The four-year Bachelor of Divinity (Hons) programme is cumulative and developmental as indicated below. Participants can, however, exit with awards at the different levels – a Certificate after first year; Diploma after second year; and an Ordinary Degree after third year. 

Modules costs are indicative only – for our up to date and full fee list please go to our fees and finance page.

Level 7 (Certificate)

Tuition Fee £2015/year*

The first year aims to provide a broad foundation in several key disciplines including biblical interpretation, Christian doctrine, church history and areas of practical theology. Students are engaged in interactive learning and supported throughout the first year to ensure they are gaining confidence in the subject areas.

Module Module price / Audit Price Start Date Levels

Practice of Pastoral Care

£500

Jan 2024

7 or 8

Practice of Pastoral Care

Start Date: Jan 2024
Levels: 7 or 8

This module will explore from a biblical and theological basis the basic principles and practices of Christian pastoral care, using biblical text, historical examples and contemporary case studies.

Spiritual and pastoral caring can be described as the expression of the love of God towards others, in action and relationship, communally and individually.

Accordingly pastoral care will be introduced as a ministry of faith, hope and love, based on the cardinal virtues which seeks to:

  • enable trustfulness and nourish faith
  • strengthen hopefulness by encouragement
  • build personal affirmation by acts and attitudes of faithful love.

Such dispositions as:

  • imaginative compassion
  • thoughtful accompaniment
  • affective empathy
  • generous inclusiveness
  • consistent faithfulness
  • vocational integrity
  • confidentiality and discretion

will be considered as those qualities which create and sustain the relational and communal environment from which Christian pastoral practices grow.

The specific areas of Pastoral Practice which will be discussed include:

  • accompanying the dying and bereaved
  • care for the depressed person
  • celebrating love and marriage
  • incarnational visitation
  • pastoral prayer
  • spiritual friendship
  • means of grace such as Bible, public worship, Holy Communion and baptism.

Creative Mission in a Changing Culture

£500

Jan 2025

7 or 8

Creative Mission in a Changing Culture

Start Date: Jan 2025
Levels: 7 or 8

‘mission remains an indispensable dimension of the Christian faith and that, at its most profound level, its purpose is to transform reality around it’
(David Bosch, Transforming Mission, 1998, xv).

This module will introduce students to the ways in which the Christian community has historically understood and practised mission with a view to enabling the development of appropriate mission strategies relevant to the emerging shape of diverse local cultures in the 21st century. Biblical and theological perspectives combined with insights from the social sciences will provide a matrix through which a range of contemporary expressions of Christian mission may be articulated so as to form the basis for practical outcomes in a local church context.

The class will help students to:

  • understand the nature of cultural change in relation to the missional opportunities of contemporary culture
  • identify both traditional and innovative models of mission and explain how each may function in relation to diverse historical and cultural contexts
  • develop skills in cross-cultural theological reflection through an understanding of contemporary missional initiatives in the global north

Encountering the New Testament

£500

Sept 2024

7 or 8

Encountering the New Testament

Start Date: Sept 2024
Levels: 7 or 8

For personal use, public ministry, and Christian witness Christian people are concerned to handle the Bible correctly.

This module will provide you with a broad, wide-ranging approach to the New Testament. Key areas of study include:

  • how the NT is interpreted
  • the importance of translational choices
  • the significance of historical and cultural context from which a text emerged, and within which it is now being interpreted

Attention will also be paid to the importance of literary genres such as:

  • Wisdom
  • Historical
  • Narrative
  • Poetry
  • Gospel
  • Letter
  • Apocalypse

and how the nature of the genre affects interpretation.

In taking this course learn important skills and techniques which underlie responsible and informed interpretation.

Encountering the Old Testament

£500

Sept 2023

7 or 8

Encountering the Old Testament

Start Date: Sept 2023
Levels: 7 or 8

For personal use, public ministry, and Christian witness Christian people are concerned to handle the Bible correctly.

This module will provide you with a broad, wide-ranging approach to the Old Testament. Key areas of study include:

  • how the OT is interpreted
  • the importance of translational choices
  • the significance of historical and cultural context from which a text emerged, and within which it is now being interpreted

Attention will also be paid to the importance of literary genres such as:

  • Wisdom
  • Historical
  • Narrative
  • Poetry
  • Gospel
  • Letter
  • Apocalypse

and how the nature of the genre affects interpretation.

In taking this course learn important skills and techniques which underlie responsible and informed interpretation.

Work-Based Learning and Study Skills

£500

Jan 2024

7

Work-Based Learning and Study Skills

Start Date: Jan 2024
Levels: 7

This is a placement based module giving students the opportunity to integrate and reflect upon faith and practice in a Work Based Learning context.

This module normally spreads over the twelve teaching weeks of one semester.

Included at the outset is a pre-WBL Seminars in which you will be introduced to theological reflection through Journal writing. Combined in this class is the opportunity to develop study skills and improve your academic writing.

The WBL environment will normally be a local church or other appropriate vocational context and the Placement will be supervised by an approved College Supervisor.

