Master of Divinity in Bahá’í Pastoral Care

The Master of Divinity in Bahá’í Pastoral Care Degree program develops your competency in interreligious and intercultural spiritual care in preparation for Bahá’í endorsement in pastoral care vocations including chaplaincy. You’ll learn to serve as an effective and compassionate minister, working with people from diverse faith backgrounds and walks of life.

This program may be a good fit for you if you plan to pursue a career in pastoral care with a Bahá’í Studies focus in any of a number of contexts, including:

• the military
• hospitals and other healthcare settings
• prisons
• schools
• first responder units
• corporate settings

You also may pursue a career providing pastoral and spiritual care within the Bahá’í community.

Concentration Learning Outcomes

In addition to achieving the core MDiv degree learning outcomes, a graduate of the Bahá’í Pastoral Care program will be able to:

• apply their knowledge of and interdisciplinary insights into the Bahá’í faith to the creation of statements of their individual reality as well as their participation in social discourse, community-building, and social action;
• craft and deliver a sermon or public address that demonstrates effective speaking form/style and content based on a selected context.,
• demonstrate skills for effective, professional, ethical, and compassionate pastoral and spiritual care to a diversity of persons;
• articulate effective strategies for pastoral/spiritual care and counseling with a person or group of a given cultural identity that demonstrate an informed understanding of the student’s own culture(s) and theology, as well as the behavioral and social sciences;
• articulate effective strategies for providing spiritual care in a given interreligious setting;
• incorporate an informed understanding of trauma into describing its impact on the spiritual well-being of individuals, families, and communities;
• articulate their own theology/spirituality of trauma informed pastoral care, particularly as it relates to their ministerial/vocational path; and
• identify appropriate specific strategies for trauma healing that they can incorporate into their practice as a spiritual/pastoral care provider.

United’s MDiv at a Glance

• 78 credits
• Twenty-six 3-credit courses, including one field experience
• A final thesis or project is not required, but you can choose to complete a thesis as an elective course
• Can be completed in 3-1/2 years if you take a full-time course load (24 credits per year)
• Most MDiv concentrations, including Bahá’í Pastoral Care, can be completed entirely via distance learning; many courses can be taken completely asynchronously

Employment as a chaplain requires completion of additional CPE units beyond United’s degree requirements and endorsement by the Baha’i National Spiritual Assembly. BCCI certification, which is a common employment requirement, requires a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution and an additional 2,000 hours of chaplaincy work experience after CPE.