ICAS-Accredited Degree Program
Doctor of Philosophy in Biblical Wisdom
Ph.D. credential
Discover the story and wisdom of Scripture, and bring its message into your everyday Christian life.
Doctor of Philosophy in Biblical Wisdom: Your Grant Price
Applications are free. Eligible applicants receive their admission and Grant decision before any one-time program fee is requested.
Published tuition
$24,900.00
$649.00 Registry & Assessment Fee
$149
Doctoral Degree
2026 Life in Christ Grant is active
Ministry Experience, Evaluated Against Academic Standards.
Documented prior learning may be considered when it aligns with program outcomes; every credit decision follows academic review.
Program Overview
About this program
Doctoral work in Biblical Wisdom is for teachers of the Bible who now have to defend their readings to other teachers. The point of this ICAS-accredited program is that you stop needing someone else to tell you what a passage means. At Kingdom of Life University you work through the whole Bible — law, narrative, psalm, prophet, gospel, letter, apocalypse — until the shape of the thing is familiar and an unfamiliar chapter no longer causes panic.
Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
Recognition of demonstrated learning in theology and ministry
Experienced ministry practitioners demonstrate competencies developed through years of service, theological study, and continuing learning. The assessment connects that learning with the published outcomes of the Doctor of Philosophy in Biblical Wisdom through biblical understanding, theological reflection, research, and ministry judgment.
70
Audited questions in this pathway bank
30
Questions drawn for each sitting
60 minutes
Time available for the knowledge component
24 hours
Interval before reassessment
Theological knowledge and degree outcomes
- Published bank title
- Biblical Wisdom - Doctoral Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
- Credential
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Biblical Wisdom
- Question construction
- 14 pathway subject-bank sources contribute 5 questions each, producing the complete 70-question bank.
How completion is reported
- The knowledge component contributes 40% and assessed ministry experience contributes 60% to one weighted result.
- The reported result is no lower than 80%, matching the 80% degree pass mark.
- Reassessment draws a fresh question set and is included in program access, with no additional fee or limit on sittings.
- The integrated assessment covers the published degree plan; separate course assessments, a capstone paper, and a dissertation defense are not required.
Program Objectives
What you will achieve
Integrate advanced theological inquiry and ministry judgment in service to the church and its mission
Read any biblical book with an informed sense of its genre, setting, and place in the canon
Trace the redemptive storyline of Scripture across both Testaments without collapsing their differences
Weigh competing interpretations of a disputed passage and give reasons for the reading you adopt
Teach biblical wisdom to a congregation in language that is accurate, plain, and useful
Learning Outcomes
Skills and competencies you will develop
Synthesize doctoral-level theological evidence, research judgment, and ministry wisdom for faithful leadership
Produce an exegetical treatment of a passage that accounts for its literary form and historical setting
Explain how a given book contributes to the theology of the canon as a whole
Identify where an interpretation rests on evidence and where it rests on assumption
Design teaching material that moves from a text's own claims to its bearing on Christian life
Career Opportunities
Where this degree can take you
Bible teacher
Pastoral ministry leader
Biblical studies researcher
Curriculum writer
Major Subject Areas
The fourteen subjects you study, and the ones the ministry assessment draws on
Foundational and Major-Core Subjects
Four foundations every pathway shares, then four that belong to this field.
Doctoral Seminar: Biblical Interpretation
Where the whole program starts: what you are actually doing when you read a chapter, and why two honest readers reach different conclusions. Genre, context, canon, and the reader's own assumptions.
Doctoral Seminar: Old Testament Theology
The Old Testament as a whole rather than as a quarry for sermon illustrations — covenant, land, kingship, exile, and the long argument Israel has with God about all four.
Doctoral Seminar: New Testament Theology
The New Testament's witness to Jesus across four gospels, a history, twenty-one letters and a vision, and what it means that the church kept all of them rather than harmonising them into one.
Doctoral Seminar: Christian Doctrine
The doctrines that a reader brings to the text whether or not they admit it. Trinity, creation, sin, Christ, salvation, church, and last things, set out so you know what you are assuming.
Doctoral Seminar: Hebrew Bible and Ancient Context
The world behind the Hebrew Scriptures: Canaanite and Mesopotamian neighbours, covenant treaty forms, agrarian and exilic life, and the difference that setting makes to what a text meant when it was written.
