A Master of Divinity Application at BTSR requires the following prerequisites:
- To be admitted, you must have completed a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university. In addition to your major field of study, you should have a broad educational background with at least half your hours in liberal arts (including courses such as English, history, social sciences, natural sciences, languages, fine arts, and religion and philosophy).
- A minimum entrance GPA of 2.25 for admissions into the M.Div. degree program.
- Complete and submit a BTSR Master of Divinity Application online.
- Submit official transcript or transcripts. For non-seminary work, send transcripts from all schools where you completed more than six hours of study. For seminary work, send all transcripts of all study. Please have your transcripts sent directly to BTSR.
- Submit the names and contact information of two references you have known for more than two years: Minister and Personal.
- Submit a university level Writing Sample or answer one of our three writing prompts.*
- Personal interview with Admissions Office personnel.
- Remit the $35 application fee if application submitted after Early Admissions Deadline.
*The Writing Sample should be at the level of an undergraduate senior research project, thesis or final paper in an academic setting. It must be written within five years of your application submission date.
Writing prompts:
- Of the people who have been instrumental in your faith pilgrimage, which individual best embodies Jesus' teachings, in your opinion, and why? In what ways does the named individual not live up to Jesus' teachings?
- Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City, did not include clergy of any faith group in the tenth anniversary 9-11 memorial event held at 'Ground Zero' (September 11, 2011). Do you agree with this decision? Defend your position.
- Writing on Tony Campolo's "Red Letter Christians" blog, Christian Piatt on September 19,2011 discusses postmodernism and the current dissatisfaction with the institutional church among younger people in his blog titled, "Is Postmodern Christianity Dead?"
"Postmodernism," he says, "is essentially a response to modernism, a more dualistic, absolute, objective way of seeing the world that emerged from the Enlightenment. Whereas a modernist sees most truth as either/or, a postmodernist is more comfortable with the both/and perspective, allowing multiple truths to exist in tension. It recognizes the significance of subjective reality on our understanding of truth, and as such, challenges more rigid doctrines, dogmas or policies that value uniformity of thought over pluralistic coexistence.
It’s not hard to see why this way of thinking, which was originally used in a religious context as a philosophical critique of Catholic teaching and theology, would appeal to many of today’s Christians. Many of us have, ourselves, had negative experiences when our understanding of God butts up against a seemingly immovable doctrine of the Church. The result has been, for this and other reasons, a mass exodus of younger people from organized religion."
Is Piatt's analysis correct, in your view? What do you consider to be the implications for the Church in the coming decades?