Students are turning to theology because it helps them engage with the “big questions” facing the modern world, according to Fr Luke Macnamara OSB, Dean of Theology at St Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Fr Macnamara said theology continues to speak deeply to young people at a time of uncertainty. “While theology might seem old-fashioned to outsiders, actually to those who engage with theology, it’s one of the more vibrant disciplines that is engaging with contemporary questions,” he said. “They like the fact that they can reflect on really big issues today like truth, like justice, like the place of faith in the modern world.”
Fr Macnamara said there has been an increase in students taking the Bachelor of Arts and Theology programme in recent years, with many lay students who begin theology alongside other arts subjects choosing to continue with it as their studies progress.
“There’s never been more questions for people growing up,” he said. “People are less certain and the world is a big mess.”
For Fr Macnamara, theology offers students more than information. “We need a new wisdom in this world,” he said. “We want a civilisation of love and that requires a wisdom. And that wisdom isn’t got from AI, it isn’t got from the internet.”
He added that Maynooth’s theology faculty also serves the wider Church internationally, with students and doctoral graduates coming from Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.
To read the interview click here