波士顿大学

Curriculum Requirements

The Master of Divinity at Boston University School of Theology (STH) is shaped by a conviction that prophetic, practical religious leaders, thoroughly grounded in the wisdom of their traditions, are essential in the work of ongoing transformation of the church and the world. The curriculum seeks to educate religious leaders who can interpret complex and evolving local and global contexts and who can engage those contexts in creative and confident conversation with a full array of theological resources.

Core

The curriculum is built on a sequence of first-year courses that begin the process of exploring the knowledge, skills, and practices of religious leadership. In the first year, students engage in interdisciplinary reflection on the contexts, theologies, and historical experiences of Christian communities through a yearlong sequence that begins with Introduction to Christian Traditions and ends with Christianity Engaging Modernity. Employing theological, historical, and other contextual lenses, students explore leadership for the twenty-first century in a variety of contexts within those two courses. In the semester-long Practicing Faith, students investigate the spiritual and ethical practices of Christian communities across time and throughout the world and begin to develop a vision of their vocation as leaders in religious communities and in the world. Students in their first year also participate in the First-Year Formation seminar and Spiritual Companioning Groups (required in the first semester and optional in the second) that establish a framework for personal and spiritual formation that is integrated throughout the MDiv program.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the semester, students participating in a Spiritual Companioning Group will:

Gain an introductory understanding of and appreciation for several of the diverse spiritual practices in their own and other religious traditions.

Incorporate one or more key practices into their own lives as a way of sustaining the rhythms, balance, and integration that is intrinsic to their scholarship and vocation.

Demonstrate a deepening in their approaches both to spiritual dwelling and questing, especially as these bear on the MDiv degree outcomes of “growth in personal faith, emotional maturity, moral integrity, and public witness.”

Cultivate skills in active listening, empathy, accountability, and community building, all of which are essential to “companioning” and to various “pastoral” dimensions that are intrinsic to all forms of religious leadership.

Electives

Free Electives

All students in the MDiv program may choose up to 15 credits (five courses) of the required 74 credits as free electives. Any student seeking to satisfy denominational polity, history, or doctrine requirements must take those courses as free electives.

Track Electives

Recognizing that religious leadership will take place in a variety of vocational arenas, the remainder of the curriculum is then shaped around seven distinct tracks: Pastoral Ministry; Global and Community Engagement; Chaplaincy; Theology and the Arts; Theology and Social Work Dual Degree; Interfaith Leadership; and Religion and the Academy. Each track is made up of nine courses selected by the student with careful advising from their academic advisor. These include two additional courses in the study of scripture, one track-specific elective, and two courses from each of three course clusters: (1) Texts and Traditions, (2) Engaging Contemporary Contexts, and (3) Theories and Practices of Leadership.