Psychology Faculty Publications

An Assessment of Pastoral Counseling Courses in Seminaries Serving Evangelical Baptist Students

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-2007

Journal Title

Review of Religious Research

Volume

48

Issue

4

First Page

420

Last Page

427

Abstract

The present study examined the number of pastoral counseling courses required and offered for Master of Divinity (M.Div. ) students from 31 evangelical seminaries which have traditionally served evangelical, Baptist students. In light of survey studies concluding that pastors report feeling inadequate to function as counselors, we expected to find that seminaries require little formal counseling training. Congruently, none of the seminaries required more than 6 semester hours of counseling training, and the majority required 3 hours or fewer. We recommend further studies which include evangelical seminaries of various denominations.

Keywords

Clergy, pastoral care, Baptists, seminarians, counseling, evangelicalism

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