Introduction to the Foundation

About the Graduate Theological Foundation 

The Graduate Theological Foundation is an ecumenical and interreligious institution providing advanced educational opportunities to practicing ministry professionals, including flexible and convenient online, on-site and distance learning opportunities. The GTF’s degree programs are designed for ministry professionals who are unable or disinclined to leave their current place of employment in order to pursue full time residential educational opportunities. We strive to provide quality education to professionals from a variety of faith backgrounds by providing a plethora of study options that benefit members of our community as well as collaborating institutions.
 
The GTF aims to serve those within faith communities who are engaged in the wide range of traditional and emerging forms of ministry as a way to strengthen their quest for a deeper sense of unity both among themselves and in their developing relations with other religious traditions and secular society. We are a gathering of dedicated people in a community of colleagues seeking to learn together through the sharing of professional and vocational experience, insight and reflective knowledge. International in scope and fully ecumenical in purpose, the GTF is open to members of all religious communities as well as secular society.
 
 
 
The GTF Community of Scholars
 
We are a community of scholars. As an educational institution providing advanced training for credentialed professionals, the Graduate Theological Foundation prides itself on its affiliation with distinguished international scholars who have contributed to the work of this community as Faculty, Fellows, and Honorary Fellows. Click here to view the Community of Scholars Roster and the scholars’ biographies.
 
 
 
The Work of the GTF
 
The essential work of the GTF is carried out through its several educational degree programs and publication series. All educational degree programs are designed for advanced learning that is self-improving and motivational in nature for fully credentialed professionals in ministry whose common concern is the development of leadership for religious congregations and faith communities. A ministry professional, whether clergy, religious, or laity, is one who is engaged in an educational, pastoral, counseling, or health-related vocation and is licensed, certified, or credentialed appropriate to the respective field of professional activity.
 
Publications of the GTF reflect the commitment to ministry, principally through the Oxford Theology Monograph, a collection of course-related essays written by the faculty of the Oxford University Theology Summer School, and Foundation Theology, an annual collection of essays by the faculty and students of the Foundation. 
 
The GTF also offers faculty research grants, the Oxford Foundation Fellowship, and academic fellowships to graduating students.