The Master of Arts in Practical Theology

The Educational Ministries Concentration focuses on the teaching, learning, and spiritual formation of people and communities through liberative forms of education.

Sample Courses

Teaching the Bible Through Liberative Pedagogy

The bible and biblical hermeneutics have shaped the lives of Christians everywhere and in every time. The bible has been harnessed to oppress and to liberate. It has been cited to exclude and include. It has been used to justify the isolation of some Christian communities and the expansion of others. This course will explore how the bible has been used for the formation of Christian and their communities, and how we might teach the study of the bible through liberative pedagogy, utilizing creative educational tools and incorporating the understanding of developmental theories.

Global Christian Spiritualities

Though Christianity historically “arrived” among different peoples and places through the auspices of mission and colonialism, it is the subsequent emergence of Christianity–in its indigenized forms and alongside other religious traditions–that is both exciting and challenging for the Church today. This course discusses how different forms of Christian spiritualties and practices are formed anchored, taught, and learned in different global communities, examining the different and unique themes that emerge from minoritized and indigenized Christianities.

Faith and Human Development

This course surveys the field of human development and explores the developmental theories and methods that inform current education practice. Students conduct faith interviews with children, youth, and adults, which are then used to analyze and critique developmental psychology.

Core Faculty

• Kathy L. Dawson, Benton Family Associate Professor of Christian Education

• Christine J. Hong, Associate Professor of Educational Ministry

The Pastoral Care and Pastoral Theology Concentration integrates therapeutic practices of care with attention to intercultural, global structures that affect and inform suffering and healing.

Sample Courses

Death, Dying, and Grief: Intergenerational and Intercultural Perspectives

This course will help equip ministry leaders to hone practicing attention to and remaining present in the midst of death, dying, illness, loss, and grief. The course places these dynamics of communal life in a narrative frame that attends to both theological and psychological aspects in intergenerational and intercultural perspectives.

Mindfulness-based Resilience in Ministry

This course introduces the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program as a foundation for managing stress and sustaining ministry. Mindfulness practices in-class and at-home help to cultivate presence, attentional control, self-awareness, compassion, and cognitive flexibility.

Cultural Trauma and Mental Health in Global Perspective

This course: examines how historical, collective, and intergenerational traumas impact individuals and communities affected by colonialism, slavery, war, and systemic oppression; utilizes interdisciplinary frameworks to analyze how cultural trauma shapes mental health outcomes, identity formation, and resilience; and explores somatic-based and culturally sensitive approaches to healing trauma.

Core Faculty

• Mindy McGarrah Sharp, Associate Professor of Practical Theology and Pastoral Care, MAPT Lead Professor

• Chanequa Walker-Barnes, Professor of Practical Theology and Pastoral Counseling

The Worship, Preaching, and the Arts Concentration focuses on how arts and aesthetics support transformational practices of worship and preaching

Sample Courses

Sacred Space, Time, and Liturgical Imagination

In this course, we consider theologies of space and time that help to shape liturgical imagination. We discuss practical challenges and implications of leading Christian communities, where time is often experienced as scarce and spaces are contested. These questions are explored through texts, discussions, and ethnographic explorations of worshipping communities in the Atlanta area.

Black Theology, Black Creativity, and Black Genius

The theology of African Americans is in the resilient spirit of the community, the art, the creativity and the genius. This course locates Black theology as it manifests itself not just in churches, but in the spheres of Black life where God thrives and serves as the source of our strength.

Preaching, Politics, and the Pursuit of Justice

This course aims to analyze the challenges to preaching for justice vis-à-vis politics in contemporary American contexts. Students will study how preachers have pursued proclamatory justice in light of these challenges in the past, consider some contemporary proposals for continuing that work, and then extend the practice with sermons of their own. The course moves, then, from sociopolitical analysis to a history of practice to practical counsel to the practice of preaching. That movement—a kind of practical theological reflection—is itself one of the main things this course hopes to teach.

Core Faculty

• Anna Carter Florence, Peter Marshall Professor of Preaching

• Jacob D. Myers, Wade P. Huie Jr. Associate Professor of Homiletics

• Rebecca F. Spurrier, Assistant Professor of Worship, Associate Dean for Worship Life

• Ralph B. Watkins, The Peachtree Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth

Practical Theology (18 credit hours)

• Intro to Practical Theology

• Intro course in the chosen concentration (i.e., Intro to Christian Education, Intro to Worship/Preaching and Public Proclamation, or Intro to Pastoral Care)

• Three courses in the area of concentration (9 credit hours)

• Capstone in Practical Theology

Additional Requirements (15 credit hours)

• Old Testament and New Testament

• Christian History, Theology, and Ethics

Supervised Ministry (6 credit hours)

Electives (9 credit hours)