Bachelor of Theology: historical prospectus

Bachelor in Theology Programme

International Faith Theological Seminary®®®

Programme Dean and Degree Programme Design by:Programme Dean and Degree Programme Design by:Programme Dean and Degree Programme Design by:

Muhammad Wolfgang G. A. Schmidt,Muhammad Wolfgang G. A. Schmidt,Muhammad Wolfgang G. A. Schmidt, Ph.D. (Berlin Free University, Germany), Th.D. (ICW/USA), M. A. (Berlin Free University, Germany), M. R. S. (NationsUniversity, USA), Metropolitan Bishop Emeritus of the Christian Missionary Anglican Communion, Full Professor in Comparative Religion at International Faith Theological Seminary

List of Contents

On Our School (IFTS) 5 Legal Standing of our School and Accreditation Status 6

Objectives of our Bachelor in Theology Programme 7 Modes of Programme Delivery 8 Enrollment 9 Degree Programme Details 10

Semester Credit Policy and Requirements for Graduation 13 Imprint 14

On Our School (IFTS)

The School was founded by Dr. Schmidt and his Kenyan partners headed by Dr. Fred Maina Ma- charia in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2004 at the request of these Kenyan partners. At that time, it was an unaccredited school operating in cooperation with the Institute for Christian Works Bible School in the US State of South Carolina, USA, operating under a religion exempt licence issued by that State’s competent authorities. Legal but unaccredites degrees were conferred upon successful grad- uates until 2014 by that school. From 2008, International Faith Theological Seminary (IFTS) ex- panded rapidly to 8 different countries on four continents with partner schools being established there under national leadership. The international headquarter of this new school network was first situated in Nairobi and later in Solingen, Germany, with all national headquarters being duly regis- tered by the competent national authorities of the country where the school branch was situated. From 2009 onwards, IFTS Kenya was working towards national accreditation with the national Council of Higher Education, a special body of the Kenyan Ministry of Education.

In 2014, when Dr. Schmidt retired from the office of School President, IFTS in Kenya was re- named International Faith Theological College under the leadership of Dr. Fred Maina Macharia and be- came an independent instution of education at tertiary level then. Another part of the school now offers accredited degree programmes in Education and Business Studies under an interim univer- sity charter issued by the Kenyan Council of Higher Education. The theological part of the school remained with an uinaccredited programme status to keep costs down at a minimum level and to keep education tuition-free for all students enrolled.

Since its inception, IFTS had strived to offer high quality education for free those in need. All the faculty and office staff were working as volunteers, some native Kenyan faculty and staff received a minimum salary for their work based on funds generated from donations by former students who were succesful in their professional career after graduation from our school, local churches, and a few individual international donors. From the very beginning, IFTS offered various degree pro- grams for Christian Ministry, including theological subjects of study as well as degree programmes in Applied Linguistics with focus areas in Bible Translation and Teaching English as a Second Lan- guage (TESL).

As of 2015, IFTS continues to operate with a new partner in the USA, Salt Lake Bible College, at a much smaller scale. Currently, only secular degree programmes in Applied Linguistics and Teach- ing English as a Second Language with a considerably lower number of students are offered and conducted. Although retired due to reasons of age, Dr. Schmidt continues to offer his services as a volunteer to teach a few selected students in those programmes and to guide them through these programmes.

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Legal Standing of Our School and Status of Accreditation

Details of Legal Standing and Accreditation Status of IFTS can be found below in the Letter of Acceptance from our current partner Salt Like Bible College as a recognised study centre.

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Objectives of our Bachelor in Theology Programme

The programme contents were developed with the special needs of Anglican clergy in a cross-cul- tural and multi-religious African setting in mind. An Anglican priest in such a setting must not only be able to celebrate mass, to preach, and to provide spiritual guidance, he must also be a part- ner in inter-religious dialogue and be a qualified teacher. These factors determine the special con- tent structure of course topics in this degree programme.

