ICAS-Accredited Degree Program
Doctor of Philosophy in Pastoral Soul Care
Ph.D. credential
Explore how listening, prayer, and biblical wisdom can help you bring Christian hope and compassion to people who need care.
Doctor of Philosophy in Pastoral Soul Care: 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 study in Pastoral Soul Care is for those supervising carers and shaping congregational care systems. Most pastoral care is unglamorous and consists of turning up. This ICAS-accredited Kingdom of Life University program covers listening as a learned skill, care in illness and dying, grief, mental health crisis, the boundaries that protect both parties, and the referral network you need to have built before the phone call comes.
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 Pastoral Soul Care 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
- Pastoral Soul Care - Doctoral Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
- Credential
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Pastoral Soul Care
- 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
Ground pastoral practice in a theology of suffering and hope
Listen in a way that helps rather than in a way that fills silence
Recognise the limits of pastoral competence and refer without abandoning
Sustain care over years without being consumed by it
Learning Outcomes
Skills and competencies you will develop
Synthesize doctoral-level theological evidence, research judgment, and ministry wisdom for faithful leadership
Conduct a pastoral conversation that follows the other person's agenda
Respond appropriately to a mental health crisis, including referral
Plan congregational practice around a death that serves the bereaved
Establish personal boundaries and supervision arrangements that hold under pressure
Career Opportunities
Where this degree can take you
Pastoral care minister
Hospital or hospice chaplain
Congregational care director
Ministry supervisor
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
Reading Scripture with someone in distress — the texts that help, the texts that are routinely misapplied, and the discipline of not solving a person with a verse.
Doctoral Seminar: Old Testament Theology
Lament as the Old Testament's gift to pastoral care: psalms that complain, Job's refusal of consolation, and a God who is addressed rather than explained.
Doctoral Seminar: New Testament Theology
The New Testament on suffering, endurance and the body that bears one another's burdens, and what it does and does not promise.
Doctoral Seminar: Christian Doctrine
The doctrine underneath the visit: providence, suffering, the resurrection of the body, and what may honestly be said at a deathbed.
Doctoral Seminar: Theology of Pastoral Care
The theological grounds of care: creation, incarnation, suffering, and hope, and what they imply about presence, limits, and the refusal of easy consolation.
Doctoral Seminar: Listening and Presence
Listening as a learned skill. Attending, reflecting, silence, and the common failures of premature reassurance and unsolicited advice.
Doctoral Seminar: Care in Illness and Dying
Accompanying the seriously ill and the dying, covering prognosis conversations, advance decisions, sacramental practice, and care for the family alongside the patient.
Doctoral Seminar: Grief and Bereavement
Grief in its varieties, including anticipatory, complicated, and disenfranchised loss, and the congregational practices that help and hinder mourning.
Specialization Subjects
Six more that take the field into the places it actually gets used.
Doctoral Seminar: Care for Families
Caring for households under strain: marital breakdown, parenting difficulty, caregiving burden, and the pastoral response to family violence.
Doctoral Seminar: Care in Mental Health Crisis
Depression, anxiety, psychosis, and suicidality as a pastor encounters them, with the theology, the practical response, and the limits of pastoral competence.
Doctoral Seminar: Boundaries and Referral
Boundaries, dual relationships, confidentiality and its limits, and the referral network a responsible carer maintains before it is needed.
Doctoral Seminar: Care of the Caregiver
The carer's own sustainability: vicarious trauma, supervision, sabbath, and the difference between compassion and the compulsion to rescue.
Doctoral Seminar: Spiritual Formation and Christian Vocation
The carer's own sustainability — vicarious trauma, supervision, and the difference between compassion and the compulsion to rescue.
Doctoral Seminar: Integrative Theology and Ministry
A pastoral care question researched in practice, with a written account of what was done, what changed, and what did not.
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 Pastoral Soul Care 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.