Master of Divinity

Students in the Master of Divinity (MDiv) program learn to work at the intersections of the academic study of religion and the practices of religious communities, the past and the present, classroom study and field study, and the convictions and practices of various religious traditions.

The primary educational goals of the MDiv degree are as follows:

  • Develop ministry as a practice that emerges out of a rich intellectual life brought to bear upon the needs and hopes of the world and which integrates diverse academic, spiritual, and social-cultural resources.
  • Accurately and judiciously engage the sacred texts and the histories, theologies, and practices of the students’ tradition(s), as well as multireligious and multicultural contexts in which they practice their ministries.
  • Demonstrate the capacity and tools to analytically address and critically confront issues of social justice and structured forms of violence in our society.
  • Demonstrate the capacity to lead and cultivate communities in ways that build deep spiritual, intellectual, and ethical bonds.
  • Demonstrate the capacity to practice ministry in ways that are attuned to and cultivate surprising, unexpected, and creative ingenuity.

Requirements for the Degree

Conferral of the MDiv degree is dependent upon the satisfactory completion of the following requirements: 

  1. Course Requirements
  2. Arts of Ministry Requirements
  3. Supervised Field Education Requirements
  4. Second-Year Review
  5. Financial Requirements

Course Requirements

MDiv students must satisfactorily complete the equivalent of three years of full-time study (24 courses) within four years from the initial date of registration for the degree (including leaves of absence) according to the following stipulations:

  • No less than one-half (12) of the total number of required courses must be taken for a letter grade.
  • No courses with grades below C- may be counted toward the degree.
  • An overall grade average of B must be maintained. Using the scale detailed in the section titled “Grading System,”, the Registrar’s Office will calculate the student’s average at the end of each semester and when grades for Incompletes or ABS courses are received. Each incomplete grade (temporary or permanent) must be offset by two A’s (irrespective of the minus). Failure to maintain the B average will trigger an automatic review of academic progress.
  • A minimum of 12 of the courses completed must be selected from those offered by the Divinity School. Of these, at least half must be taken for a letter grade.
  • One-half of the total number of courses attempted each semester must be chosen from those offered by the Divinity School.
  • No more than one polity course may be counted toward the 24-course minimum requirements for the degree.

The Summer Language Program (SLP) may be taken once during the program, either the summer immediately prior to matriculation or the summer between the first and second years, or second and third years, or their equivalent for part-time students. Due to the demands of both field education and the SLP, students are not permitted to enroll in field education during the same summer they enroll in the SLP.

Additionally, students are not permitted to audit a class in the SLP while registered for field education. Students who wish to enroll in the SLP a second time may not count the coursework toward their program and must pay an additional tuition charge.

The normal course load is four courses (16 credits) per term, two courses (8 credits) for students in part-time status. For full-time students, the maximum course load is five courses (20 credits). Provided that a student is on pace to complete their degree within the permitted time and has the permission of their advisor, a student may register for as few as three courses (12 credits) per term.

Full-time students who need to register for a seventh or greater term (or the equivalent additional term for students with advanced standing) to complete degree requirements may register for as few courses as needed in these terms.

Additional Course Requirements

Course-load Residency Requirement

A residence of at least one year spent in the equivalent of full-time status at the full tuition rate is required. This requirement must be fulfilled within the first three terms of a student’s program. Although meeting the residency requires completion of a minimum of three courses within your first three semesters, the expectation is that all full-time students will be enrolled in four courses or 16 credits to remain on track for meeting degree program requirements. Exception to this requirement is allowed only when a student is initially admitted to the degree program in part-time status, or, after matriculation when, based on extraordinary circumstances, the MDiv Committee or its delegate places a student on part-time status and overtly sets aside the residency requirement.

Students who, due to extraordinary circumstances, would like to petition to be a part-time student should see the section titled “Part-Time Study” for details. For students granted part-time status, the residency requirement is automatically waived and the maximum period for completion for the MDiv is five years.

Introductory Courses Requirement

MDiv students must successfully complete HDS 4510 Introduction to Ministry Studies and HDS 4515 Introduction to Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion in their first year. These courses must be taken for a letter grade. Students who do not successfully complete these courses in their first year may be reviewed for satisfactory academic progress.

