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Does the M.Div. Have a Future?

What do changes in seminary education mean for the classic pastoral degree?

PARSE has been talking about the changing nature of theological education for a long time. Today, Jim Miller zooms in on the state of the benchmark M.Div. degree.

-Paul

Long the gold standard of seminary education, the Masters of Divinity degree is a requirement for ordination in many denominations. It requires students to make a serious commitment—usually three years, long study hours, and thousands of tuition dollars. They immerse themselves in biblical Hebrew and Koine Greek—some eagerly, some begrudgingly. The result has been a trusted and standardized course of theological study.

But things are changing.

Four significant influences have shifted students, and consequently schools, away from the M.Div. and into alternative learning tracks. The rise of non-denominational churches that no longer require seminary education, significant financial debt incurred by students who are headed into a profession that will not necessarily empower them to pay it off, the rising possibility ...

March
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