2022-2023 Master of Arts in Pastoral and Spiritual Care (MAPSC)

Class attendance and class participation is required for all on-campus, hybrid, and online courses. For more information see 2022-2023 Course Delivery Formats and Attendance and Special Days. 

*Please note, many of Iliff's required courses are only available in Hybrid format.

These are the requirements for students who matriculated during the 2022-2023 school year. Degree requirements for previous years can be found at the bottom of the Student Handbook main page. Students can track their own individual degree progress through the degree audit on my.iliff and by consulting their advisors.

The MAPSC degree requires at least 80 quarter credits (or 40 quarter credits and an MDiv degree or its equivalent from an accredited seminary) with a cumulative grade point average of 2.25 or better in the following summary:

• First-Year Interdisciplinary Seminar (4 Credits)
• Core Course Requirements (28 Credits)
• Pastoral and Spiritual Care Courses (16 Credits)
• Personal and Professional Formation Courses (6 Credits)
• Clinical Pastoral Education + CPE Praxis (8 CPE +2 praxis Credits)
• Other Courses (16 Credits)

MAPSC Graduates fulfill spiritual care vocations as:

• Chaplains in healthcare, hospice, the military, educational, nonprofit, and business settings
• Pastoral and spiritual caregivers in communities of faith
• Spiritual Directors in private practice, communities of faith, schools, or retreat centers

The MAPSC degree learning goals are as follows: Integrate knowledge, capacities, and skills for practicing socially just, interreligious, and research literate spiritual care through demonstrating 1) a spiritually integrative learning process; 2) spiritual self-differentiation; 3) spiritual and social empathy; 4) spiritual self-reflexivity; 5) research-literate spiritual care.

Courses in pastoral and spiritual care implement an interreligious and socially just spiritual care that laments and interrogates the ways that religious beliefs have contributed to injustice. A research-literate approach helps students assess how spiritual and moral struggles may be harmful or lead to growth. 

Coursework includes experiential and integrative learning that bridges the gaps between what students learn in their Iliff courses and what they learn contextually in clinical pastoral education (CPE), which provides intense group learning and supervision of the practice of pastoral and spiritual care in clinical and community settings.

Students also take courses in the core curriculum. Each area has a thematic focus, and courses within each area cohere in directing students and their teacher to think more critically about their assumptions and to develop theological perspectives necessary for becoming responsible pastoral and spiritual caregivers in a changing world. The personal and professional courses ground students in an understanding of their vocation and help them integrate their beliefs, values, and practices of spiritual care with public theologies using a social justice orientation.

All requirements for the degree must be completed within seven calendar years from the date of the first course taken in the program. All required courses must be completed with a grade of C or better. Students must meet the requirements as specified in the Catalog and the Student Handbook (of their year of matriculation) to graduate.

Degree requirements (elaborated)

First Year Interdisciplinary Seminar (4 credits): This course is team-taught and will introduce students to terminology, reading of primary texts and how to write academic papers as well as expose them to the complexity and significance of theological reflection. The course must be taken within the student's first 40 credit hours.

Core Courses (28 credits)

Comparative Religious Traditions (CR): One CR course (4 credits). IST 2000 Religions in the World - This is the preferred course for the MAPSC degree program. 

Bible/Contextual Analysis (BI), one BI course (4 credits) from the list below:

IST 2003 Introduction to Hebrew Bible

IST 2004 Introduction to New Testament

Social/Ethical Analysis (SE), 4 credits - one required course:

IST 2005 Ethical Analysis & Advocacy

Historical Development & Expressions of Religious Traditions (HI), 4 credits - one required course:

IST 2500 - Intro to the History of Christianity

Constructive/Systematic Theology (CT), 4 credits - one required course:

IST 2510 - Intro to Theology

Theology & Religious Practices (PR), 8 credits - two required courses

IST 2012 Pastoral and Spiritual Care

IST 2080 Practical Theology 

MAPSC Elective Courses: (16 credits):

Courses that count without needing to petition (all courses are 4 credits unless otherwise noted):

IST 2072 Spiritual Care and Sexuality

IST 3034 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 

IST 3093 Moral Stress, Resilience, and Spiritual Integration

IST 2210 Research Literacy for Chaplains (2 credits)

IST 2021 Spiritual Care in Death and Dying 

IST 2501 Justice and Spiritual Care

IST 2182 Women and Spirituality

IST 2061 Ministry Praxis: Funerals (2 credits)

IST 2081 Authentic Engagement (2 credits)

IST 2107 Ministry Praxis: Pre-Marital Counseling and Weddings (2 credits)

IST 2162 Life of Prayer (2 credits)

IST 2240 Spiritual Autobiography and Memoir (2 credits)

With petition, these courses may count towards Pastoral and Spiritual Care courses:

IST 2157 Christian Bioethics Debate

IST 3089 The Body and Sexuality in the Hebrew Bible

IST 3132 Remapping American Religion: Black and Asian Traditions IST 3241 Pandemics and Healing in History

Personal and Professional Formation (16 credits) ― Required courses:

IST 1100, 1101, 1102 - Identity, Power, and Vocation in Community (6 credits) 

IST 4004 CPE (8 credits) + IST 4006 CPE Integration Praxis (2 credits) 

Note: to apply for CPE programs students must complete the following prerequisites:

• At least 24 credits of coursework

• IST 1100 Identity, Power, and Vocation in Community (6 credits)

• First Year Interdisciplinary Seminar (4 credits)

• Background Check through the Office of Professional Formation

Masters Recital: A 30–60-minute assessment of Iliff's curriculum to be completed online during the Spring term of the final year.   As part of Iliff's accreditation requirements, the institution must collect data to demonstrate that what it sets out to teach students at the beginning of the program has some relationship to what students know and are able to do at the end. Iliff uses this data to refine how and what the school teaches and to improve the Iliff educational experience for students to come.

Other courses (16 credits) Note: these may include courses required for ordination or endorsement in one’s faith tradition