Obtaining a doctoral degree is some of the hardest and most engaging intellectual and personal work it is possible to do! The process is challenging, sometimes lengthy, and often solitary. It requires immense discipline and focus, coupled with a wide-eyed curiosity about all the dimensions of one's chosen field, and a willingness to take intellectual risks and break new ground in one's thinking. It provides the most effective way to formulate and address the burning questions that arise from the practice of ministry, to think about them in a rigorous and disciplined way in a community of academic mentors and peers, and to prepare to take one's place as a practitioner of practical theology, as a teacher and researcher contributing to scholarship in the field.

Updated: July 2, 2008
Maintained: Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry
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