Through engaging in a number of practical and vocational tasks, either accompanying the Supervisor or working under their guidance, you will be introduced to some of the routine and core tasks related to their vocational ‘ministry’ aspirations.

However WBL is about more than learning how to do; it aims to provide you with basic skills in reflective practice, self and other awareness in a ministry context, and a capacity to be self-critical and begin to understand the importance of self management.

A Learning Agreement will be negotiated incorporating the overall aims of the Placement, and its terms fulfilled within the WBL experience, including a written project, a Journal, a formative Supervisor’s Report and an end of WBL interview.

Worship

£500

Sept 2023

7 or 8

Worship

Start Date: Sept 2023
Levels: 7 or 8

This module will introduce you to the biblical and theological foundations, history, and practice of Christian worship.

Consideration will be given to Old Testament and New Testament worship practices, and then to a number of the predominant ways in which the Christian community has carried out its worship and why. This will include recognition of the influence not least on current British evangelical practice of the liturgical movement, charismatic movement, technology, and the post-modern.

Learning then moves on to explore the dynamics of a worship service in relation to such features as:

  • architecture and symbol
  • location and practicalities
  • revelation and response
  • gathering and sending
  • Word and Sacrament
  • the various ‘acts’ that comprise an ‘act’ of worship
  • the nature of participation
  • and the possibilities and limitations of singing

Attention is also given to specific acts of worship such as communion, baptism, marriage, infant dedication and funeral services.

In taking this course, participants will visit and review in relation to history, theology, movement, rhythm, symbol, and various acts, a worship service from a Christian tradition other than their own.

Preaching

£500

Sept 2024

7 or 8

Preaching

Start Date: Sept 2024
Levels: 7 or 8

This module will introduce you to the history, theology, and practice of Christian preaching as a particular genre of Christian communication related mainly to Christian ministry. The primary focus will be upon preaching as a ‘live event’ which takes place in the context of a congregation gathered in worship.

You will be introduced to the terms exegesis, hermeneutics, and homiletics and the way in which these activities are brought together in moving from Scriptural text to sermon. You will have the opportunity to work with a number of texts and consider preaching from these texts in relation to matters of:

  • Communication
  • Content
  • Context
  • Clarity
  • Creativity
  • Character

In relation to these you will consider issues of listening to your listeners, sermon form, illustration, use of technology, and embodied oral delivery.

By the end of the module students should be able to work from a text to a written and then delivered sermon according to a number of the principles and practices which are associated with good preaching.

As part of this process students will receive formative peer and tutor feedback on a sermon delivered in class.

Christian Leadership

£500

Jan 2024

7 or 8

Christian Leadership

Start Date: Jan 2024
Levels: 7 or 8

‘Leadership – what is it? How do you do it? Who is a leader? Who is not?’
(Walter Wright, Relational Leadership, xi, 2000).

This module introduces the core issues of Christian leadership as exercised within a variety of ministry contexts. Models of leadership derived from a variety of sources including the Bible, business and the voluntary sector will be considered. A variety of leadership styles will be examined and evaluated for their potential usefulness in pastoral ministry.

You will be helped to consider the pitfalls and challenges of church pastoral leadership and how these can be anticipated with compensating strategies. There will be discussion of leadership integrity, particularly the personal qualities of a leader in a faith community and whether it is possible to lead others in ways the leader has not attained. This will allow for consideration of what it means to lead within an ethical framework, ethics applying both to the leader and the practice of non-manipulative leadership.

Through case studies you will explore the challenges of Christian leadership in a faith community, exploring how to grow as a leader in skills and effectiveness. The course will offer the opportunity to critically reflect on the challenges of leadership in situations such as church meetings (business, deacons’, ministry team, etc.), the leader as exemplar in worship, pastoral care, relational integrity.

Church History

£500

Sept 2023

7 or 8

Church History

Start Date: Sept 2023
Levels: 7 or 8

This module introduces the key ‘turning points’ in the history and development of the Christian Church. It is based on the set course textbook which forms a major part of class discussion. Three particular ‘turning points’ make up the course.

The Road to Nicaea and Chalcedon: the narrative and social development of the early Christian movement and development of ideas about God, Jesus and Salvation. Included will be a survey of significant personalities and events, and the Christological legacy of the great ecumenical councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon.

The Road to Wittenburg and the European Reformations: includes an examination of medieval Christianity, ‘pre-reformation’ reform and Catholic Reform. The dominance of ideas and personalities, the significance of geography, and the impact of the European Reformations on subsequent history of the Church provides an entry into examination of several other major traditions.

The Road to Revival: the Evangelical Revival in the 18th century, including why the Evangelical Revival happened at all, study of the thought of selected founding fathers of Evangelicalism against the background of historical context and the legacy in later diversity of global Evangelicalism.

Through such study students will be introduced to issues of historical and critical study and the importance of history as a source of intellectual perspective

Baptist Perspectives on Being Church

£500

Jan 2025

7 or 8

Baptist Perspectives on Being Church

Start Date: Jan 2025
Levels: 7 or 8

This module will identify significant developments in Baptist history in relation to: Continental Anabaptism, British, Scottish, European, and Global developments. This will inform you of the radical tradition that emerges out of a Baptist committment to Christ, the Bible and the Free Church tradition.

