Creation Care and Stewardship

Program Overview

The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Creation Care and Stewardship studies the doctrine of creation and what it requires of the church. Scripture opens with a garden entrusted to human care and closes with a renewed creation, and between those two points it treats land, water, animals, and harvest as matters of covenant faithfulness. Christians have often read those texts as scenery. This programme reads them as instruction. Students work through the doctrine of creation and providence, the image of God and the mandate of Genesis, the sabbath and jubilee provisions for land and livestock, the prophetic linking of injustice with ecological ruin, Christ's lordship over creation in the New Testament, and the eschatological hope of a renewed rather than discarded world. Historical theology traces Christian attitudes from patristic contemplation of nature through the monastic agricultural tradition to the modern industrial settlement, including a candid assessment of the charge that Christian theology licensed exploitation. Empirical literacy is required: climate science, biodiversity loss, water, soil, and energy, taught at a level sufficient for responsible argument. Practice completes the work — congregational stewardship, denominational policy, environmental justice and its disproportionate burden on the poor, agricultural and rural ministry, and preaching that neither panics nor evades. The dissertation contributes original research on a doctrinal question, a historical development, or a practice of creation care. Graduates teach theology and environmental ethics, direct denominational creation care work, advise agencies, and lead congregations into serious stewardship.

Core Courses

• CRE 801 — Doctrine of Creation and Providence (6 credits)
• CRE 812 — Land, Sabbath, and Creatures in Scripture (6 credits)
• CRE 824 — Christian Attitudes to Nature in History (6 credits)
• CRE 836 — Environmental Science for Theologians (6 credits)
• CRE 848 — Environmental Justice and Congregational Practice (5 credits)
• CRE 860 — Research Design in Ecological Theology (4 credits)
• CRE 899 — Doctoral Dissertation in Creation Care (24 credits)

Admission Requirements

• Master's degree in theology, ministry, ethics, or a closely related field
• Ministry, advocacy, or teaching experience in the area of specialization
• Statement of purpose naming the community, question, or practice your research serves
• Academic writing sample or substantial ministry portfolio
• Current curriculum vitae or ministry profile
• Official transcripts from prior institutions when available