Seminary: The Traditional Option…

A fully-accredited Seminary is great, for those who need it, and can afford it. Many CUA clergy have attended a traditional seminary. If you want a paid career in chaplaincy or academia, you need to graduate from a fully-accredited seminary. We would love to help you through the CUA ordination process, while you attend a fully-accredited seminary!

But what about the rest of us?

The CUA offers a two-part, college level education program, designed to expose you to every area of a traditional seminary education—except Greek & Hebrew. It satisfies the educational requirement for CUA ordination (and has been accepted elsewhere too). While it’s not as lengthy or deep as traditional seminary, it’s serious studying: Thousands of pages of reading, and hundreds of pages of writing. You’ll compare and contrast differing interpretations, agree and disagree with famous scholars, take a local internship, and finish confident in your academic experience.

The program is broken-up into two sets of courses.

  1. The first set includes everything that any serious CU scholar should know.
  2. The second set is, primarily, for those who are seeking ordination through the CUA.

If you are looking towards ordination, the second set builds-on what you learned in the first set.  Your exact course requirements will vary, but this page will give you a good idea what to expect:

Christian Universalist Scholar Track, the starter set, includes:

  • New & Old Testament Survey (combined)
  • Introduction to Christian Universalism
  • Church History (emphasis on Universalism)
  • Living the Gospel
  • Intro to Theology 
  • Eschatology (comparative)

The Ministry Track, the second set, includes:

  • Hermeneutics
  • Ethics, Leadership & Polity
  • Universalist Apologetics
  • Synthesis of Scripture
  • Theology
  • Homiletics
  • Pastoral and Spiritual Care
  • A local, Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) unit, or other internship, for those without any ministry experience. It can be taken anytime, but during the Ministry Track is usually best.

Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) is on-the-job training for chaplains. It’s taught by most hospitals, and inpatient care facilities. The training is accredited by organizations such as:
* The Association for Clinical Pastoral Education
* The College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy
* or other organizations as may be available in your area, and approved by the CUA.
Please note: We don’t provide CPE, you take that locally, pay for it directly, then transfer it into your CUA program. For chaplaincy, your CPE evaluations covers your internship.

Here is a link to our textbook list. If you’re only looking for books on Christian Universalism, see the recommended books in the menu, under Resources.


Tuition, scholarships, transfers etc.

Total cost, for both sets of courses, is far less than a traditional seminary. There’s no application fee, nor tuition if you’re studying for personal growth; we’ll give you the assignment list, and turn you loose.  If you’re studying for credit, there is a “grading fee” (for lack of a better description) of $80 per course, which you can pay as you go; and includes academic assistance, the grading of your work, tracking of your progress, and a completion certificate.  Your total cost will vary depending on transfer credits, elective courses, CPE, etc. We do adjust tuition for students from parts of the globe where such tuition would be unreasonable.

All students receive credit for classes taken elsewhere, from any recognized institution. Testing-out of some classes is also permitted. We know there are some great Theological schools that are not accredited (after all, our internal program is not accredited), so lack of accreditation is not a cause for concern. Those with years of ministry experience will also receive advanced standing.

Contact us to schedule a conversation about your education, or ordination!