In giving attention to significant events and personalities you will get the opportunity to engage with a limited number of source texts.

In turn participants will explore a number of Baptist convictions and practices emerging from this Free Church tradition of living under the ‘rule of Christ’. These include:

  • the believers’ church
  • believers’ baptism
  • communal discernment
  • mission and evangelism
  • freedom of religion
  • and dissident and prophetic engagement

Such topics will be considered in relation to embodied examples and practical implications not least in relation to the British and in particular Scottish Baptist context of church life.

Living Justly in God’s World

£500

Sept 2024

7 or 8

Living Justly in God’s World

Start Date: Sept 2024
Levels: 7 or 8

Living Justly in God’s World in an introduction to ethics and Christian doctrine. But more than that, it challenges us to think about what is “good” and what it is to “do good” in light of the unveiling of the story of God in His creation.

Beginning with an overview of different ways to think about what is “good” looking at reason-based ethics versus narrative ethics, we move on to think about how God declared creation to be very good and what it therefore means for us to live in and recover that very good story. Along the way we’ll encounter different ways of thinking about the beginning of creation, good and evil, sin and salvation, and the goal of creation.

A fast-paced, challenging, and rewarding module, these classes will give you a foundation with which you can build on and continue to wrestle with the big issues of the contemporary world.

Level 8 (Diploma)

Tuition Fee £2015/year*

Students continue to add to their knowledge and understanding by engaging with subjects such as Baptist identity (or equivalent studies in another Christian tradition), biblical studies, pastoral theology, preaching, mission and Christianity and culture. Several modules include off campus visits and opportunities to reflect on lived experience. Work Based Learning module enables students to engage with and reflect on service in a specific context.

Module Module price / Audit Price Start Date Levels

Work Based Learning and Theological Reflection

£500

Jan 2024

8

Work Based Learning and Theological Reflection

Start Date: Jan 2024
Levels: 8

This is a placement based module giving students the opportunity to integrate and reflect upon faith and practice in a Work Based Learning context.

This module normally spreads over the twelve teaching weeks of one semester.

Included at the outset will pre-WBL Seminars in which you will be introduced to theological reflection through Journal writing.

The WBL environment will normally be a local church or other appropriate vocational context and the Placement will be supervised by an approved College Supervisor.

Through engaging in a number of practical and vocational tasks, either accompanying the Supervisor or working under their guidance, you will be introduced to some of the routine and core tasks related to their vocational ‘ministry’ aspirations.

However WBL 1 is about more than learning how to do; it aims to provide you with basic skills in reflective practice, self and other awareness in a ministry context, and a capacity to be self-critical and begin to understand the importance of self management.

A Learning Agreement will be negotiated incorporating the overall aims of the Placement, and its terms fulfilled within the WBL experience, including a written project, a Journal, a formative Supervisor’s Report and an end of WBL interview.

With respect to the Journal and in order to meet engagement requirements you will be expected to submit weekly journal entries via the UWS VLE and will receive formative feedback on these entries allowing them to be changed and developed prior to the final submission of a hard copy for summative assessment.

Practice of Pastoral Care

£500

Jan 2024

Practice of Pastoral Care

Start Date: Jan 2024

This module will explore from a biblical and theological basis the basic principles and practices of Christian pastoral care, using biblical text, historical examples and contemporary case studies.

Spiritual and pastoral caring can be described as the expression of the love of God towards others, in action and relationship, communally and individually.

Accordingly pastoral care will be introduced as a ministry of faith, hope and love, based on the cardinal virtues which seeks to:

  • enable trustfulness and nourish faith
  • strengthen hopefulness by encouragement
  • build personal affirmation by acts and attitudes of faithful love.

Such dispositions as:

  • imaginative compassion
  • thoughtful accompaniment
  • affective empathy
  • generous inclusiveness
  • consistent faithfulness
  • vocational integrity
  • confidentiality and discretion

will be considered as those qualities which create and sustain the relational and communal environment from which Christian pastoral practices grow.

The specific areas of Pastoral Practice which will be discussed include:

  • accompanying the dying and bereaved
  • care for the depressed person
  • celebrating love and marriage
  • incarnational visitation
  • pastoral prayer
  • spiritual friendship
  • means of grace such as Bible, public worship, Holy Communion and baptism.

Creative Mission in a Changing Culture

£500

Jan 2025

Creative Mission in a Changing Culture

Start Date: Jan 2025

‘mission remains an indispensable dimension of the Christian faith and that, at its most profound level, its purpose is to transform reality around it’
(David Bosch, Transforming Mission, 1998, xv).

This module will introduce students to the ways in which the Christian community has historically understood and practised mission with a view to enabling the development of appropriate mission strategies relevant to the emerging shape of diverse local cultures in the 21st century. Biblical and theological perspectives combined with insights from the social sciences will provide a matrix through which a range of contemporary expressions of Christian mission may be articulated so as to form the basis for practical outcomes in a local church context.

