Div Dictionary: Certificates

Div Dictionary: Certificates

Certificate (n): additional piece of paper you get as you graduate indicating you have focused on a particular area, group, or topic.

So you’ve arrived at YDS. You love your classes, professors really turn you on intellectually, your classmates and you all get along swimmingly. Life is perfect.

But still, there is something tugging at you. This could be the Presbytery/Oversight Committee/Bishop at home, who really wonders what EXACTLY goes on in the ecumenical setting of Yale. Will you be fully prepared for ministry, he/she/they ask? You dutifully share your course schedules, replete with great syllabi and topics. Still, they’re a bit leery: why did you not go to __(insert school affiliated with your denomination that is theologically in-step with the Presbytery/Committee/Bishop). They want proof that you’re not just frittering away your time at Yale taking underwater basket-weaving.

Or perhaps you look at all the classes you plan to take the next two or three years and say “goodness, amazing, but how will that look for that dream PhD or job application?” You want to keep taking the classes, but want something that will really ratchet it up a notch.

Well, never fear. Mother Yale has heard you in advance, and is ready for whatever it is tugging at you. Yale Divinity School offers a number of Certificates. In-house, these include the Institute of Sacred Music’s Certificate in Church Music Studies, the Certificate in Lutheran Studies and Anglican Studies(typically done by … shocker … Lutherans and Anglicans, but in no way limited only to people in those denominations!). There is also a Certificate in Reformed Studies among others, which makes sense since the Jonathan Edwards Center is housed here, and Edwards studied here. The Reformed Studies Certificate even has a facebook page, making it perhaps the most tech-savvy of the certificates.

Students taking part in one of these certificates have course requirements specific to each certificate, so I won’t even try to explain it all: check with the contacts for each certificate. Most have various colloquia in addition to specific classes, which is a great way to meet outside of class to discuss issues (one of my favorites was Dr. Bruce Gordon leading discussion on Calvin and Servetus in Bill Goettler’s home over pasta and wine). PLUG FOR BTFO: the certificate programs will all be discussed during BTFO, with the opportunity to meet the faculty/staff heading the various projects!

Now, besides the in-house certificates, there are a wide range of other options for certificates from other schools. Popular ones include certificates from the school of forestry, Development Studies, Security Studies, and health. This is the result of some nice collaboration between the various Deans and recognition that an MAR/MDiv might benefit by having a certificate showing their focus on religion and ethics was actively and intricately tied to international Security Studies issues. Check with each school to see if they have a certificate, and requirements. NOTE: this often means some/a lot of extra coursework, and can eat up your electives, but it can be well worth it. Most that I’ve seen require at least 6 classes in that particular field, chosen with the aid of an adviser they will assign you, and some require 2 years of graduate-level language in addition, for a total of 10 classes. Again, worth it, but you need to be prepared and organize your class schedule well.

I hope that if you’ve felt the tug (I felt it from multiple areas), then the certificates can help free you up, put people at ease, and allow life at YDS to be constantly perfect.