User talk:Dwcexec

Doctor of Practical Theology
Hello. I hope you don't mind me asking, but I notice that you keep making the same minor changes, back and forth, over and over again, to any article which mentions the degree of Doctor of Practical Theology. Specifically, you keep altering the postnominal letters from D.P.T. to Th.P.D and vice versa. You seem to have done it several times, to a few different articles, in the last 48 hours alone. I must say I'm a bit curious to know why. -- Nicholas Jackson (talk) 19:19, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

21:37, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

Good to hear from you Nicholas! My name is David Carson. This is my first time to have and inquiry and respond. Please forgive me for any technical errors in my reply format. The short answer to your question is that I made a mistake. I forgot to use the "sandbox" and inadvertantly saved the wrong material. This should teach me not to attempt such work late at night. I will correct my error ASAP. I am embarassed, but nevertheless grateful to you for bringing this to my attention.

I work on several projects at a time, which is probably not the best practice. Do not bother to wade through the rest of this unless you are interested. I certainly do not expect everyone else to share my interests.

I serve as a full-tme Human Resource Development Specialist and devote much of my free time to independent research. Over the last three years, I have become quite interested in the development of programs in Christian/religious higher education and their impact in society at large (professions, church, workplace, etc.).

Sixteen months ago, I began to notice rather dramatic, yet diversified development within the academic discipline of practical theology. Until 1968, Euro-American universities, seminaries and divinity schools offering post-graduate degrees, typically offered research degrees such as Th.D and/or the S.T.D (not as common) and the honorary D.D. I was surprised to find that during this same period, the D.Th.P was almost universally recognized in Euro-American churches as a first professional degree. American theological schools began the movement towards the D.Min sometime after 1968. I do not know where the trend began, but within a decade, the D.Min became a prevalent advanced professional degree in vocational ministry with applications for other professions.

As there has been renewed interest in the discipline of practical theology, new graduate and post graduate programs have emerged. The nature and diversity of these programs are truly fascinating. For instance, many of these programs have emerged as part-time post graduate programs for professionals in a variety of disciplines. Others are offered as distance education programs. Schools in France and Italy have maintained their traditional D.Th.P programs as have many of the Catholic seminaries and universities in Europe. As you may know, theological schools in the UK are doing a remarkable job in development of the modern DPT programs. Many American schools are now offering majors in practical theology within their traditional Ph.D and D.Min programs. In American theological schools, the Th.D is still available, but becoming much less prevalent. I have also noticed that a few schools in the UK are offering practical theology as a major or emphasis within their new professional doctorate programs (Pr.D.).

It will be very interesting over the next few years to see whether these practical theology programs remain as diverse as they are today, or if they trend towards a more common standard. Only time will tell. Best regards. User:Dwcexec (talk) 21:37, 7 November 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.175.42.231 (talk)


 * Ah, thanks, that makes sense. Don't worry about the edits - it's not remotely a problem, I was just curious, that's all.


 * This question of professional and vocational doctorates is an interesting one. In the US, there seems to be an entire class of doctoral degrees which are purely, or at least primarily, professional training degrees (such as the MD for medicine and the JD for law).  In the UK, there is (and, I hope, will continue to be) a general rule that doctoral degrees should mainly consist of a substantial body of original research.  In the case of the PhD this is usually in the form of a single monolithic thesis, while with the newer vocational doctorates like the EngD or the DClinPsych this typically takes the form of a portfolio of two or three smaller research projects, although that research will usually be linked to current professional practice in some way.  The DPT offered by Birmingham and Manchester also seems to be along these lines (a 50000-word thesis is mentioned on the course web pages). -- Nicholas Jackson (talk) 22:56, 7 November 2008 (UTC)