Doctoral Seminar: Gospels and the Historical Jesus
The Synoptic and Johannine portraits of Jesus read alongside the sources, criteria, and disputes of historical study, asking how the church's confession and the historian's questions bear on each other.
Doctoral Seminar: Pauline Literature
Romans through Philemon read as occasional letters: the congregations that prompted them, Paul's argumentative habits, and the theology of grace, union with Christ, and the body that emerges from them.
Doctoral Seminar: Biblical Hermeneutics
The interpretive step itself. Genre, context, canon, and the reader's own location, worked through on passages where a careless reading and a careful one reach opposite conclusions.
Specialization Subjects
Six more that take the field into the places it actually gets used.
Doctoral Seminar: Pentateuch Studies
Genesis through Deuteronomy as a single narrative of creation, promise, exodus, and law, with attention to the composition questions the text raises and the covenant theology it establishes.
Doctoral Seminar: Prophets and Wisdom Literature
The prophetic books and the wisdom writings together: indictment, lament, and promise on one side, proverb, protest, and reflection on the other, and why the canon needs both voices.
Doctoral Seminar: Johannine Literature
The Fourth Gospel, the Johannine letters, and Revelation as a family of texts, marked by a shared vocabulary of light, witness, abiding, and life, and by a distinctive account of who Jesus is.
Doctoral Seminar: Biblical Theology
Whole-Bible theology as a discipline: tracing covenant, kingdom, temple, and exile across both Testaments without flattening the particular voice of any single book.
Doctoral Seminar: Spiritual Formation and Christian Vocation
Reading the Bible devotionally after a degree spent reading it critically, and the vocational question of what a person who can now handle Scripture is supposed to do with that.
Doctoral Seminar: Integrative Theology and Ministry
A substantial passage or theme carried the whole way: exegesis, theological synthesis, and a written account that would satisfy a scholar and still preach.
Admission Requirements
What you need to apply
- Master's degree in theology, ministry, or a relevant field from an accredited or recognized institution
- Official graduate transcripts demonstrating advanced academic preparation
- Research statement identifying a proposed area of theological or ministry inquiry
- Scholarly or ministry-focused writing sample
- Current curriculum vitae documenting relevant research, church, or ministry leadership experience
- Three ministry or academic recommendations and a faculty interview
Degree Completion Requirements
Requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy
Graduation Requirements
- Complete at least 60 doctoral semester credits in the approved degree plan
- Pass the Competency-Based Ministry Assessment for the degree
- Satisfy every doctoral-core, research-methods, specialization, elective, and Competency-Based Ministry Assessment requirement group
- Integrate theological knowledge with assessed ministry experience under the published result-weighting policy
- Recognize demonstrated learning against every published degree-plan requirement
Culminating Experience
Demonstrate doctoral-level theological synthesis, research judgment, and ministry leadership through Competency-Based Ministry Assessment, combining theological knowledge with assessed ministry experience.
Credit Distribution
| Requirement Area | Credits | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Doctoral Core | 24 | 8 courses. Doctoral theory, disciplinary foundations, and scholarly leadership. |
| Research Design and Methods | 12 | 4 courses. University-wide doctoral preparation in quantitative, qualitative, measurement, and research-ethics competencies. |
| Area of Specialization | 15 | 5 courses. Focused doctoral inquiry supporting the learner's research agenda. |
| Doctoral Elective | 6 | 2 courses. Any doctoral-level major course from any school that is not already part of this degree plan. |
| Competency-Based Ministry Assessment | 3 | 1 course. Integrated doctoral theological knowledge and assessed ministry experience, recognizing demonstrated learning across the published degree plan. |
| Total Degree Credits | 60 | All requirements must be completed within the approved degree plan. |
Program Details
Program Length
Self-Paced
Self-Paced Learning
Total Credits
60 credit hours
Up to 30 Transfer Credits
Published Degree Plan
20 courses
Across 5 required curriculum groups
Format
Flexible Study
Assessment Format
Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
Selected Degree
Doctorate
School
School of Theology and Ministry
Institutional Status
ICAS Accredited
Ready to Begin Your Accredited Biblical Wisdom Degree?
Applying costs nothing, and the work you have already done may count. Have a look at what this pathway asks for before you decide.