Join our online Christian art degree and access outstanding expertise and digital archives.
Explore the fascinating relationship between art and faith in the Christian world, from medieval to modern times.
Study with an ancient university founded in 1495, and access our world-class university collections, including the Aberdeen Bestiary, wherever you are in the world.
Together we’ll explore:
- the power of images in ritual, liturgy and popular culture
- the architecture of devotion
- visual culture’s impact on the history of Christianity, its debates and controversies.
You’ll examine a broad spectrum of objects, images, texts, and aesthetic discourses to deepen your knowledge of Christian art and its histories, beyond the western European context.
Flexible study options
- Study for the MLitt or exit early with a Postgraduate Certificate or Diploma.
- Set your own study hours with this flexible online degree that’s designed to fit around work and life commitments.
You can also study this degree on campus.
Who can join online MLitt Christianity and the Visual Arts?
This online degree is open to anyone with an undergraduate degree in a humanities subject, such as art history, theology, or religious studies.
We also welcome those working in the professional sectors who are seeking upskilling opportunities, such as the clergy and those employed in museums and galleries.
You can study this degree as preparation for further postgraduate research, for future employment or vocational training – or simply out of interest.
By the end of this degree, you’ll be able to...
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Explore the intersections of art and Christianity from medieval to modern.
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Describe and evaluate important discourses on theological aesthetics and its long history.
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Reflect on historical and contemporary discourses on art and faith.
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Use interdisciplinary methodologies to evaluate art historical and theological topics.
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Contribute to debate via online discussion and coursework.
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Share original research into Christianity and the arts that you’ve carried out as part of your dissertation.
What you’ll study
You’ll study the following courses that make up the 180 credits of this Masters degree.
You can also choose to exit early, earning a:
- Postgraduate Diploma (120 credits) or
- Postgraduate Certificate (60 credits).
How you’ll study
Online learning
Our distance learning Masters in Christianity and the Visual Arts is delivered flexibly, 100% online.
You can study with us anywhere in the world with no need for a study visa, and manage your study hours to suit you.
Your teaching
You’ll learn and interact within a virtual classroom, using digitised resources, archives, and discussion boards. Wherever you’re based, we aim to give you the unique experience of studying art and Christianity in a meaningful way.
Your teaching is delivered through MyAberdeen, our online Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It holds all the materials, tools and support you’ll need in your studies. Take a look around MyAberdeen.
You can access your learning materials on computer, smartphone and laptop, 24 hours a day. You’ll find a range of resources at your fingertips, including:
- videos and video lectures
- tutorials
- podcasts
- slides shows
- quizzes
- reading materials
- discussion boards with classmates and tutors
- the online resources of our award-winning Sir Duncan Rice Library, Special Collections, and Museum Collections .
Assessment
This degree is assessed entirely online via:
- essays
- book reviews
- discussion boards
- creative assessment, eg, posters.
Amazing archive access
You’ll have access to our outstanding Special Collections online.
They’re Scotland’s most significant university holdings. Within our collections, you can explore digitised illuminated manuscripts, including the Aberdeen Bestiary, oil paintings, early modern print collections, archives including the Scottish Catholic Archives, and much more.
Outstanding expertise
You’ll learn from leading experts in Art History and Divinity, based in our School of Divinity, History, Philosophy and Art History (DHPA).
Dr Joanne Anderson, Head of Art History
Joanne is Reader in Art History specialising in late medieval and Renaissance art, with particular expertise in the visual representations of Mary Magdalen. She is author of Moving with the Magdalen: Late Medieval Art and Devotional Practice in the Alps and has featured on Britain’s Lost Masterpieces (BBC4) and In Our Time (BBC R4) on the topic of the saint. Her broader research interests extend to the sacralising of the landscape and female patronage in the Late Middle Ages, and 20th-century exhibition history.
View Joanne’s profile
Professor Tom Greggs, Head of Divinity
Tom Greggs holds the Marischal Chair of Divinity at the University of Aberdeen and is a founding co-director of the Aberdeen Centre for Protestant Theology. He has published widely on systematic theology, including The Breadth of Salvation: Rediscovering the Fullness of God’s Saving Work and Barth, Origen, and Universal Salvation: Restoring Particularity. His current work focuses on ecclesiology, theology and social class, theology and identity politics, redemption and illumination. Tom serves on the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches, and regularly appears on radio.
View Tom’s profile
Dr Karl Kinsella, Lecturer in Medieval Art History
Karl is Lecturer in Medieval Art History. He specialises in the history of architecture and manuscripts in the early and central Middle Ages. Karl works on the development of architectural drawings within theological texts and exegesis. He has appeared on radio and lectured widely on the subject of medieval architecture.
View Karl’s profile
Reverend Professor John Behr, Regius Professor of Humanity
Fr John Behr is a world-leading patristics scholar and Orthodox theologian. He recently joined the University of Aberdeen from St Vladimir’s Seminary, New York, where he served as Dean. John has published widely on the early church and Orthodoxy, including The Way to Nicaea, The Nicene Faith, and John the Theologian and His Paschal Gospel: A Prologue to Theology.