The class will help students to:

  • understand the nature of cultural change in relation to the missional opportunities of contemporary culture
  • identify both traditional and innovative models of mission and explain how each may function in relation to diverse historical and cultural contexts
  • develop skills in cross-cultural theological reflection through an understanding of contemporary missional initiatives in the global north

Encountering the New Testament

£500

Sept 2024

Encountering the New Testament

Start Date: Sept 2024

For personal use, public ministry, and Christian witness Christian people are concerned to handle the Bible correctly.

This module will provide you with a broad, wide-ranging approach to the New Testament. Key areas of study include:

  • how the NT is interpreted
  • the importance of translational choices
  • the significance of historical and cultural context from which a text emerged, and within which it is now being interpreted

Attention will also be paid to the importance of literary genres such as:

  • Wisdom
  • Historical
  • Narrative
  • Poetry
  • Gospel
  • Letter
  • Apocalypse

and how the nature of the genre affects interpretation.

In taking this course learn important skills and techniques which underlie responsible and informed interpretation.

Worship

£500

Sept 2023

Worship

Start Date: Sept 2023

This module will introduce you to the biblical and theological foundations, history, and practice of Christian worship.

Consideration will be given to Old Testament and New Testament worship practices, and then to a number of the predominant ways in which the Christian community has carried out its worship and why. This will include recognition of the influence not least on current British evangelical practice of the liturgical movement, charismatic movement, technology, and the post-modern.

Learning then moves on to explore the dynamics of a worship service in relation to such features as:

  • architecture and symbol
  • location and practicalities
  • revelation and response
  • gathering and sending
  • Word and Sacrament
  • the various ‘acts’ that comprise an ‘act’ of worship
  • the nature of participation
  • and the possibilities and limitations of singing

Attention is also given to specific acts of worship such as communion, baptism, marriage, infant dedication and funeral services.

In taking this course, participants will visit and review in relation to history, theology, movement, rhythm, symbol, and various acts, a worship service from a Christian tradition other than their own.

Preaching

£500

Sept 2024

Preaching

Start Date: Sept 2024

This module will introduce you to the history, theology, and practice of Christian preaching as a particular genre of Christian communication related mainly to Christian ministry. The primary focus will be upon preaching as a ‘live event’ which takes place in the context of a congregation gathered in worship.

You will be introduced to the terms exegesis, hermeneutics, and homiletics and the way in which these activities are brought together in moving from Scriptural text to sermon. You will have the opportunity to work with a number of texts and consider preaching from these texts in relation to matters of:

  • Communication
  • Content
  • Context
  • Clarity
  • Creativity
  • Character

In relation to these you will consider issues of listening to your listeners, sermon form, illustration, use of technology, and embodied oral delivery.

By the end of the module students should be able to work from a text to a written and then delivered sermon according to a number of the principles and practices which are associated with good preaching.

As part of this process students will receive formative peer and tutor feedback on a sermon delivered in class.

Christian Leadership

£500

Jan 2024

Christian Leadership

Start Date: Jan 2024

‘Leadership – what is it? How do you do it? Who is a leader? Who is not?’
(Walter Wright, Relational Leadership, xi, 2000).

This module introduces the core issues of Christian leadership as exercised within a variety of ministry contexts. Models of leadership derived from a variety of sources including the Bible, business and the voluntary sector will be considered. A variety of leadership styles will be examined and evaluated for their potential usefulness in pastoral ministry.

You will be helped to consider the pitfalls and challenges of church pastoral leadership and how these can be anticipated with compensating strategies. There will be discussion of leadership integrity, particularly the personal qualities of a leader in a faith community and whether it is possible to lead others in ways the leader has not attained. This will allow for consideration of what it means to lead within an ethical framework, ethics applying both to the leader and the practice of non-manipulative leadership.

Through case studies you will explore the challenges of Christian leadership in a faith community, exploring how to grow as a leader in skills and effectiveness. The course will offer the opportunity to critically reflect on the challenges of leadership in situations such as church meetings (business, deacons’, ministry team, etc.), the leader as exemplar in worship, pastoral care, relational integrity.

Church History

£500

Sept 2023

Church History

Start Date: Sept 2023

This module introduces the key ‘turning points’ in the history and development of the Christian Church. It is based on the set course textbook which forms a major part of class discussion. Three particular ‘turning points’ make up the course.

The Road to Nicaea and Chalcedon: the narrative and social development of the early Christian movement and development of ideas about God, Jesus and Salvation. Included will be a survey of significant personalities and events, and the Christological legacy of the great ecumenical councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon.

The Road to Wittenburg and the European Reformations: includes an examination of medieval Christianity, ‘pre-reformation’ reform and Catholic Reform. The dominance of ideas and personalities, the significance of geography, and the impact of the European Reformations on subsequent history of the Church provides an entry into examination of several other major traditions.

The Road to Revival: the Evangelical Revival in the 18th century, including why the Evangelical Revival happened at all, study of the thought of selected founding fathers of Evangelicalism against the background of historical context and the legacy in later diversity of global Evangelicalism.

