The Department of Theology & Religious Studies (TRS) at King's has a dynamic interdisciplinary research culture that fosters collaboration, innovation, and intellectual leadership at all career stages.
Our work has an international reach and a strong civic emphasis on London communities.
In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF2021), the Department was ranked 3rd in the UK and 1st in the UK for our research environment. 100 per cent of our research environment was rated ‘world leading’ (4*) and 91 per cent of our research was rated either ‘world leading’ (4*) or internationally excellent’ (3*).
Our collective interrogation of religion and modernity is informed by rigorous textual and ethnographic scholarship, and by broad historical expertise ranging from antiquity to the late-modern period. TRS research exemplifies King's celebration of diversity and its international vision, enacting its deep-rooted ethos of ‘service to society.’
TRS is one of the few UK departments that gives equal weight to Theology and to Religious Studies. Our research and teaching forge new connections between these two disciplines. Recognising a colonial legacy that divides Christian Theology from the study of ‘other religions,’ we are reconceiving religious diversity in terms of intersectional identities, theological innovation, and complex encounters both within and between traditions.
TRS is also distinctive in its vitality and innovation in Theology and the Arts, and its orientation to London communities and culture. We use our location in the capital to maximise the impact of our research, sustaining strong links with Parliament and Whitehall, Westminster Abbey, and the National Gallery.