Bachelor of Arts (BA) Pastoral Theology Major Program Requirements
  • A minimum of 120 credits must be earned through completion of the course of study.

  • A minimum of 30 credit hours must be earned in residence at SHMS.

  • Students must maintain a C average (2.0) for the required 120 semester hours.

  • Philosophy majors only: Students must maintain a C average (2.0) for the courses earned in philosophy.

  • Pastoral Theology majors only: Students must participate in three formation sessions during the course of study:

  • a. Discernment
    b. Theological Reflection
    c. Spiritual Direction

  • Students must participate in an assessment process of the academic program, including the completion of the ETS Proficiency Profile during the final year of study.

Course of Study (120 credit hours)
Communication and Language Arts (9 credit hours)

CLA 153 Rhetoric (3 cr)

CLA 154 Crit­i­cal Research Skills (3 cr)

CLA 161 Intro to Oral Com­mu­ni­ca­tion (3 cr)

Science and Mathematics (9 credit hours)

A course in math­e­mat­ics (3 cr)

Two cours­es in sci­ence (one with a lab) (6 cr)

Social Sciences (6 credit hours)

SOC 101 Soci­ol­o­gy of Reli­gion (3 cr)

OR an intro­duc­to­ry course in in psy­chol­o­gy or sociology

A course in his­to­ry (3 cr)

Humanities & Fine Arts (6 credit hours)

HUM 302 West­ern Art (3 cr)

OR a course in the human­i­ties or fine arts (stu­dio and per­for­mance class­es are not eligible)

A course in lit­er­a­ture (3 cr)

Music (3 credit hours)

MUS 250 Art of Litur­gi­cal Music (3 cr)

OR a course in music appreciation

Languages (12 credit hours)

LAT 121 Intro­duc­to­ry Latin I (3 cr)

LAT 122 Intro­duc­to­ry Latin II (3 cr)

Cours­es in a for­eign lan­guage (a pas­toral lan­guage is encour­aged) (6 cr)

Philosophy (6 credit hours)

Phi­los­o­phy Elec­tives (6 cr)

Theology (36 credit hours)

THE 123 Intro­duc­tion to the Catholic Faith (2 cr)

THE 210 Intro­duc­tion to Litur­gy and Sacra­ments (2 cr)

THE 219 Intro­duc­tion to the Catholic Church (2 cr)

THE 243 Intro­duc­tion to Spir­i­tu­al­i­ty (2 cr)

THE 249 Intro­duc­tion to Sacred Scrip­ture (3 cr)

THE 274 Intro­duc­tion to Moral The­ol­o­gy (2 cr)

THE 310 Apolo­get­ics I* (3 cr)

THE 315 Apolo­get­ics II* (3 cr)

THE 499 The­ol­o­gy Cap­stone* (3 cr)

THE XXX The­ol­o­gy Elec­tives (15 cr)

*To be tak­en in the student’s final year of the AB Pas­toral The­ol­o­gy program.

Pastoral Ministry (14 credit hours)

MNS 101 The­ol­o­gy of Min­istry (2 cr)

MNS 352 Reflec­tion Sem­i­nar (2 cr)

Min­istry Elec­tives (10 cr)

Electives (19 credit hours)

Stu­dents must take suf­fi­cient elec­tive cours­es to meet the grad­u­a­tion require­ment. Stu­dents are coun­seled to choose elec­tive cours­es accord­ing to a plan of study that will help them achieve their per­son­al goals for their under­grad­u­ate education.

Some of the course require­ments for the AB degree may be tak­en through the Detroit Area Catholic High­er Edu­ca­tion Con­sor­tium or through applied trans­fer cred­its, sub­ject to trans­fer cred­it guidelines.

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