Through such study students will be introduced to issues of historical and critical study and the importance of history as a source of intellectual perspective

Baptist Perspectives on Being Church

£500

Jan 2025

Baptist Perspectives on Being Church

Start Date: Jan 2025

This module will identify significant developments in Baptist history in relation to: Continental Anabaptism, British, Scottish, European, and Global developments. This will inform you of the radical tradition that emerges out of a Baptist committment to Christ, the Bible and the Free Church tradition.

In giving attention to significant events and personalities you will get the opportunity to engage with a limited number of source texts.

In turn participants will explore a number of Baptist convictions and practices emerging from this Free Church tradition of living under the ‘rule of Christ’. These include:

  • the believers’ church
  • believers’ baptism
  • communal discernment
  • mission and evangelism
  • freedom of religion
  • and dissident and prophetic engagement

Such topics will be considered in relation to embodied examples and practical implications not least in relation to the British and in particular Scottish Baptist context of church life.

Encountering the Old Testament

£500

Sept 2023

Encountering the Old Testament

Start Date: Sept 2023

For personal use, public ministry, and Christian witness Christian people are concerned to handle the Bible correctly.

This module will provide you with a broad, wide-ranging approach to the Old Testament. Key areas of study include:

  • how the OT is interpreted
  • the importance of translational choices
  • the significance of historical and cultural context from which a text emerged, and within which it is now being interpreted

Attention will also be paid to the importance of literary genres such as:

  • Wisdom
  • Historical
  • Narrative
  • Poetry
  • Gospel
  • Letter
  • Apocalypse

and how the nature of the genre affects interpretation.

In taking this course learn important skills and techniques which underlie responsible and informed interpretation.

Living Justly in God’s World

£500

Sept 2024

Living Justly in God’s World

Start Date: Sept 2024

Living Justly in God’s World in an introduction to ethics and Christian doctrine. But more than that, it challenges us to think about what is “good” and what it is to “do good” in light of the unveiling of the story of God in His creation.

Beginning with an overview of different ways to think about what is “good” looking at reason-based ethics versus narrative ethics, we move on to think about how God declared creation to be very good and what it therefore means for us to live in and recover that very good story. Along the way we’ll encounter different ways of thinking about the beginning of creation, good and evil, sin and salvation, and the goal of creation.

A fast-paced, challenging, and rewarding module, these classes will give you a foundation with which you can build on and continue to wrestle with the big issues of the contemporary world.

Level 9 (Degree)

Tuition Fee £2015/year*

On this level, students are encouraged to think more critically and creatively from a number of perspectives. Students use and develop existing knowledge to explore complex themes and issues. In a fractured world, what does the Sermon on the Mount have to say today? Why does reconciliation lie at the heart of Christian faith and practice? How can we sustain a ministry of caring and leadership, within and beyond the Church? Using the Bible and learning to interpret it responsibly, engaging in theological reflection and work based learning experience, pursuing ethical enquiry and pastoral insight, students are accompanied in a learning process that seeks to be transformative both of them and the wider community.

Module Module price / Audit Price Start Date Levels

Reconciliation

£500

Sept 2024

Reconciliation

Start Date: Sept 2024

Christian approaches to reconciliation seek to balance theology and ethics, convictions and practices. In a fragmented and unequal world, increasingly affected by forces of globalisation, the practices and processes of reconciliation are mediating, informed by justice, and intentionally peaceful. Such approaches for Christians are rooted in theological convictions about the story of God as told in the Christian Scriptures, and as embodied in the lives of Christian people and communities.

In this module you will be exploring key theological and ethical concepts such as reconciliation and justice, conflict and peacemaking, exclusion and inclusion of friend and enemy, offence and forgiveness, difference and the definition of ‘the other’.

The module seeks to earth such concepts in practices and embodied examples of individuals and communities such as Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu and the Truth and Reconciliation process, and Mennonite peacemaking.

Throughout the module the theology and practices of reconciliation are applied to political, church and community contexts, informed by biblical and theological ethics, Baptist theology and contemporary reflection on mission.

Work Based Learning and Christian Leadership

£500

Jan 2024

Work Based Learning and Christian Leadership

Start Date: Jan 2024

Work Based Learning is a crucial element in formative and academic training.

This level 9 Module focuses on issues of leadership within a faith community, normally though not exclusively a local church congregation.

It is a block Placement normally five weeks in duration, and is undertaken within the overall guidelines and policies of the SBC relating to WBL.

A Learning Agreement is negotiated between student, Module Co-ordinator and the College approved WBL Supervisor. Aspects of leadership are identified, aims and objectives of the WBL experience formulated, and assessment content agreed and approved at the outset of the Placement.

Students on this WBL have the opportunity to:

  • apply previous learning in a vocational context
  • reflect theologically on their own and others’ experience
  • accompany and interact with a practicing professional in a local faith community environment, and begin to understand the practice, dynamics and key issues of ministry and leadership in a local church or similar context.

Creative Homiletics

£500

Jan 2025

Creative Homiletics

Start Date: Jan 2025

Preaching is not a fixed form but a dynamic and developing art.

This module will help you explore a number of contemporary approaches to homiletics (the theory of preaching) variously influenced by cultural, theological, and communicative concerns in order to ‘negotiate a hearing’ with listeners.

