MAL Degree Learning Outcomes

A graduate of United’s Master of Arts in Leadership degree program will be able to:

• interpret a selected passage from a selected religious text from multiple historical and contemporary perspectives and using one or more critical methods, demonstrating understanding of the influence of their own situatedness on that interpretation;
• critically interpret, analyze and reflect on a selected theological text or perspective in its historical context as well as through the lens of modern questions and challenges;
• apply to their vocational context or academic study an appropriate critical analysis of and reflection on a selected moral dilemma from a variety of Christian OR interreligious ethical perspectives;
• critically analyze and reflect on the religious history and theological perspectives of a selected population historically marginalized by the dominant voices of their religious traditions;
• evaluate one’s spiritual development in light of one’s own “sources of the self” and religious horizons;
• identify, transform, and/or create specific sources of spiritual power that resist human degradation and enhance human life;
• critically analyze and reflect on the global expressions of religions in relation to their own faith tradition;
• articulate an informed understanding of the historical use of the arts as a means of theological or religious expression and reflection OR an informed understanding of the complex relationships among art, culture and religion;
• analyze a historical or contemporary artistic or cultural work for the ways it expresses spiritual and religious ideas;
• interpret cultural and vocational contexts and identify strategic points of leadership for social transformation;
• develop an effective plan for a social transformation initiative that includes a needs assessment, strategies and plans that address those needs, a communications plan, and a plan for acquiring needed resources;
• add to the body of knowledge and practice in a chosen specialized vocational setting through the thoughtful synthesis of knowledge and skills in religious texts, theology, ethics, formation, contextualization, the arts, social transformation, and/or vocational practice; and
• demonstrate effective academic theological research and writing skills.