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Our Programs

Our Programs

The General Theological Seminary is committed to educating and forming leaders for the church in a changing world-- ordained or lay, men and women, from all Christian traditions.

Our programs offer academic excellence as well as the opportunity to foster in each and every student a relationship with God that will be transformative and empowering as they seek to do God's work in the world.

Whatever your educational goals-degree study or auditing a course part-time, a Quiet Day or occasional lecture, we welcome you on the Close and look forward to your presence in our community.

Overview of Programs

First Theological Degrees

  •    Master of Divinity (M.Div.)
  •    Master of Arts (M.A.)
  •    Master of Arts (M.A.) with a concentration in Christian Spirituality

The General Theological Seminary offers the above first professional theological degrees, which prepare candidates for lay and ordained ministries.

Advanced Degrees

  •    Doctor of Theology in Anglican Studies (Th.D.)
  •    Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.)
  •    Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.) with a concentration in Christian Spirituality

In addition to its basic M.Div. and M.A. programs, General offers three degree programs designed to enable those who already hold a first degree in theology to pursue advanced, specialized study in theological fields of their choice. These are the programs leading to the degrees of Master of Sacred Theology and Master of Sacred Theology in Christian Spirituality (S.T.M.) and to the degree of Doctor of Theology (Th.D.). These programs are deliberately kept small and select to ensure that graduate students will receive individual attention in the designing and carrying out of their courses of study, and to allow greater direct contact and association between them and the faculty members with whom they work.

The general aim of these programs is to contribute to the education and formation of competent intellectual leaders in all sectors of the Church’s life: the Episcopal Church, the ecumenical community, and the wider Anglican Communion. Our programs are not restricted to communicants or clergy of the Episcopal Church. Normally it is expected that applicants for advanced degree programs will have been engaged in ministry for a year after completion of their first degree in theology.

Other Study
For those who wish to study outside the structure of a formal degree program, the following options are available.

  •    Certificate Programs
  •    Diploma in Anglican Studies
  •    Full-Time Non-Degree
  •    Part-Time Non-Degree
  •    Sabbatical Study

Common Objectives

The Rationale of The Foundation Curriculum

The faculty of The General Theological Seminary has adopted the following statement as an expression of our common objectives:
 
As members of the Body of Christ, we seek to be and to become a community for whom an ongoing and deepening conversion to new life in Christ is a constant goal. We seek to be those who can invite and call others to that life of conversion by our own understanding of the Christian faith--biblical, historical, and theological--and our ability to reflect on that faith, by the forming of a liturgical and spiritual life which is integrated into the whole of our being, by the development of educational and hermeneutical skills, by development of the sensitivity and the skills needed to minister pastorally in both routine and crisis situations, by our commitment to social justice, and by an understanding of our involvement in an urban and global world where uncertainty and ambiguity will be the context for our mission.

The academic programs and course offerings which follow are the Seminary’s attempt to realize these objectives. The attempt is made with specific recognition of three beliefs.

  1. The faith which we seek to study and practice is rooted in the Scriptures. Most programs require some basic familiarity with biblical materials, and all of them encourage it. In addition to critical study of the texts themselves, opportunities are offered for topical study of the Scriptures organized around such themes as prayer and community life.
  2. The Seminary’s attempt to realize its common objectives recognizes that one cannot understand the place of the Church in the present without understanding something of its ongoing tradition. Beyond the historical foundation which the basic courses in church history provide are offerings in the various theological disciplines.
  3. The Seminary recognizes that the faith which it seeks to understand is an engaged faith, a faith which must integrate through reason its intellectual disciplines with practical experience in the world to which it seeks to minister. Practical courses in field placement, homiletics, crisis intervention, pastoral counseling, Christian education, and leadership ministry--among others--as well as the Seminary’s commitment to exist as a dynamic Christian community mark a conviction that the Christian faith must be as much lived as studied.

9/19/06







 
NEWSROOM LIBRARY DESMOND TUTU CENTER MEDIA CHILDREN’S GARDEN