curriculum
M.A. degree / concentration in sacred arts
St. Vladimir’s Seminary is offers an MA degree with a concentration in Sacred Arts. The concentration will feature coursework in both theoretical and applied theology and the arts, with opportunities to specialize in a particular discipline: music, iconology, art history, liturgy, architecture, et al. Numerous opportunities include subsidized internships and an annual artists in residence program.
Our MA curriculum draws on our resident faculty as well as a number of world-class affiliated artists and scholars willing to work with seminarians as mentors and project advisors.
The Master of Arts program at St. Vladimir’s Seminary is a two-year residential program. It offers a well-rounded course of studies in Orthodox Christian theology, with courses in biblical and historical studies, liturgy, patristics, and systematic theology.
The concentration in sacred arts consists in seminar and lecture courses:
An Introductory Seminar that introduces and explores fundamental principles common to the theology and practice of sacred arts. Drawing on case studies of specific works of art/architecture/music, the course will explore historical context as well as function within and outside the liturgy, past and present. The course will also introduce issues of aesthetics, canonicity, tradition, innovation.
Courses tying together the various sacred arts, in the categories of Theological Aesthetics and Liturgy. These will focus on the hermeneutics of the arts in the Church, as well as the role of the arts in constituting the liturgy, and the role of the liturgy in giving coherence to its constitutive arts.
A Capstone Seminar will bring together the multiple disciplines of the sacred arts, Orthodox theology and liturgy, and the work being done by the particular cohort, into a semester-long summative experience.
These studies are conducted in the context of a residential community, where arts and theology are lived and experienced in daily worship.
St. Vladimir’s enjoys a library that, with over 200,000 volumes, is considered one of the richest resources available on the North American continent for research on Eastern Christianity.
If you are interested in studying the Sacred Arts at St. Vladimir's Seminary, please fill out the contact form and tell us about yourself.
Download a printable pamphlet about the sacred arts concentration (PDF)
