Theta Alpha Kappa, established in 1976, is an American honor society for religious studies and theology. Courtesy | Wikipedia

The Theta Alpha Kappa theology honorary returned to campus this spring, following an absence of a year. 

Junior Aidan Christian said Henry Brunton ’24 introduced him to the theology honorary on the last day of the 2024 spring semester, and now Christian is leading the honorary’s comeback.

“I had never heard of it existing before,” Christian said. “Henry told me on the very last day of his being on campus.”

To join the honorary, national requirements are a 3.5 minimum GPA and at least 12 credit hours in theology. Christian said the high standards for entry into the honorary coupled with few freshmen hearing about the group hindered the growth of the honorary. Now it has 10 new members. 

Despite those requirements, Christian said he thinks a lot is possible through the honorary.

“A theology honorary being active on campus would enrich a lot of what we study,” Christian said, adding that the honorary plans to invite speakers, hold essay competitions, and host on-campus conferences. 

Despite students’ passion for education at Hillsdale, they are often too busy to travel to conferences, Christian said. The honorary would curtail the problem by having a conference at Hillsdale.

 “Hillsdale College students are very busy,” Christian said. “We get invited to conferences a lot but it’s hard to have time to get off campus and go somewhere else for a whole weekend.”

Christian said he sees many ways the various campus honoraries could converse with each other, and junior Autumn Visser, vice president of Theta Alpha Kappa, agrees. 

“We — theology majors specifically, but Hillsdale students too — love to look at all things ultimately through the lens of theology and how God has created our world, but theology can only go so far without the input of the other disciplines,” said Visser. 

Assistant Professor of Theology and the honorary faculty adviser Don Westblade said the honorary exists to create students who are self-aware of their own humanity. 

“We’re not vocational so much as we are answering those great questions of the liberal arts,” Westblade said. “Who am I as a person? What does it mean to be human? All those larger questions that you want to answer for yourself before you go off and become a doctor, lawyer, merchant.”

Westblade said he tries not to be too directive with overseeing the honorary.

“There’s some years when the students have just wanted their scarlet cord, and I leave them alone, but it’s obviously more interesting if they decide to make something out of it,” Westblade said. 

If students are not proactive with opportunities like this, they often lose them, Christian said.

“The honorary might just not have been doing much for a while,” Christian said. “I think if you never really do anything, then people don’t know to join.” 

Westblade said the religion department is for students who want to find the runway in life and are drawn toward theological texts to lead them there. The theology honorary provides even more opportunities for students to share and discuss what they’ve learned, according to Westblade.

“If you get a guy like Aidan who wants to make stuff happen, things happen,” Westblade said. “Kudos to him.”