View John’s profileHours for taught courses
If you plan to study part-time, we recommend you take no more than one 30-credit course per term.
30 credits
- Around 300 hours of study and assessment time to complete.
- You’ll study 15 – 20 hours per week per term, plus more at assessment times.
This is a guide to the time required for a typical student at this level to achieve the learning outcomes.
You can largely set your own study hours each week to cover the materials. MyAberdeen is available 24/7, so you can log in and study when it suits you.
Activities at fixed times
There may be some activities scheduled at fixed times, such as online meetings with your tutor or assessments with deadlines. But otherwise, you can access and work through each course at your convenience.
Hours for 60-credit dissertation
A 60-credit dissertation is around 600 hours of study time.
Work on your dissertation happens over both years of study with a preparation course in your first summer and the main period for research and writing in the second summer of your degree.
When you study with us, you can expect a first-class support structure so that you’re never alone in your studies.
But learning online does mean you have to motivate yourself and manage your own time.
Your most important commitment to your course will be time – the time to work through, reflect on and understand your teaching materials.
Before you start a course that involves a high degree of independent study, we recommend looking at the time you will be able to devote to your course each week:
- Be realistic
- Create a weekly schedule as a guide
If you have any questions about studying online, get in touch with our friendly team. We’re here to help.
Our first-class support structure will ensure that you aren’t alone in your studies. You’ll have contact with your tutors via MyAberdeen, email and Microsoft Teams. You can use social media and discussion boards to chat with your fellow students too.
We provide a wide range of services to support you in your studies and beyond:
- Careers and Employability Service – including one-to-one advice sessions
- Disability support
- IT support
- Library support
- Student Support Service – help with finances, stress, wellbeing and non-academic issues
- Student Learning Service – study support, with advice sessions available via phone or Skype
- Aberdeen University Students’ Association (AUSA) – run by students for students
- Toolkit – clever apps and free training that can make your study life easier
Wherever you are in the world, you’ll feel part of our very special Aberdeen learning community.
Your support team
Our friendly team are here to answer any queries you have before, during and after your studies.
Joanne Anderson
Joanne is the degree coordinator. She’ll be on hand to answer any questions about degree content before you start and to help you throughout your studies.
Kate Smith
Kate is part of the School’s support team. She’ll be there throughout your studies to answer any of your non-academic queries.
Get in touch
Our online education team is here to answer any questions you have right now about this qualification, or about studying online.
Ask us a question
We are working in the spirit of true collaboration to explore the relation of Christian art and theology across time and space. Aberdeen has phenomenal resources in its high-profile academics, its inspiring students and its world-class collections.
Dr Karl Kinsella, Lecturer in Medieval Art History
Where this will take you
Towards further research
Your MLitt will give you robust research training, preparing you to undertake further research in Art History and/or Theology.
You could go on to carry out PhD research on campus or with distance supervision.
Many of our students also go on to have distinguished academic careers.
Careers
Your MLitt in Christianity and the Visual Arts can help you upskill or work towards employment in the arts, culture, faith and heritage sectors.
It provides valuable transferable skills of:
- visual analysis
- critical and ethical thinking
- debate and presentation.
It can also be part of professional development in parallel with vocational training.
Lifelong career support
Our careers support doesn’t stop when you graduate.
You have access to our free careers service while you study, and beyond.
We’re here with 1:1 appointments, CV checks, interview prep, and to connect you with job opportunities around the world.
Fees and funding
The fee quoted above is based on you starting your studies with us in the 2023/24 academic year.
Fees for future academic years are provisional. Our indicative cost assumes a 5% fee rise each year.
Pay as you go
Don’t worry, you do not have to pay the full degree fee upfront.
You can pay for your degree one term at a time. This gives you a flexible way to spread the cost.
Pay as you go allows you to spread payments over several terms.
When you pay
You make a payment before the start of each term.
How much you pay
You only pay for the credits you want to study in the upcoming term.
It’s up to you how many credits you take each term. This gives you control over your costs and your workload.
- Taking fewer credits will increase the length of your studies.
We break down the total cost of this qualification into cost per 30 credits.
Costs per 30 credits for this degree, starting in academic year 2023/24
- £1,600 in academic year 2023/24.
- £1,680 in academic year 2024/25 (provisional).
Tuition fees typically rise a little each academic year. The fees quoted for 2024/25 and 2025/26 are provisional and subject to change.
This is an example payment schedule for tuition fees. It’s based on the typical route through the degree studying part-time.
You can take more or fewer credits per term than is shown in this example.
Term 1) September – December 2023 | Academic year 2023/24
- Take one 30-credit course.
- Fee for term = £1,600.
- Payment due in September.
Term 2) January – April 2024
- Take one 30-credit course.
- Fee for term = £1,600.
- Payment due in January.
Term 3) May – August 2024
- Summer break. There is no teaching in the summer of your degree.
- No payment due.
Term 4) September – December 2024 | Academic year 2024/25
- Take one 30-credit course.
