Master of Divinity
From Free net encyclopedia
Master of Divinity (M.Div.) is the first professional degree in Divinity in North America, and is a common academic degree in theological seminaries.
It generally includes studies in Christian ministry and theology, It is considered by many Christian denominations to be the minimum academic requirement for ordination. It usually includes studies in New Testament Greek, theology, philosophy, church history, pastoral theology, and Old and New Testament studies. Many programs also contain courses in church growth, ecclesiology, evangelism, systematic theology, Christian education, liturgical studies, Latin, Hebrew, canon law, patristics, and the like.
The Master of Divinity has replaced the Bachelor of Divinity in most United States seminaries as the first professional degree, since the latter title implies in the American academic system that it is on a par with a Bachelor of Arts or other basic undergraduate education. The M.Div. is a significantly more extensive program than most master's degrees, as it usually consists of ninety or more semester hours, as opposed to the usual thirty-six or forty-eight.
The M.Div. stands in contrast to the M.A. in Theology, the usual academic degree in the subject (which tends not to include "pastoral" or "practical" courses), and the Bachelor of Sacred Theology (S.T.B.) and Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) (for Catholics) and master of Theology M.Th. and Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.) (for many others), which tend to be academic rather than pastoral degrees as well.
The doctoral degree associated with the M.Div. is the Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.), as the Th.D., Ph.D., and S.T.D. all tend to be academic rather than ministerial degrees. In recent years, however, it is not at all unusual for the holder of the M.Div. to go on, earning either the Ph.D. or Th.D. as well as the D.Min. The Doctor of Divinity (D.D.) is normally only awarded as an honorary degree in the United States; in the United Kingdom it is the highest degree at most universities, normally awarded for a significant body of published work of high quality.