Available Online. The Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies (MAPS) degree program prepares students for ministerial service in a variety of contexts. Embracing four areas of development—human, spiritual, intellectual, and ministerial—the program guides students in the development of their own pastoral identity through an integrated exploration of theology and pastoral practice.
Through graduate coursework, focused contextual experiences, and an integration project, students explore and work to develop those personal qualities necessary for faithful service, spiritual practices grounded in God's Trinitarian life, theological knowledge and intellectual skills, and the pastoral abilities appropriate to their gifts and ministerial context. The MAPS degree at the Institute of Pastoral Studies offers students a systematic and broad foundation for a variety of ministries and the tools necessary to engage critically and constructively the challenges and opportunities of our contemporary context.
Courses are available online, in person at Loyola's downtown Chicago campus, or in Rome, Italy. Students who enroll in the master's degree can study under the general MAPS program or focus their studies in one of four areas of concentration: church management, digital communication, health care chaplaincy, and religious education.
To learn more about state and international authorization of programs, please refer to our State and International Authorization page. To learn more about the accreditation of Loyola University Chicago and its schools, as well as information about professional licensure, visit our Accreditation page.
CURRICULUM
Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies
This traditional curriculum, designed to provide a solid first-degree experience in education for ministry includes courses in scripture, pastoral theology, and ministerial skills, as well as numerous concentrations, including one in Healthcare Ministries. This MA in Pastoral Studies forms the basis for the MDiv degree. Students have the option at any point during their degree program or upon completion of their degree program to apply for the MDiv degree, and all of these courses will count toward their MDiv degree.
Course List | Code | Title | Hours |
| IPS 570 | Introduction to Theology and Ministry | 3 |
| IPS 416 | Introduction to New Testament | 3 |
| IPS 417 | Introduction to the Old Testament | 3 |
| IPS 402 | Church and Mission | 3 |
| IPS 531 | Christian Doctrine | 3 |
| IPS 541 | Liturgy and Christian Sacraments | 3 |
| IPS 553 | Moral Theology and Christian Ethics | 3 |
| IPS 555 | Human Person and Psychological Development | 3 |
| IPS 578 | Contextual Education Preparation | 0 |
| IPS 579 | Contextual Education Introduction | 0 |
| IPS 580 | Contextual Education I | 3 |
| IPS 593 | Integration Project | 0 |
| Total Hours | 36 |
Intellectual Development
Intellectual development seeks to expand the pastoral minister's understanding and appreciation of faith. It consists in theological studies, and draws also upon a wide range of other disciplines: philosophy, the arts, psychology, sociology, culture, and language studies.
Ministerial Development
Ministerial development cultivates the knowledge, attitudes and skills that directly pertain to effective functioning in the ministry setting, or to the pastoral administration that supports direct ministry and draws also upon a wide range of other disciplines: counseling, medical ethics, business administration, leadership, organizational development, and law.
Chosen from course offerings to address elements in pastoral ministry competencies in areas such as:
- Promoting or organizing action on behalf of justice
- Youth ministry
- Pastoral presence and care for the sick and the dying
- Parish ministry
- Health ministries
Contextual Development
The contextual development is where the ministry student brings together all four developmental aspects of the degree program. It is the place to integrate the theological, ministerial, personal and spiritual learnings of this degree in the context of the lived everyday ministry setting. Here, in a structured program that combines on-site mentoring and supervision located in actual ministry practice with peer and faculty weekly reflection sessions, the student achieves and realizes that sense of professional and personal competency as minister.
These field learning settings can be directly related to the student's present work situation or can be selected from placements IPS has cultivated. Because of the ability to operate in a blended and on-line teaching manner, these placements can be located in the resource rich area of Chicago or other settings around the nation or the world.
Course List | Code | Title | Hours |
| IPS 578 | Contextual Education Preparation | 0 |
| IPS 579 | Contextual Education Introduction | 0 |
| IPS 580 | Contextual Education I | 3 |
Contextual Education is the experience during the student's ministerial education that directly engages pastoral practice in the context of ministerial studies. Simultaneously, the student refines pastoral skills, ministerial theology and vocational identity. Contextual Education consists of 10-15 hours per week of ministry at a site, reflection with a site supervisor and as well as a weekly peer reflection seminar on campus. In the weekly seminar students review learning contracts, prepare and reflect on pastoral events, and exercise peer evaluations.
Human Development
Human development seeks to enhance the pastoral minister's human qualities and character, fostering a healthy and well-balanced personality, for the sake of both human growth and ministerial service.
Spiritual Development
Spiritual development aims to arouse and animate true hunger for holiness, desire for union with God through Christ in the Spirit, daily growing love of God and neighbor in life and ministry, and the practices of prayer and spirituality that foster these attitudes and dispositions.
Integration Project
Students complete the program with IPS 593 Integration Project, the zero-credit Integration Project, in their final year.
Graduate & Professional Standards and Regulations
Students in graduate and professional programs can find their Academic Policies in Graduate and Professional Academic Standards and Regulations under their school. Any additional University Policies supersede school policies.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By completing the Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies, students will be able to demonstrate:
- A fluency with the theological, ministerial, and interpersonal resources that make successful service to the church and world feasible in positions of formation, scholarship, or ecclesial leadership.
- The capacity to understand and critique the social and cultural contexts in which the graduate will be called to serve, always with an eye toward the marginalized, excluded, and systems of oppression.
- The ability to articulate with rhetorical skill and persuasion convincing command of relevant theological and ministerial themes and applications to various potential audiences, both orally and in writing.
- Personal engagement with, and an ability to draw upon, spiritual and psychological insights and scholarship that will nourish them as they make successful ministerial or academic contributions to their particular settings and contexts.
