PSR is the first seminary to offer an innovative stackable curriculum
Pacific School of Religion’s innovative, stackable curriculum combines traditional fields of theological study with contextual education, cross-cultural immersion, spiritual formation, and professional development. The curriculum at PSR offers students the flexibility needed for a rapidly changing world. Students “stack” curricular and co-curricular courses and experiences in order to foster a sense of holistic formation.
Drawing on a wide range of theological perspectives and practices, PSR’s faculty are the heart and soul of this innovative curriculum. They are renowned scholars and teachers who blend creative academic practice with bold, activist vision. They offer learning that is academically rigorous and spiritually grounded. They seek a balance between empowerment and resilience: empowerment to respond to present crises and urgencies and resilience to stand strong with a long view of the past and the future.
Why get only a Master of Divinity when you can earn a graduate-level certificate and two master’s degrees in three years of coursework? Get the education you need, when you need it, to make a difference in the world.
Year Two: Master of Arts in Social Transformation
Year Three: Master of Divinity
Program Outcomes & Mission Goals
| 1 | Demonstrate critical engagement with diverse traditions, cultures, and practices involved in the lived experience of religion and spirituality | Vision (intellectual): Analyze |
| 2 | Employ the contextual and queer study of social systems and digital spaces | Vision (intellectual): Discern |
| 3 | Express an engaged, informed spirituality and a respectful, compassionate leadership style | Resilience (emotional): Engage |
| 4 | Convey the personal and interpersonal awareness necessary for sustainable social change | Resilience (emotional): Sustain |
| 5 | Collaborate appropriately and effectively across difference | Skill (material): Innovate |
| 6 | Apply spiritually informed and contextual approaches to organizational leadership | Skill (material): Implement |
Stackable Learning for Your Life and Timeline
You want change. You want to be that change. You’re willing to do the hard work to build your capacity to lead in transformative ways. But in this time of pandemic, protest, and polarization, it seems impossible to find a leadership education that is spiritually rooted and also works with your wallet, timeline, and life circumstances.
We Understand the Challenges
Those who would most benefit from theological education are often unable to participate because they can’t attend in person, have family or financial obligations, or encounter challenges that sidetrack them. We get it: one size does not fit all when it comes to your life circumstances and your vision to make a difference in this world.
The solution? An alternative theological education focused on access, excellence, and impact. This kind of education must ensure that every student has the opportunity to pursue an education, regardless of their obligations or background.
Welcome to Pacific School of Religion (PSR).
A New Way Forward
At PSR, we’ve moved toward a culture and curriculum that’s of the greatest assistance to our students first and foremost. Sounds simplistic, but PSR exists for our students and the communities they seek to serve—not the other way around.
By marshaling the strengths of our learning community and leveraging our commitment to deploying innovative solutions, we’re working to remove the cost, technology, and support barriers that keep learners from progressing. It doesn’t matter if you’re right in our backyard or half a world away, we’re using every available idea, tool, and option to help you achieve your goals.
One way we’re reimagining theological education and prioritizing a student-centric culture is by unbundling traditional learning packages—Master of Divinity (MDiv), Master of Arts (MA)—into manageable learning experiences tied to real ministry, career, and life outcomes. We call it stackable learning. The preparation you need, when you need it.
Stack Your Learning
PSR is the first seminary in the U.S. to offer stackable credentials. Our curriculum is designed so that students can begin to apply their knowledge and reach a graduate certificate in as little as one year, and then be able to stack that program directly into the next—letting you advance your education at your own pace.
Students who have completed PSR’s one year Graduate Certificate have gone on to work in congregational ministry, non-profits, community work, and more. For example, PSR alumnx Dr. Kit Evans-Ford has founded multiple non-profits, including Argrow’s House of Healing and Hope, a safe space where free services are offered daily for women healing from violence and abuse. After earning a certificate, these students can continue their education and earn an MA in Social Transformation by adding one year of coursework, and if their career goals would be well served by an MDiv, they complete that program in one final year of coursework. So, why get only an MDiv when you can also earn a graduate-level certificate and two master’s degrees for the same time and cost? PSR helps you make every course, every dollar, every effort count.
PSR provides emerging leaders from every walk of life a pathway to make the change they want to see in the world. The stackable structure allows more students—whether they have just graduated from college or are experienced pastors who are seeking formal education—access to theological education and leadership formation in an approach that provides the option to work toward the certification or degrees that reflect individual vocational goals and denominational requirements, such as ordination, non-profit leadership, chaplaincy, and much more.
For those experienced, spiritually-rooted leaders and practitioners looking for an advanced professional degree, we offer a DMin—a distance learning program that lets you live and work anywhere while you study—with three brief cohort intensives each January. The program is designed to flex with your needs and goals so you can finish in as little as two years or take up to six years.
The point is that PSR provides the theological education you need when you need it, how you need it. We’re ready and willing to respond to your need for flexibility and affordability.
A Lifelong Learning Ecosystem
PSR is leveraging the latest technology to build a community platform that enables a wide range of educational experiences. We’re building partnerships with other majority-people-of color institutions to expand the offerings available to students. The combo of full immersion on-campus, distance education, or a hybrid of these two makes a PSR education accessible, useful, and capable of providing a lifetime of meaningful learning.
Our membership with the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) is just one example of our focus on expanding access to world-class learning. GTU is a collaboration between five academic centers, five affiliates, and eight member schools representing the breadth of the world’s religious traditions. That means that PSR students have seamless access through cross-registration to a diverse collegium from all the member schools and centers as well as UC Berkeley.
This one-of-a-kind collaboration makes PSR the single point of access to a host of learning opportunities. And that means you can tap into content from a variety of experiences that include everything from free podcasts to pay-per-events to full courses and degrees created by our growing network of collaborators. We’re also home to several centers that provide critical scholarship resources on some of today’s most cutting-edge theological, social, cultural, and ethical issues.
We connect you with the people and institutions on the front lines of new knowledge and instill in students an ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn. Our community platform gives you entry into a dynamic ecosystem providing access to theological education and relationships with other students, faculty, and thought leaders.
With PSR’s ecosystem, the learning and community does not end at graduation. Beyond certificates and degrees, the expanding PSR ecosystem lets you upgrade your knowledge and skills continuously—because learning doesn’t end when you get your degree.
Affordability Matters
Stackable learning and program flexibility allow you to advance toward a certificate or degree while balancing your studies with your need to earn a living. No two people’s life situations are the same, so our program is designed to work with you.
Also, we have an outstanding financial aid program that includes merit scholarships, need-based grants, work-study, and loans. In fact, 70% of our students receive some type of financial assistance—because making education accessible is critical to effecting change.
PSR Equips You to Create Change
PSR is leading the way into the future with new curriculum options that answer your demands to learn with greater flexibility. Our programs allow you to study the topics you need, when you need them, to make a difference in the world.
You’re a new breed of student. PSR is a new breed of education. Together, we can reinvent the story of grace and inclusion for a new world, for a new day—unafraid.
Distance education for the MDiv degree is pending WSCUC approval.