross priest. “One hopes that senior administrators can grasp them, and especially that they give renewed attention to hiring for Catholic mission.”