Description of program: This concentration is designed to prepare students with exceptional promise and ability for positions as "doctors" or educational pastors in the church, to become reflective leaders in other Christian institutions, and for careers in teaching seminaries and other centers of training for ministry. The Ph.D. curriculum includes 3 research languages, 9 doctoral seminars, comprehensive exams, dissertation proposal, and the satisfactory completion of the dissertation. The Ph.D. in Practical Theology is available in 3 tracks: 1) Community, Vocation and Leadership; 2) Personality, Culture and Theology; and 3) Evangelism, Discipleship and Spirituality.

Faculty and faculty Interests: Ray S. Anderson, Professor of Theology and Ministry (integration of theology and psychology, hermeneutics, Christology, ecclesiology, and ministry); David W. Augsburger, Professor of Pastoral Counseling (pastoral counseling, cross-cultural counseling, conflict studies, pastoral care, reconciliation, forgiveness, anger, prejudice, and hatred); Yea Sun Eum Kim, Associate Professor of Family Counseling and Korean Family Studies (family ministry with Asian families, culture and family therapy, supervision); Richard V. Peace, Robert Boyd Munger Professor of Evangelism and Spiritual Formation (evangelism, spiritual formation).

Admissions Requirements: M.Div. (minimum GPA: 3.50); 2 years of prior ministry or vocational experience; Graduate Record Exam (minimum 1600 combined score with verbal score of 600; or computer version TOEFL score of 250 for individuals whose first language is not English, and GRE Writing Exam with minimum score of 5.

Clinical Component: This advanced degree may be pursued in an academic or a clinical/ academic program. In the clinical program 1 or 2 of the 9 doctoral seminars will consist of the supervised clinical practice of pastoral counseling. Each clinical seminar consists of 1 full year of counseling and supervision (48 hours). This program is designed to 1) prepare the counselor to work effectively in pastoral counseling, marital and family therapy and individual therapy from a perspective which is fully bilingual, and 2) move the counselor in training toward membership in the AAPC and, where desirable and available, licensing in the home state where pastoral counseling licensure is now in practice.

Duration of Program: Typically between 4 and 8 years.

Titles of Recent Dissertations: 1) Toward a Practical Theology of Evangelism: Spiritual Pilgrimage as an Essential Paradigm for the Christian Conversion Process and its Implications for Evangelism; 2) Methodologies Constructing a Spirituality of Sleep and Work: An Exploration of the Major Daily Routines through Scripture, Theology, and Early Egyptian Monasticism.

Cost and Financial Aid: Tuition costs will be approximately $30,000. Eight full-tuition merit awards and 8 partial tuition awards are available to all students, and 7 awards for international students.

Graduate Placement: Too new to determine this.

Current number of students: 33.

Contact person: Kent L. Yinger, Ph.D., Program Director, Center for Advanced Theological Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary, 135 N. Oakland Ave., Pasadena, CA 91182, 626-584-5239, fax 626-584-5251, cats@fuller.edu.

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