Ph.D. Comprehensive Examinations
Four comprehensive examinations must
be taken before work on the thesis begins. These examinations are taken in four
successive weeks. The student is allowed one eight-hour day for
each examination.
The following must be taken in order:
History
- History of a doctrine
Three selected periods or topics
Historiography
Thesis areas
Systematic Theology
- History of a doctrine
- Three selected theologians
- Ethics, or the philosophy of
religion, or the history of religion
- Thesis area
Pastoral Care and Counseling
- History of pastoral care and
counseling
- Theology of pastoral care and
counseling
- Specific specialization
- Thesis area
Congregational Mission and Leadership
- Missional Ecclesiology
- Theology and theory of three areas: Gospel and culture;
Congregational mission; and Congregational Leadership
- A selected country as mission location
- Thesis area
The foregoing outlines for comprehensive
examinations are models that may be shaped to fit the research
interests and needs of students with particular specializations.
Progress toward the
comprehensive examinations begins with the identification of an
area of interest for the thesis and the appointment of a thesis
adviser.
The associate dean, at
the written request of the student and with the written permission
of the faculty member nominated, appoints the adviser.
The student, in
consultation with the thesis adviser, prepares a comprehensive
examination proposal which includes:
- Specific topics for examinations
in accord with the requirements of each area of study
- Bibliographies for each
examination
- Dates proposed for each
examination
- Nominations of two or more members of the faculty
who agree to serve, along with the thesis adviser, as readers of the
comprehensive examinations.
Having secured approval of the thesis adviser and
readers on the appropriate form available from the Office of
Graduate Theological Education, the student submits the
comprehensive examination proposal to the chair of the thesis
adviser's division for approval of the division.
After securing approval by the
division, and the signature of the division chair, the student
submits both a hard copy and an electronic copy of the
comprehensive examination proposal to the Office of Graduate
Theological Education for approval by the Graduate
Committee.
Administered by the Office of Graduate
Theological Education, comprehensive examinations are normally
completed on a word processor provided, and in a location determined, by
the seminary. Those who complete the examinations in longhand will
submit word–processed copies of the examination as originally
completed.
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