The various approaches considered include:

  • narrative preaching
  • collaborative preaching
  • trouble and grace preaching
  • moves and structures
  • preaching as performance
  • preaching as a ‘Word Against the Powers’
  • preaching as and to women
  • out-church preaching

In exploring these approaches the integrated relationship of exegesis, hermeneutics, and homiletics will be highlighted as will the difference between inductive and deductive preaching.

You will be given the opportunity to experience examples of some of these approaches, to take part in practical workshops, to critique a particular approach, and to present a sermon for peer and tutor formative feedback in another style, prior to its submission with commentary for summative assessment.

Students undertaking this module will have an opportunity to participate in some innovative performance exercises and take part in some street reading and interpretation of Scripture.

Old Testament Exegesis

£500

Jan 2024

Old Testament Exegesis

Start Date: Jan 2024

This module will supplement other biblical modules by focusing on the Old Testament texts, particularly the theologically and spiritually influential texts of the Hebrew Bible.

A particular feature will be the focus on theological exegesis as an increasingly significant approach in contemporary biblical interpretation. This will include the history of interpretation of the text as well as the theological, liturgical and spiritual importance of the text in the life of the church. Major Christian treatments will be considered as well as representative modern critical scholars.

Throughout the course there will be a detailed study of representative texts in their various forms, with time for wider class discussion and theological reflection on human experience as explored within the Old Testament.

The student will therefore develop skills in theological reflection, contemporary hermeneutics and scholarly engagement with the Old Testament, and appropriation of ancient text as applied in contemporary experience.

Spiritual Formation

£500

Sept 2025

Spiritual Formation

Start Date: Sept 2025

This Module explores Christian Spirituality from a number of perspectives. It does so by enabling the student to engage with the theological and practical dimensions of the Christian Spiritual tradition.

The nature of Spirituality is explored by examining biblical principles, surveying historical movements and identifying modern influences.

The dynamics and disciplines of the spiritual life, as expressed in the Christian tradition are then explored with worksheets, lectures, seminars and group work, so that you learn at both a theoretical and practical level.

Spiritual disciplines and their contribution to personal growth are studied, and these include:

  • meditation
  • spiritual direction
  • self-examination
  • worship
  • prayer
  • intercession
  • solitude
  • listening to God
  • the dark night of faith
  • discipline
  • suffering and service

The relation between spirituality and justice and social ethics will also be explored.

The Sermon on the Mount

£500

Sept 2023

The Sermon on the Mount

Start Date: Sept 2023

The general aim of this module is to develop and sharpen critical skill in the reading and explanation of biblical texts.

The biblical material, in this instance is the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapter 5 – 7). It will be explored by interacting with a number of exegetical and hermeneutical perspectives, including historical critical method, theological reading, ethical exegesis and the history of interpretation. The goal is to instil an ethic of reading that allows for differing viewpoints, yet enables and guides you, the student, to independent and evidence-based conclusions which are drawn from conversation and discussion within class, from secondary literature and further insight arising from your own study and experience.

The content, context, genre and canonical significance and interconnections of the text will be considered, moving towards an informed overview from which responsible interpretation can be attempted.

The Story of God

£500

Jan 2024

The Story of God

Start Date: Jan 2024

This module is anchored in the doctrines of Christology and Trinity but approaches them from a perspective that helps us to think not just about what these doctrines are but what use they are to us in churches today.

Starting with the historical development of the doctrines in the Early Church we uncover how these doctrines came into being and what light that can shed on contemporary discussion. From there we think about Christology to help us think about how to engage better with the question of suffering. Moving on we think about the doctrine of the Trinity and the various ways it has been used as a model for Christian practice asking whether this is really the best way to encounter the living God whose life we’re called to participate in.

An in-depth look at two doctrines that will change the way you think about doctrine and your whole approach to Christian living.

Theological Approaches to Contemporary Issues

£500

Jan 2026

Theological Approaches to Contemporary Issues

Start Date: Jan 2026

This module has a dual focus – theological method and engaging contemporary political and ethical questions.

The module makes the connection between the way we think about theology and how we live it out. Exploring a spectrum from theology an academic subject to theology as wholly “inside talk” we question how much we let wider ideas influence Christian thinking.

Furthermore, we plot this exploration against different ecclesial models and how subtle differences in the way that theology is understood can have a significant impact on the way we engage with contemporary political issues and the extent to which we believe Christians and churches can or should make a difference in shaping the world in which we live.

Along the way we consider the dominance of liberal society and its politics and ask how Christians can seek peace within the contemporary world.

