Faculty of Theology

A faculty at the pace of its time

The Faculty of Theology of the Dominican University College is pleased to welcome you. For over a hundred years, it has continued its mission of thinking the Christian faith. With its civil and canonical Charters, the theology faculty of DUC unfolds in two campuses: the IDEST (Dominican Institute of Advanced Studies in Theology) in Ottawa, which offers a more “classical” theology, and the IPD (Pastoral Institute of the Dominicans) in Montreal, which focuses more on the formation of the laity for various ministries in the Church. The two campuses of the faculty work closely together.

The faculty continues, but faces new questions and challenges, forcing it to rethink and renew itself. As always, theology reflects the society in which it lives and the people who think it. As the churches are more and more empty, with the majority of our contemporaries having no interest in religious fact, except to mistrust it or to attack it, as fewer and fewer people decide to commit to an ecclesial service, it is more urgent to delve deeper into the treasure of the Christian heritage in order to find there, as Jesus said in the Gospel, “something new and old” (Matthew 13:52):

• Old, because the Christian faith is founded on a tradition of more than two millennia, which is not to be forgotten nor underestimated;
• New, because the challenges are new, because the questions are new, because the ways of thinking are new.

To embark on theological thought or a university degree in theology, one really needs an adventurous instinct. We live in fascinating times, which will profoundly transform the Church, the believers and theology itself. The traditional responses are no longer sufficient or satisfying. We need something new. This new based on the tradition, we are in the process of rethinking and rebuilding it.

If we do not yet know where this will lead us and what forms theology will take in the future, the fact remains that our time needs, more than ever, seekers of truth and meaning.

A variety of programs are offered both to believers curious to deepen their faith or Christian thought, to anyone engaged in or preparing for an ecclesial ministry, to future priests or missionaries, to anyone wishing to update themselves in theology, or to people on a spiritual journey or interested in the religious dimension of the human being.

I invite you to browse our websites (www.dominicanu.ca and www.ipastorale.ca) to discover the resources offered by our faculty: its academic programs, partnerships, conferences and symposia, lectures and multiple activities aimed at promoting research in theology in Montreal and Ottawa.

We will be happy to count you among our students.

Fr. Hervé Tremblay O.P.
Dean ad interim