Purpose

The 82 semester-hour Master of Divinity program is the basic graduate professional degree program in the seminary and is designed to provide the foundational academic preparation for an educated ministry. The focus of the MDiv program is on pastoral ministry, but the curriculum is organized to provide ample opportunities for students to explore and develop interests and competences in other forms of service, including more specialized ministerial vocations in Christian education, college and seminary teaching, campus ministry, institutional chaplaincy, care and counseling, administration of church-related and non-profit agencies, music ministries, social work, and global mission. 

Program Goals

Upon completing the M.Div. Program, students will be able to:

• act as a responsible, critical thinker and biblical interpreter informed by current historical, literary, and theological scholarship in the field of biblical studies; 

• articulate an understanding of individuals, groups, and cultures that is informed by contemporary cross-disciplinary conversations between theologians and scholars in the arts and sciences;

• construct a guiding theology for ministerial practice that takes into account a liberative hermeneutic and is responsive to key themes in Christian theology, biblical exegesis, Christian history, and each student’s own denominational heritage and polity;

• preach, teach, plan and preside in public worship, offer care and counsel, and lead faith communities and church-related institutions in ways that integrate contemporary biblical, historical, and theological scholarship;

• demonstrate an understanding of the spiritual life, individual and corporate, that integrates biblical studies, history of Christianity, Christian theology and the practice of spiritual disciplines.

For more information on the M.Div. Program, please go to the PTS Catalog.