Scottish Christianity

£500

Sept 2024

Scottish Christianity

Start Date: Sept 2024

This module will explore the way Christianity has played a significant role in shaping the life of Scotland and in turn been shaped by this context. The course will chart the historical development of Scottish Christianity, the impact this has had on Scottish culture, and consider the interplay between socio-political realities and theological and religious development. It will also endeavour to look at these developments in relation to a wider European and global setting. The module will deliberate on the complex nature of mission  and conversion amongst various early people groups; the Celtic monastic tradition of ritual and penance; the place of the church and theology in creating a sense of national identity;  the role of Medieval Catholicism in shaping and consolidating the state; the transformation of society through the Scottish Reformation; and the diversification of Protestant traditions; before turning to questions of British imperialism and Scottish missionary activity; sectarianism and secularisation. This module may, if practical considerations allow, and health and safety requirements are satisfied, include a field trip to a site of historical significance in order to understand better the location of historical events and how events have left their mark on the land.

Paul and the Gospel of Jesus

£500

Jan 2025

Paul and the Gospel of Jesus

Start Date: Jan 2025

This module will supplement other biblical modules by focusing on the scope and defining features of the theology of Paul in the New Testament, and particularly how aspects of that theology reflects and reframes the message of Jesus as it is portrayed in the New Testament Gospels. Particular features will include theological exegesis of the Pauline letters and the history of interpretation. Major Christian treatments will be considered as well as representative modern critical scholars.

The course will include detailed study of representative texts in their various forms, a brief survey of modern critical scholarship of the theology of Paul, and the history of Pauline interpretation. There will be time for wider class discussion and theological reflection on human experience as explored within these texts.

The student will therefore develop skills in theological reflection, contemporary hermeneutics and scholarly engagement with Paul, and appropriation of ancient text as applied in contemporary experience.

Level 10 (Honours Degree)

Tuition Fee £2015/year*

The Honours year provides the opportunity to integrate learning and increase confidence in exploring, discussing, formulating, defending, and revising arguments. Work Based Learning continues to be a key feature, with students choosing an area of personal development to form the basis of their placement. The dissertation encourages students to explore an area of personal interest through sustained reading, research and writing.

Module Module price / Audit Price Start Date Levels

Dissertation

£500

All year

Dissertation

Start Date: All year

The Dissertation gives students an opportunity to carry out a piece of supported research in an area of academic and vocational interest.

It is a double module extending over two semesters that requires you to research and write a 10,000 -15,000 word Dissertation on a topic of your choice although guided by Academic staff as to its suitability and achievability.

The process involves the preparation of a proposal which includes a chosen provisional title, brief abstract, some indicative Bibliography and provisional indication of chapter contents.

The Dissertation gives you the opportunity to demonstrate research skills, utilize a range of resources in the library and from the Internet, give evidence of analytic and critical thinking, and the capacity to integrate and apply previous learning.

You will be expected to work independently and use your own initiative; however the project is supported by supervision and peer review seminars.

Reconciliation

£500

Sept 2024

Reconciliation

Start Date: Sept 2024

Christian approaches to reconciliation seek to balance theology and ethics, convictions and practices. In a fragmented and unequal world, increasingly affected by forces of globalisation, the practices and processes of reconciliation are mediating, informed by justice, and intentionally peaceful. Such approaches for Christians are rooted in theological convictions about the story of God as told in the Christian Scriptures, and as embodied in the lives of Christian people and communities.

In this module you will be exploring key theological and ethical concepts such as reconciliation and justice, conflict and peacemaking, exclusion and inclusion of friend and enemy, offence and forgiveness, difference and the definition of ‘the other’.

The module seeks to earth such concepts in practices and embodied examples of individuals and communities such as Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu and the Truth and Reconciliation process, and Mennonite peacemaking.

Throughout the module the theology and practices of reconciliation are applied to political, church and community contexts, informed by biblical and theological ethics, Baptist theology and contemporary reflection on mission.

WBL and Personal Development

£500

Jan 2024

WBL and Personal Development

Start Date: Jan 2024

Work Based Learning is a crucial element in formative and academic training. This level 10 Module allows you to reflect on your learning and training so far, enabling you to identify key areas for further development. It is a block Placement normally five weeks in duration, and is undertaken within the overall guidelines and policies of the SBC relating to WBL.

The Learning Agreement is negotiated between student, Module Co-ordinator and the College approved WBL Supervisor. Through discussion you will be encouraged to identify your own learning and training requirements, looking to previous learning and WBL experience. Aims and objectives of the WBL experience are then formulated, and assessment content agreed and approved at the outset of the Placement.

Students on WBL have the opportunity to apply previous learning in a vocational context, to reflect theologically on their own and others’ experience, to accompany and interact with a practicing professional in a local faith community environment, and through the WBL experience, begin to understand the practice, dynamics and key issues of ministry and leadership in a local church.

Through the submission of weekly theologically reflective Journal entries students will receive regular formative feedback encouraging them to develop their learning through reflection and allowing entries to be developed prior to submission for summative assessment. ’

Old Testament Exegesis

£500

Jan 2024

Old Testament Exegesis

Start Date: Jan 2024

This module will supplement other biblical modules by focusing on the Old Testament texts, particularly the theologically and spiritually influential texts of the Hebrew Bible.

A particular feature will be the focus on theological exegesis as an increasingly significant approach in contemporary biblical interpretation. This will include the history of interpretation of the text as well as the theological, liturgical and spiritual importance of the text in the life of the church. Major Christian treatments will be considered as well as representative modern critical scholars.

