ICAS-Accredited Degree Program
Bachelor of Arts in Patristic Studies
B.A. credential
Meet the early Christian teachers whose writings, worship, and debates helped shape the beliefs the church still shares.
Bachelor of Arts in Patristic Studies: Your Grant Price
Applications are free. Eligible applicants receive their admission and Grant decision before any one-time program fee is requested.
Published tuition
$9,900.00
$569.00 Registry & Assessment Fee
$69
Bachelor's 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
The B.A. in Patristic Studies reads the early Fathers directly, from the Apostolic writings through Chalcedon. The Fathers are where Christian theological language was invented — under persecution, against Gnostic rivals, in arguments so technical that a single letter divided the church. The ICAS-accredited program at Kingdom of Life University reads them in their own texts rather than through later summaries of what they are supposed to have concluded.
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 Bachelor of Arts in Patristic Studies 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
- Patristic Studies - Bachelor Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
- Credential
- Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Patristic Studies
- 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
Build biblical and theological foundations for faithful Christian life, witness, and service
Read patristic texts in context rather than as proof-texts for later positions
Explain the technical vocabulary of the trinitarian and christological settlements
Account for the theological and political pressures behind the early councils
Recognise where Greek and Latin theology proceed on different assumptions
Learning Outcomes
Skills and competencies you will develop
Interpret Scripture responsibly and apply Christian theology with wisdom in church and community contexts
Analyse a patristic text for its argument and its polemical setting
Explain what was at stake in a specific conciliar formulation
Compare Greek and Latin treatments of the same doctrine
Reconstruct an element of early Christian practice from the available sources
Career Opportunities
Where this degree can take you
Historical theology instructor
Theological researcher
Christian writer
Ministry formation leader
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.
Biblical Interpretation
Patristic exegesis on its own terms: typology, allegory, the rule of faith, and why methods that look arbitrary to us were disciplined by criteria we have forgotten.
Old Testament Theology
The Old Testament as the early church's Bible — the text they defended against Marcion and read almost entirely as a book about Christ.
New Testament Theology
The New Testament as it was received, cited and disputed before the canon was closed, and what the Fathers' quotations tell us about their texts.
Christian Doctrine
The doctrines in the making: how ousia, hypostasis, physis and prosopon acquired the meanings the councils fixed on them.
Apostolic Fathers
Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, the Didache, and the Shepherd of Hermas: the earliest post-apostolic writings and what they show about ministry, worship, and martyrdom.
Apologists and the Second Century
Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and their contemporaries answering pagan and Gnostic challenge, and inventing much of the vocabulary Christian theology still uses.
Trinitarian Controversies
The Arian crisis from Nicaea to Constantinople, following Athanasius and the Cappadocians and the technical terms on which the settlement turned.
Christological Councils
Ephesus and Chalcedon and the christological questions behind them, including the traditions that did not accept the definition and their continuing life.
Specialization Subjects
Six more that take the field into the places it actually gets used.
Augustine and the Latin West
Augustine's Confessions, City of God, and anti-Pelagian writings, and the long shadow they cast over Western accounts of grace, will, and history.
Greek Fathers and Eastern Theology
Basil, the Gregories, Chrysostom, Maximus, and John of Damascus, read for a theological idiom that developed on different assumptions from the Latin West.
Early Christian Worship and Practice
Baptism, eucharist, catechesis, and the liturgical year as the early church practised them, reconstructed from homilies, church orders, and archaeology.
Monasticism and Spirituality
Desert asceticism, the rise of coenobitic life, and early Christian spiritual writing, with attention to what these movements assumed about the body and prayer.
Spiritual Formation and Christian Vocation
Ascetic and liturgical practice as the Fathers understood formation, and the vocational question of reading people whose spirituality is genuinely foreign to your own.
Integrative Theology and Ministry
A patristic text or controversy researched in the primary sources and written as a sustained historical and theological argument.
Admission Requirements
What you need to apply
- High school diploma or recognized equivalent from an accredited or approved institution
- Official secondary-school and any prior college transcripts
- Demonstrated readiness for college-level reading, writing, and theological study
- English-language proficiency documentation when prior education was not completed in English
Degree Completion Requirements
Requirements for the Bachelor of Arts
Graduation Requirements
- Complete at least 120 semester credits in the approved degree plan
- Pass the Competency-Based Ministry Assessment for the degree
- Satisfy every general-education, theological-foundation, major-core, specialization, and elective 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 integrated biblical, theological, and ministry competence through Competency-Based Ministry Assessment, combining theological knowledge with assessed ministry experience.
Credit Distribution
| Requirement Area | Credits | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| General Education | 30 | 10 courses. University-wide preparation in written and oral communication, quantitative reasoning, natural and social science, humanities, and information literacy. |
| School Foundation | 18 | 6 courses. Shared disciplinary foundation for every program in the School of Theology and Ministry. |
| Major Core | 32 | 8 courses. Required disciplinary foundations and professional competencies of the major. |
| Major Specialization | 16 | 4 courses. Focused study aligned with the learner's academic and career goals. |
| Open Electives | 16 | 4 courses. Any bachelor-level major course from any school that is not already part of this degree plan. |
| Competency-Based Ministry Assessment | 8 | 1 course. Integrated theological knowledge and assessed ministry experience, recognizing demonstrated learning across the published degree plan. |
| Total Degree Credits | 120 | All requirements must be completed within the approved degree plan. |
Program Details
Program Length
Self-Paced
Self-Paced Learning
Total Credits
120 credit hours
Up to 90 Transfer Credits
Published Degree Plan
33 courses
Across 6 required curriculum groups
Format
Flexible Study
Assessment Format
Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
Selected Degree
Bachelor
School
School of Theology and Ministry
Institutional Status
ICAS Accredited
Ready to Begin Your Accredited Patristic Studies 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.