Distribution Requirements

All students in the MDiv program are required to take a minimum of 12 courses in scriptural interpretation and histories, theologies, and practices to meet their distribution requirement. Of these 12 courses:

  • A minimum of three courses, and up to six courses, must be in theories and practices of scriptural interpretation.
  • A minimum of six courses, and up to nine courses, must be in histories, theologies, and practices. Courses listed in the “Introductory Courses Requirements” will not satisfy this requirement. Courses in history, theology, ethics, religion and society, and arts of ministry will satisfy this requirement, and students are expected to pursue coursework in as many of these areas as possible.
  • No more than a total of nine courses may be (a) courses in the same religious tradition, or (b) courses listed in no religious tradition(s).
  • A minimum of six courses must address one or more religious tradition; of those six, only three may be in the same tradition.
  • A minimum of six courses must be taken at HDS.
  • No more than three courses may be taken outside of Harvard University.
  • No more than three courses may be principally in the practice of an art of ministry.
Language Requirement

MDiv students may meet the language requirement in one of two ways: (1) by completing the MTS language competency requirement, or, (2) by satisfactorily completing three semesters of study in one language relevant to their program through coursework at Harvard. Language courses at the third-term level or higher may count toward scriptural interpretation or histories, theologies, and practices distribution requirements, if the reading content of the course meets the standard for the distribution category.

The study of foreign languages is an indispensable part of education for ministry. Many students take this opportunity to learn a scriptural language and to work with the sacred texts of their tradition in the original language, while others choose to study a modern language. The Summer Language Program may be used only once toward this requirement.

Theological Reflection Requirement

Students must take and successfully complete HDS 2933 A&B, Meaning Making: Thinking Theologically about the Practice of Ministry, for a letter grade or SAT/UNSAT, concurrently with their first academic year field education placement.

Senior Seminar and Paper Requirement

The MDiv Senior Seminar (HDS 4591 A&B) is a two-semester course for which students receive eight credits. Students will receive a preliminary letter grade at the end of the first semester; at the end of the second semester the preliminary grade will be changed to correspond to the final grade. Students may petition, prior to the beginning of the first semester and with the approval of the faculty advisor, to complete the course and submit the paper in a single semester for four credits.

Completed MDiv Senior Seminar papers are submitted to the HDS Library via the electronic DASH deposit system. Instructors will provide a link to the DASH deposit form and instructions for deposit to DASH. Questions regarding the instructions and the DASH deposit form may be directed to HDS librarians.

Arts of Ministry Requirement

HDS provides coursework and field placements leading to competence in eight Arts of Ministry: Preaching and Worship; Pastoral Care and Counseling; Religious Education and Spiritual Development; Administration and Program Development; Public Leadership, Community Organizing, and Planning; Peacebuilding and Just Conflict Resolution; Racial Justice and Healing; and Denominational Polity. MDiv students must demonstrate proficiency in at least three of the eight Arts of Ministry through a combination of coursework and field education. 

Arts of Ministry descriptions:

  • Preaching and Worship: The ability to prepare and deliver effective sermons, and to plan and lead various forms of worship. One can choose to separate preaching and worship, selecting one or the other as the focus of basic competence, or one can combine the two, as might those students from denominations and traditions in which they are seen as closely integrated. Those who select preaching or worship as a separate area of competence must choose two other areas from within the remaining seven (that is, a student may not choose preaching, worship, and one other as the three areas).
  • Pastoral Care and Counseling: The ability to provide counsel with attention to the spiritual dimensions, faith issues, and social contexts of people’s lives.
  • Religious Education and Spiritual Development: The ability to recognize the importance of nurturing religious faith and knowledge in all aspects of ministry, and to design and lead learning programs for the development of personal and community faith and life.
  • Administration and Program Development: The ability to direct a variety of aspects of institutional ministry (policy, planning, staff, plant, financial concerns, etc.), and to develop and implement programs related to the stated goals of an institution or community of faith.
  • Public Leadership, Community Organizing, and Planning: The ability to relate a significant social policy issue (at local, community, national, or international levels) to one’s ministry, to provide leadership in planning and analysis in the public sphere regarding that issue, and to engage the resources of a community of faith in addressing that issue. Work in this area focuses on and allows examination of contemporary social systems, institutions, and problems, strengthening the minister’s ability to connect religious symbols and meaning with the dynamics of contemporary public life.
  • Peacebuilding and Just Conflict Resolution: The ability to address critically and constructively the practices of peace and just conflict resolution (at local, community, national, or international levels) and to relate them to one’s ministry, to provide leadership, and to engage the resources of a community of faith in addressing peacebuilding and just conflict resolution. Work in these areas focuses on and allows examination of contemporary social systems, institutions, and problems, and strengthens the minister’s ability to connect religious symbols and meaning with the dynamics of war and conflict.
  • Racial Justice and Healing: The ability to investigate and cultivate strategies to address racism, with attention to its intersection with Islamophobia, Queerphobia, anti-Semitism, and other oppressive ideologies. This art of ministry involves locating, analyzing, and responding to specific instances and larger patterns of injustice within institutions, communities, and interpersonal relations. It trains students to work through ministry, including activism and advocacy, at local, national, and international levels, and to provide guidance, support, and leadership in communication, resource identification, and coalition-building. Work in this area strengthens the student’s ability to critically examine social, political, and economic systems that have produced and sustained injustice, as well as to implement the mechanisms of change and healing.
  • Denominational Polity: The ability to appropriate and interpret critically the history, theology, and polity of a denominational tradition, to relate these to significant contemporary issues raised within or outside the denomination or tradition, and to participate in shaping the changing experience of a religious community.

