LOUISVILLE, Ky. (SBTS) — Four professors at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary are leading a new degree program that will allow students to continue to study beyond the M.Div. level in a modular format. The modular Master of Theology in Theological Studies will permit distance students to complete all the requirements for a Th.M. in 30 months with only five week-long visits to campus.
The program’s faculty will provide an interdisciplinary curriculum, with each professor teaching core seminars in their areas of expertise: Jonathan T. Pennington in New Testament, Peter J. Gentry in Old Testament, Michael A.G. Haykin in church history, and Gregg R. Allison in systematic theology. The modular student will also complete a thesis in their chosen area of study during the course of their degree program.
“I asked myself, ‘If I could do theological education however I wanted, what would I build?’ The answer is this program,” said Pennington, director of research doctoral studies. “This degree combines seminar-based coursework with the writing of an original research-based thesis. It is interdisciplinary at its core, with each of the seminars designed so that students are thinking outside of one area of study and the professors are interacting with each other. We are also focusing on creative and thoughtful pedagogy. Finally, it is modular, enabling today’s student to complete a degree while still in ministry or other employment.”
Students will begin research and writing for the thesis in the first semester and meet with their advisor in person for feedback on their progress during each visit. Applicants must have earned a Master of Divinity from an accredited institution and maintained a GPA of at least 3.3.
The deadline to apply is March 15 and the first cohort begins in July. More information is available online here.