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Failing to Master Divinity: How Institutional Type, Financial Debt, Community Acceptance, and Gender Affect Seminary Graduates’ Career Choices

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Review of Religious Research

Abstract

Seminaries, as both educational and religious organizations, have the goal of training religious leaders. In this article, I analyze the factors associated with the breakdown of this process, i.e. when a seminarian does not want to be in a religious career. I offer four reasons for this breakdown: institutional type, financial strain, community acceptance, and gender. Drawing on recent survey data of 3015 American and Canadian seminarians graduating with the Master of Divinity degree from 136 seminaries from the Association of Theological Schools, I interpret results from multilevel logistic regressions testing five hypotheses. I find that Master of Divinity graduates who attend a university-affiliated seminary are less likely to want to be in a religious career, while those who feel more accepted within the seminary community are more likely. Educational debt has no effect. Most importantly, gender has profound effects on the choice to enter a religious career.

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Notes

  1. There are other seminary degrees, such as the Master of Arts and the Master of Theological Studies, whose emphasis is not solely on religious leadership. This present study only focuses on the Master of Divinity because of its explicit emphasis to train religious leaders.

  2. I include both the seminary’s religious tradition as well as the student’s religious tradition because, while there is some overlap, the two are not coterminous. For instance, 37 % of students within Mainline seminaries are not in the Mainline Protestant tradition. For Evangelical schools, 27 % are not themselves Evangelical, and in Catholic seminaries, 30 % are not Catholic.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion and Baylor University’s Department of Sociology. The data are provided by the Association of Theological Schools. The author would like to offer a special thank you to Kevin Dougherty, Christopher Pieper, Paul Froese, Byron Johnson, Charles Tolbert, Dennis Tucker, and Helen Blier, and the journal’s anonymous reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Baylor University, One Bear Place #97326, Waco, TX, 76798-7326, USA

    Todd W. Ferguson

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  1. Todd W. Ferguson
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Correspondence to Todd W. Ferguson.

Appendix

Appendix

Q15c: What would you like to be doing 5 years from now?

  • Parish ministry

  • Campus ministry

  • Inner-city ministry

  • Pastoral counseling

  • Hospital or hospice chaplaincy

  • Secondary/prep school teaching

  • College/University teaching

  • Church administration

  • Seminary teaching

  • Social work/services

  • Foreign missions

  • Home missions

  • Church planting/evangelism

  • Youth ministry

  • Church musician

  • Christian education

  • Spiritual direction

  • Social justice ministry

  • Further graduate study

  • Professional lay ministry

  • Other

Source: Association of Theological Schools 2012–2013 Graduate Student Questionnaire.

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Ferguson, T.W. Failing to Master Divinity: How Institutional Type, Financial Debt, Community Acceptance, and Gender Affect Seminary Graduates’ Career Choices. Rev Relig Res 57, 341–363 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-015-0209-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-015-0209-2

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