In each of the three Arts selected, satisfactory completion of one course focusing directly on the area of competence, combined with evidence of basic competence attested to in the field education evaluation, will normally serve to fulfill the degree requirement. Courses ordinarily used to meet the Arts of Ministry requirement are so noted in the course description.

In order to receive Arts of Ministry credit in a course, students must formally register for the Art in their Crimson Cart at the beginning of the semester and then complete the Arts of Ministry components of the course to the satisfaction of the instructor. Instructors and students should agree at the beginning of the term what the student must do in order to meet the Arts of Ministry requirement. In some courses, e.g., Pastoral Care and Counseling, students may complete the Art of Ministry simply by successfully completing the course. In other courses, instructors may require students to do an extra project or to critically engage with an existing course requirement so that it substantively addresses the Art of Ministry. In order to receive Arts of Ministry credit for a course for which the Art of Ministry is not noted in the course description, the student and the faculty member must, in addition, complete the Art of Ministry Special Faculty Agreement form and return it to the Registrar’s Office.

In order to receive Arts of Ministry credit for a cross-registered course in the BTI or another Harvard School (except in the case where the Art of Ministry is evident, e.g., a course titled “Pastoral Care and Counseling”), the student must submit a one-page statement to the Office of Ministry Studies that describes the ways in which the student understands themselves to have met the Arts of Ministry requirements in the course. A single course may not serve to fulfill more than one Art of Ministry.

A single field education placement may serve to fulfill one or more Arts of Ministry. In order to receive Arts of Ministry credit in any field education placement, the student must formally declare that Art on the Field Education Learning Agreement at the beginning of the placement and complete that Art of Ministry component of the experience to the satisfaction of the field education supervisor, who will indicate successful completion of the Art on the Final Evaluation form.

In order to meet Arts of Ministry requirements and develop satisfactory vocational preparation, students should work closely with their academic advisors and the Office of Ministry Studies faculty to coordinate their field education placements and their courses.

Supervised Field Education Requirements

Every MDiv student is required to complete two units of supervised field education. Specific requirements and a complete list of placements are described in the Field Education Handbook and online.  One unit of field education, requiring 12-15 hours of work per week, must be completed concurrently with academic work during the year. Students earn the second unit of field education credit through a full-time summer internship or a second year-long placement. Due to the demands of each program, students are not permitted to enroll in field education during the same summer they enroll in the Summer Language Program. Additionally, students are not permitted to audit a class in the Summer Language Program while enrolled in field education.

The fundamental purpose of the field education program is to provide experience and to develop the Arts of Ministry through supervision in actual situations of ministry. Students reflect upon these ministerial experiences theologically and integrate them with their coursework. The Office of Ministry Studies assists students in selecting an appropriate field education placement from the approximately 100 settings available. These placements cover a broad range of ministries in settings including congregations, clinical and counseling sites, social action agencies, and institutions of secondary and higher education. Additional placement opportunities are available through the BTI. Further information about field education sites is available online from the Office of Ministry Studies.

Concurrently with their first placement during the academic year, all students take HDS 2933 A and B Meaning Making - Thinking Theologically about Ministry Experience, in which seasoned local ministers lead small groups of students in theological reflection. In addition, students in field education are supervised by their site supervisor and by faculty in the Office of Ministry Studies. Students must register for and complete HDS 4516 Field Education in order to receive course credit for their field education requirement.

Second-year Review Requirement

During the second semester of their second year, MDiv students are required to submit a brief review of their progress to their advisors. MDiv progress review forms are distributed by the Registrar’s Office. This review details the ways in which the student is fulfilling the aims and degree requirements of the program. The advisor and student meet prior to the end of the semester to discuss the review form. The advisor makes specific recommendations regarding any deficiencies that need to be completed. MDiv students will not be able to enroll for the fall semester of their senior year until their review has been filled out completely, signed by their advisor, and the signed form is turned into the Registrar’s Office. The registrar or the student’s advisor may refer any questions about requirements or concerns regarding the student’s progress to the MDiv Curriculum Committee.

Financial Requirements

MDiv students must pay three years of full tuition. Students who must enroll for a seventh term in order to complete requirements must pay for these courses on a per-course basis. Students who have been approved to be part-time will pay tuition on a per-course basis throughout their programs and for no fewer than 24 courses (96 credits).

Advanced Standing

The MDiv program is the only program at the Divinity School in which credit may be granted for academic work completed prior to enrollment at HDS. MDiv candidates may be eligible to receive advanced standing for up to eight courses taken outside HDS while enrolled in an MDiv program at another institution. See Prior Coursework and Advanced Standing for more information.