- Fee for term = £1,680 (provisional).
- Payment due in September.
Term 5) January – April 2025
- Take one 30-credit course.
- Fee for term = £1,680 (provisional).
- Payment due in January.
Term 6) May – August 2025
- Embark on your 60-credit dissertation.
- Fee for dissertation = £3,360 (provisional).
- Payment due in May.
MLitt complete
On passing your dissertation, you’ll have earned 180 credits and will be awarded an MLitt.
Total fee for this route to your MLitt = £9,920.
Note: Fees for academic year 2024/25 are provisional and subject to change.
Learning resources
Access to all the books and resources you need are included in your tuition fee. They’ll be made available to you online and you do not have to buy your own copies.
Printing
You may wish to set aside a small budget for printing, depending on how you like to work.
There are several ways you may be able to get help funding your studies:
- Employer sponsorship – we accept full and partial fee payments from sponsors
- Student loans
- Scholarships – search our funding database for scholarships
- Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA)
Find out more about funding options.
Student card
All our students are entitled to a University of Aberdeen student card. This gives you access to a range of student discounts around the city and online.
20% Alumni discount
You’re entitled to 20% off our postgraduate taught degrees and short courses if you have a degree from the University of Aberdeen. View Alumni discount details and eligibility criteria.
How discounts work
Discounts are applied during your application process. You can only use one discount per application.
Why study Christianity and the Visual Arts online with the University of Aberdeen?
Founded in 1495
Divinity has been taught at the University of Aberdeen for more than five centuries.
Top 40 in the world
We’re one of the top 40 universities in the world for Theology, Divinity and Religious Studies (QS World University Rankings 2021).
You’re in expert hands
We’ve been delivering online and distance learning for decades.
Entry requirements
MLitt
- A 2:1 (upper-second) honours degree or equivalent (normally a 3.0 GPA in North America).
We also welcome alternative qualifications combined with relevant professional experience. If you don’t have a formal degree qualification, please submit a supporting personal statement with your application.
These are our minimum entry requirements. They are given as a guide and do not guarantee entry.
Entry requirements
We welcome students from all over the world. You do not need a visa to study online with us.
See the minimum entry requirements above. If you do not have qualifications from the UK, check equivalent qualifications from your country.
English language requirements
Teaching is delivered in English.
We accept the following English language qualifications. These are the minimum scores required. You need to provide proof of your qualifications when you apply:
Duolingo English Test (taken from July 2019 onwards)
- 115 overall
- 90 in the sub-scores for literacy, conversation, comprehension and production
LanguageCert International ESOL B2 Communicator, Written and Spoken – Level 1
- 33 for listening, reading, speaking and writing
IELTS Academic and IELTS Online (not IELTS Indicator or IELTS General Training)
- 6.5 overall
- 5.5 for listening and speaking
- 6.0 for reading and writing
TOEFL iBT and TOEFL iBT Home Edition
- 90 overall
- 17 for listening
- 21 for reading
- 20 for speaking
- 21 for writing
- TOEFL DI code is 0818
PTE Academic – 62 overall
- 62 overall
- 59 for listening, reading, speaking and writing
Cambridge English: B2 First, C1 Advanced, C2 Proficiency
- 176 overall
- 162 for listening and speaking
- 169 for reading and writing
If you hold a degree from a UK university then evidence of proficiency in English may not be required.
For more information about language qualifications see our English Language Requirements page.
You apply through our online Applicant Portal. It allows you to upload relevant qualifications and documents.
Applying to the University of Aberdeen is always free.
What you need to apply for this degree
- Degree transcript
- Personal statement
- Degree certificate
Apply now
Start with our step-by-step guide. It explains degree transcripts, what to write in your personal statement and how to use our Applicant Portal.
Apply as early as you can. This is so we have time to review your application and get a decision to you. We also want to ensure you have time to enrol before teaching starts.
September 2023 intake
Teaching starts on 18 September 2023.
Application deadlines will be announced in due course.
You will need access to:
A computer (PC, laptop or Mac) operating on either:
- Windows 10 or later
- macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or later.
Most teaching materials are smartphone- and tablet-friendly. But we recommend a proper laptop or desktop for completing assignments comfortably.
Reliable internet access
We recommend:
- a wired connection
- a minimum download speed of 2 Mbps so you can take part fully in live sessions.
Speakers or headphones
- We recommend a headset with built-in microphone and earphones if you’re likely to study in an environment with background noise.
- A webcam is optional, but you may like to use one from some interactive sessions.
Software
We’ll give you access to Office365 applications. This means you can use online versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and install these programs on up to five personal devices.
If your course requires specialist software, we’ll provide you with access to this and a licence that lasts throughout your studies.
See our detailed IT requirements for more information.
Master of Letters
180 credits
£9,920
This indicative cost is based on 180 credits of study over two years, starting in September 2023.
Apply for this programme
- Start month
- September
- INDICATIVE COST
- £9,920
This indicative cost is based on 180 credits of study over two years, starting in September 2023.
Apply via our Applicant Portal