Throughout the course there will be a detailed study of representative texts in their various forms, with time for wider class discussion and theological reflection on human experience as explored within the Old Testament.

The student will therefore develop skills in theological reflection, contemporary hermeneutics and scholarly engagement with the Old Testament, and appropriation of ancient text as applied in contemporary experience.

Spiritual Formation

£500

Sept 2025

Spiritual Formation

Start Date: Sept 2025

This Module explores Christian Spirituality from a number of perspectives. It does so by enabling the student to engage with the theological and practical dimensions of the Christian Spiritual tradition.

The nature of Spirituality is explored by examining biblical principles, surveying historical movements and identifying modern influences.

The dynamics and disciplines of the spiritual life, as expressed in the Christian tradition are then explored with worksheets, lectures, seminars and group work, so that you learn at both a theoretical and practical level.

Spiritual disciplines and their contribution to personal growth are studied, and these include:

  • meditation
  • spiritual direction
  • self-examination
  • worship
  • prayer
  • intercession
  • solitude
  • listening to God
  • the dark night of faith
  • discipline
  • suffering and service

The relation between spirituality and justice and social ethics will also be explored.

The Sermon on the Mount

£500

Sept 2023

The Sermon on the Mount

Start Date: Sept 2023

The general aim of this module is to develop and sharpen critical skill in the reading and explanation of biblical texts.

The biblical material, in this instance is the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapter 5 – 7). It will be explored by interacting with a number of exegetical and hermeneutical perspectives, including historical critical method, theological reading, ethical exegesis and the history of interpretation. The goal is to instil an ethic of reading that allows for differing viewpoints, yet enables and guides you, the student, to independent and evidence-based conclusions which are drawn from conversation and discussion within class, from secondary literature and further insight arising from your own study and experience.

The content, context, genre and canonical significance and interconnections of the text will be considered, moving towards an informed overview from which responsible interpretation can be attempted.

The Story of God

£500

Jan 2024

The Story of God

Start Date: Jan 2024

This module is anchored in the doctrines of Christology and Trinity but approaches them from a perspective that helps us to think not just about what these doctrines are but what use they are to us in churches today.

Starting with the historical development of the doctrines in the Early Church we uncover how these doctrines came into being and what light that can shed on contemporary discussion. From there we think about Christology to help us think about how to engage better with the question of suffering. Moving on we think about the doctrine of the Trinity and the various ways it has been used as a model for Christian practice asking whether this is really the best way to encounter the living God whose life we’re called to participate in.

An in-depth look at two doctrines that will change the way you think about doctrine and your whole approach to Christian living.

Theological Approaches to Contemporary Issues

£500

Jan 2026

Theological Approaches to Contemporary Issues

Start Date: Jan 2026

This module has a dual focus – theological method and engaging contemporary political and ethical questions.

The module makes the connection between the way we think about theology and how we live it out. Exploring a spectrum from theology an academic subject to theology as wholly “inside talk” we question how much we let wider ideas influence Christian thinking.

Furthermore, we plot this exploration against different ecclesial models and how subtle differences in the way that theology is understood can have a significant impact on the way we engage with contemporary political issues and the extent to which we believe Christians and churches can or should make a difference in shaping the world in which we live.

Along the way we consider the dominance of liberal society and its politics and ask how Christians can seek peace within the contemporary world.

Paul and the Gospel of Jesus

£500

Jan 2025

Paul and the Gospel of Jesus

Start Date: Jan 2025

This module will supplement other biblical modules by focusing on the scope and defining features of the theology of Paul in the New Testament, and particularly how aspects of that theology reflects and reframes the message of Jesus as it is portrayed in the New Testament Gospels. Particular features will include theological exegesis of the Pauline letters and the history of interpretation. Major Christian treatments will be considered as well as representative modern critical scholars.

The course will include detailed study of representative texts in their various forms, a brief survey of modern critical scholarship of the theology of Paul, and the history of Pauline interpretation. There will be time for wider class discussion and theological reflection on human experience as explored within these texts.

The student will therefore develop skills in theological reflection, contemporary hermeneutics and scholarly engagement with Paul, and appropriation of ancient text as applied in contemporary experience.

Scottish Christianity

£500

Sept 2024

Scottish Christianity

Start Date: Sept 2024

This module will explore the way Christianity has played a significant role in shaping the life of Scotland and in turn been shaped by this context. The course will chart the historical development of Scottish Christianity, the impact this has had on Scottish culture, and consider the interplay between socio-political realities and theological and religious development. It will also endeavour to look at these developments in relation to a wider European and global setting. The module will deliberate on the complex nature of mission  and conversion amongst various early people groups; the Celtic monastic tradition of ritual and penance; the place of the church and theology in creating a sense of national identity;  the role of Medieval Catholicism in shaping and consolidating the state; the transformation of society through the Scottish Reformation; and the diversification of Protestant traditions; before turning to questions of British imperialism and Scottish missionary activity; sectarianism and secularisation. This module may, if practical considerations allow, and health and safety requirements are satisfied, include a field trip to a site of historical significance in order to understand better the location of historical events and how events have left their mark on the land.