ICAS-Accredited Degree Program
Doctor of Spiritual Direction in Spiritual Formation
D.S.D. credential
Deepen your prayer life, explore Christian spiritual practices, and reflect on how faith shapes the person you are becoming.
Doctor of Spiritual Direction in Spiritual Formation: 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 Spiritual Formation is for spiritual directors and those forming other formers. Formation is not a technique, and most of the literature treats it as one. This ICAS-accredited Kingdom of Life University program works on the theology of sanctification, the classical disciplines and what each is actually for, prayer including its dryness, discernment, formation in community, and the particular spiritual hazards of people whose job is religion.
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 Spiritual Direction in Spiritual Formation 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
- Spiritual Formation - Doctoral Competency-Based Ministry Assessment
- Credential
- Doctor of Spiritual Direction (D.S.D.) in Spiritual Formation
- 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
Give a theological account of how people actually change
Practise and teach prayer honestly, including its difficulties
Locate formation in community rather than in individual effort alone
Lead others in formation without substituting technique for grace
Learning Outcomes
Skills and competencies you will develop
Synthesize doctoral-level theological evidence, research judgment, and ministry wisdom for faithful leadership
Articulate the relationship between grace and human effort in formation
Design and lead a retreat with a clear formational purpose
Establish a personal rule of life and account for its effect
Guide a discernment process using the tradition's criteria
Career Opportunities
Where this degree can take you
Spiritual formation director
Discipleship minister
Retreat leader
Pastoral ministry 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.
Doctoral Seminar: Biblical Interpretation
Reading Scripture for formation as well as for information, and the older practices of meditative reading that the academy trained out of the church.
Doctoral Seminar: Old Testament Theology
The Old Testament's formative practices — sabbath, festival, psalm — and a spirituality built on repetition rather than on insight.
Doctoral Seminar: New Testament Theology
The New Testament on union with Christ and the Spirit's work, which is the theological engine of any account of change.
Doctoral Seminar: Christian Doctrine
The doctrine of sanctification, where grace and effort have to be related without collapsing either into the other.
Doctoral Seminar: Biblical Foundations of Formation
The biblical material on growth and transformation, covering union with Christ, the Spirit's work, and the relation between grace and effort.
Doctoral Seminar: Prayer and the Christian Life
Prayer in its forms and difficulties, covering the tradition's teaching, distraction, dryness, and the honest treatment of unanswered prayer.
Doctoral Seminar: Spiritual Disciplines
The classical disciplines examined rather than listed: what each is for, the evidence for its effect, and the ways they are commonly misused.
Doctoral Seminar: Formation in Community
Formation as a corporate rather than individual project, covering common life, confession, accountability, and the community's role in character.
Specialization Subjects
Six more that take the field into the places it actually gets used.
Doctoral Seminar: Pastoral Spirituality
The spiritual life of the minister, covering the particular hazards of professional religion, performance, and the gap between public and private.
Doctoral Seminar: Discernment and Vocation
Discernment of calling and decision, covering the traditions of discernment, their criteria, and the communal element they assume.
Doctoral Seminar: Christian Character and Virtue
Virtue and character formation over time, covering habituation, failure, repentance, and the relation between practice and grace.
Doctoral Seminar: Leading Formational Ministries
Leading formational ministry, covering retreat design, spiritual direction and its boundaries, and the formation of those who form others.
Doctoral Seminar: Spiritual Formation and Christian Vocation
The core of the program: a rule of life, its practice, and an honest account of what it did and did not change.
Doctoral Seminar: Integrative Theology and Ministry
A formational project in a community, designed, led and evaluated without reducing formation to a metric.
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 Spiritual Direction
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 Spiritual Formation 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.