Stringfellow

Iliff is indeed worth checking out, and Yale is great, and so is the Graduate Theological Union.

If you're interested in Durham, or even if not, be sure to check out the Dunelm Road blog. It's a multi-person blog written by several American students who have studied or are studying at Durham, and includes a lot of invaluable information about the U.K. academic culture, funding, the difficulties of moving overseas, and anything else you might expect in such a resource. Even if Durham does not wind up being your school of choice, it can be a good resource to orient you toward study in the U.K. There are good blogs from other American students at other institutions, as well. From what I understand, the key to finding a landing place in the U.K. is to be in touch with a professor. Identify people whose work you know well, and whose interests match yours, and e-mail them with a proposal for a dissertation. When you find someone who's interested in supervising you, apply to the school. My impression is that U.K. institutions are eager for students at the doctoral level, especially since they do not have a great deal of institutional financial aid, and your presence at the school (whether you pay for it yourself, which is most likely, or earn a grant or fellowship from some outside source) will bring money into the institution. That said, I know of many people who have had great experiences in U.K. schools and wonderful mentoring from the professors there. It's an appropriate option for people who feel they have had enough coursework and are ready to begin a dissertation right away. If you're not that sure of yourself, or if you would prefer a better guarantee of financial aid, the U.S. or Canada have more to offer. The Toronto School of Theology might be worth looking into, for your interests, as well as Boston University.

Jon, since you asked specifically about seminary settings, I presume you are intending to pursue or at least wanting to keep your options open for a career in ministry? When I asked one of my undergraduate professors who had earned his Ph.D. at Chicago whether it was a good school to attend to prepare for ministry, he said it was not and that I would do better to go to seminary at a denominational institution. Harvard has the same reputation. Both are seen as schools that approach religious studies more from the perspective of examining religions from the outside rather than living them from the inside. However, I think at Yale, Vanderbilt, or Candler--to name a few other places I have some experience with--you would find a lot of faithful people (among both students and faculty) struggling with the same questions you might be asking and working to come to terms with academic challenges. I'm a generally liberal person, but there are some progressive views I can't accept. Still, outside of an institution that is very focused on a religious studies approach to the field, I think a fair number of schools can be comfortable places for people of most ideological persuasions--provided they are open to asking and answering questions about their faith.

This is outside my discipline, but I have not encountered a graduate school that would look down on someone for taking more than four years to complete an undergraduate degree, especially since they can look at your transcript and see that you weren't failing out of classes or withdrawing in the middle of a semester or... any of the red flag things that might indicate a lack of commitment or seriousness. A lot of students go outside the traditional time frame for a lot of good reasons, and I think graduate admissions folks tend to understand that. That said, OregonGal is quite right to note that programs in public policy prefer students with relevant paid experience. Internships are nice. But it would be even better, both in terms of admissions and in terms of education more broadly conceived, to enter the professional world after you graduate and gain some job experience.

Well, you've probably given up on receiving any responses to your query, and I'm not sure if mine will be particularly helpful, but here goes: as an incoming YDS student studying theological ethics, I've spent a lot of time with the work of Willis Jenkins, who I'm guessing is the primary bridge between the religion and ecology arms of this particular degree program, and I can say that his research interests are oriented more toward encouraging environmental activism among religious communities than exploring the history of their ideas and perceptions. Also, it's my impression that the Religion and Ecology degree will include a decent dose of the science and practice of ecology and conservation, which may not be up your alley. My hunch, given your Ph.D. ambitions, is that it would be best for you to get a degree with the word 'history' somewhere in it, and then to specialize within the broader discipline of history. That would give you more flexibility and more options (just as students of 'ethics' tend to have more flexibility and options than students of 'practical theology'). Steve