The Graduate Certificate in Theology provides a basic entry into postgraduate studies in theology for graduates with no previous tertiary studies in this field. It is a 40 cp award intended both for lay persons and for those preparing for ordained ministry through the BCT's graduate courses. Students are introduced to at least three of the traditional fields of theology: Biblical Studies, Systematic and Moral Theology, Church History, and Philosophy.
Viewed in terms of students' initial expectations, the Graduate Certificate in Theology is designed for two main groups: (a) those who wish to undertake significant introductory studies in theology in a short, academically challenging course, but plan to go no further; and (b) those who intend from the beginning to continue on, whether to the Graduate Diploma in Theology or to more advanced theological studies at masters level and beyond. However, it is anticipated that the quality of the Graduate Certificate in Theology experience will encourage many students in the first group to continue to at least the next level.
Building on generic academic skills developed at undergraduate level (e.g., skills in critical thinking, in logical and independent thought, and in identifying and accessing information), students in the Graduate Certificate in Theology course begin to develop additional skills and understandings which will be developed further as they progress to more advanced studies in theology (e.g., adaptation of previously learned skills in collecting, analysing, and organising information to the specific requirements of the discipline of theology; mastery of the genres of writing appropriate to academic discourses in theology; development of an understanding and appreciation of theological research; and mastery of the skills required to undertake such research).
Both as a separate course and as the first in a sequence of nested courses leading to successively more advanced studies in theology, the underlying purpose of the Graduate Certificate in Theology is to support the attainment of outcomes implicit in the overall rationale for the BCT's postgraduate courses in theology. For non-theology graduates, this means that their increasingly rigorous engagement with the discipline of theology commences in the Graduate Certificate in Theology program as they begin to-