Center for Faith and Learning

Southern Methodist University created the Center for Faith and Learning to promote greater integration of intellectual and spiritual life, both on campus and in society more broadly.

Rooted in and inspired by the University’s Methodist identity, the Center seeks to help SMU students, faculty, and staff discern and develop connections between their religious convictions and their academic and professional work. In addition, the Center seeks to highlight and to promote dialogue surrounding the relevance of faith-based perspectives to fundamental questions in every area of intellectual inquiry and public life.

 

students and professor sitting at long conference table talking

Our programs foster intellectual and spiritual development of undergraduate and graduate SMU students. Promoting greater integration of religious faith with academic study, these programs help students discern a sense of vocation across a broad range of intellectual inquiry and professional work.

Our programs highlight the contributions of faith-based perspectives to understanding and addressing fundamental questions in the arts, physical sciences, humanities, social sciences, and professions for the entire University community—and beyond.

We encourage all members of the University community to consider the relationship between SMU’s religious identity and heritage, and its mission of teaching, research, and service. We also foster dialogue about what it means to be simultaneously grounded in a Christian faith tradition and open to people and ideas of all religious and secular perspectives.

Faith and Learning Scholars

The Faith and Learning Scholars program gives students the opportunity to integrate their faith with their academic work and career vocations. The program enriches and deepens students' intellectual and spiritual lives through:

  • Small group interaction with faculty mentors
  • Individual reading and reflection

Nearly 200 students have successfully completed or are currently engaged in the Faith and Learning Scholars program since its inception in 2016.

Applications are open during the Spring semester. For more information email cfl@smu.edu.

Annual Spring Symposium

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Video

Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan

with Dr. Elisabeth Rain Kincaid, March 26, 2024