Brisbane College of Theology

St Paul's is a member school of the ecumenical consortium, the Brisbane College of Theology (BCT).

There are three member schools

St Paul's Theological College (Catholic)
St Francis' Theological College (Anglican)
Trinity Theological College (Uniting)

The Brisbane College of Theology was inaugurated on 28 March 1983. It is a tertiary educational institution offering undergraduate and postgraduate awards in the fields of Theology, Liturgy and Christian ministry. It seeks to relate Christian theology, to the mission of the church, the academic community and the wider society, in the context of intellectual endeavour appropriate to a tertiary institution.

The College is committed to providing an academic environment which is founded on ecumenical cooperation between its member schools, which meets the academic requirements of those schools and which promotes the study of Christian faith and its implications for contemporary life.

Students have the opportunity for:

  1. Personal formation through the use of strategies designed to encourage reflection on their individual beliefs, development of their sense of selfhood and enrichment of their spirituality within the context of the Christian tradition.
  2. Theological formation through the study of the Christian tradition, in terms both of present expressions of belief in relation to the contexts in which people live, and of the origins of such beliefs and the factors which have shaped their development. The College provides the opportunity for studying specific traditions of Christianity as well as for gaining a sense of its diversity, while reference is also made at times to non-Christian traditions of religious belief.
    The notion of theological formation has been used to cover a range of academic disciplines included in the programs. The process involves studying:
    • Systems of religious belief;
    • The origins, content and functions of the Christian Scriptures;
    • Patterns of organisation within the Christian tradition;
    • Forms of worship; and
    • The interface between Christianity and its historical contexts.

    Such formation will involve the development of both generic and specific abilities, including interpretative skills in relation to both written texts and historical data, and skills of theological reflection.

  3. Ministerial formation by means of the development of pastoral and educational knowledge, attitudes and skills at a theoretical and a practical level. For this purpose "ministerial formation" includes:
    • A study of the human condition in relation to individual life stages, social contexts and the natural environment; and
    • The development of specific abilities, including analytic skills, counselling skills, educational skills, relational skills, administrative skills, and presentational skills such as preaching, leading worship and evangelism.

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