Christian Education

Christian Education is a unique combination of academic and vocational focus: can be taken independently or accredited to an ordination training programme. Modular structure provides unrivalled range of programme content. Team-taught across two departments: the programme exemplifies the King's tradition of excellence in both research and professional training.

Watch the video here, or access the 'interactive' tab to view at a larger size and see any alternative films playOverviewVideo('/prospectus/images/home.jpg','http://podcast.ulcc.ac.uk/accounts/kings/SSPP_Podcasts/Theology_and_Ministry.flv','true','details_358'); KEY BENEFITS

• Delivered in collaboration with the Department of Theology & Religious Studies and the Centre for Theology, Religion & Culture in the Department of Education & Professional Studies.
• Grounded in innovative cutting-edge research in the field of Christian education.
• Offers the opportunity for interdisciplinary study grounded in Christian theology.
• Located in the heart of London.

PURPOSEThe MA in Christian Education, which is co-taught with the Department of Theology & Religious Studies http://www.kcl.ac.uk/trs, will challenge, inspire and refresh anyone, from ministers and ordinands to laity and members of faith-based organisations, engaged in Christian educational ministry. It is part of a new modular degree programme providing intellectual frameworks and practical insights for Christian mission and ministry.

DESCRIPTIONThe programme offers the opportunity to explore the educational dimension of faith formation, mission and church policy. The theology of education, grounded in the Gospels' designation of Jesus as 'teacher', is a relatively under-explored dimension of Christian life. It focuses on education provision in local Christian communities, Christian and secular schools, and the interface of the church and the public sphere, combining a focus on practical issues with a concern for the theological underpinnings of practice.

The MA in Christian Education connects cutting-edge academic research with contemporary issues of Christian life and ministry. Programme participants will have the opportunity to reflect on their own professional responsibilities in the light of innovative practice and the ongoing debate surrounding the Christian theology of education.

There are purely historical and theological MAs available in other universities, and there are vocational courses in seminaries and training colleges, but this programme presents a significant alternative. It will do justice to the complexity of academic debates but it will always relate them to the practical and the present. Drawing on the expertise of the Department of Theology & Religious Studies and the Department of Education & Professional Studies, this programme exemplifies the strengths of King's as both a leading research university and a centre for professional training. It promises a level of interdisciplinary excitement and pastoral engagement that would be hard to match elsewhere.

Students take two compulsory modules: Educational Issues in Christian Ministry, and Theology in Practice. The latter links all the programmes on the King's Theology & Ministry MA programme. They aim to equip students with theological tools that will help them to analyse the styles and the purposes of Christian educational ministry. With these tools (including disciplines of social science with their empirical research methodologies, historical enquiry, and scriptural interpretation) students will be in a position to articulate a theology of educational ministry, and to formulate methodologies for understanding and interpreting their contexts and their actions as ministers.

In addition to the dissertation, students will then take two further modules from:

• Ministry and the Bible;
• Church, Mission & Society;
• Contemporary Ministry and Apologetics;
• Pastoral Use of the Bible;
• Patterns in Contemporary Ecclesiology;
• Patterns in Contemporary Worship;
• Patterns in Youth Ministry;
• Theology, Church & Worship;
• Theology, Politics & Faith-Based Organisations.