There are various academic and spiritual objectives to be achieved by studying for a degree in this programme. Here are the details:

 Obtain a sound and general knowledge of Biblical contents in its specific historical, cultural and literary settings and being able to exegete a portion of Biblical text properly according to ac- cepted academic procedures and standards; a sound knowledge of the Biblical original languages and to understand the issues of Biblical Higher and Lower Criticism and to make a faith-based educated decision on the latter;

 Obtain a sound and general knowledge of issues relating to topics of Systematic Theology and Church History and to understand, view and analyse them in context with Biblical Scripture and la- ter developments in the post-apostolic age;

 Obtain a sound and general knowledge of various theoretical and practical issues relating to Practical Theology and practical clergy work relating to the parish and the church as a whole, being able to analyse and reflect them critically, and to obtain a number of practical skills relating to Christian Counselling, Preaching and Liturgy;

 Being able to engage in intelligent faith-based and inter-religious dialogue with non-Christian followers of other religions in a multicultural and multi-religious African or Asian setting;

 Being able to teach Bible and other topics relating to Christian ministry and the tasks of the Christian church and to obtain a good and sound knowledge of the pedagogical and didactic ap- proaches and procedures underlying them and to apply teaching skills in practice.

 To continously develop and grow spiritually and to combine faith with reason as a part of a ma- ture clerg personality.

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Modes of Programme Delivery

IFTS, from its inception in 2004, has followed a tripartite way of programme delivery:

 By distance study with a qualified personal tutor assigned to the student in cases when no study centre or school branch was available in the student’s area, or when no qualified faculty was avail- able in the student’s area to form a regional or local school branch; or

 by in-house teaching with students physically present in class being taught by qualified faculty; or

 by a combination of the two options above, depending on individual local, regional, and perso- nal circumstances of the student(s) in question.

The study and teaching material covered by this programme was designed with these three pro- gramme delivery options in mind and has proved to be excellent in its results over the years.

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Enrollment

Students wishing to enroll are required to hold a High School Diploma or a recognized equivalent.

Those who do not can alternatively enroll for the Diploma in Theology option (90 semster hour credits) and may continue additional study up to Bachelor level by following more advanced courses to earn another 30 semester hour credits required for graduation at Bachelor level (a mini- mum total of 120 semester hour credits required for the latter). To be eligible for this option, the student graduating from the Diploma programme needs to have a GPA of at least 3.5 or higher.

Students wishing to enroll must submit an application package that contains the following docu- ments:

1. a CV with full personal, educational, professional and church-related details, 2. two references/recommendation letters from a church elder, pastor/priest, teacher or any other respected person within the community 3. a recent photograph of the applicant, 4. a copy of the highest educational qualification (including any former student transcripts if avail- able), and 5. a letter of admission stating explicitly the degree programme the applicant wishes to enroll with reasons why h/she wishes to enroll at our school and why h/she feels called to Christian ministry work.

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Degree Programme Details

All educational services to the student in this programme are free, there are no tuition fees.

Details regarding the academic contents of study with the appropriate number of semester hour credits assigned to each course are given in the Tables that follow on the next pages.

All courses listed on the following pages are mandatory, and exemptions from these requirements can be made can only be made in very exceptional circumstances; the decision on such exemp- tion requests from students is at the discretion of the school and the President or competent Dean of Studies.

For each of the courses listed, there is a course module exam that may consist of multiple choice, essay type questions, and in some cases of additional project or practical assignments. A mini- mum of 75 % is required for passing the course module exam and to be awarded the number of semester credit hours applicable to the course. Students who fail the course module exams can re- peat the exam twice.

List of Subject Areas of Study in this Bachelor Degree Programme

Subjects of this Area of Study Biblical Theology 1. Hermeneutics 2. Old Testament Exegesis 3. Biblical Hebrew 4. New Testament Exegesis 5. Biblical Greek Systematic Theology 1. Dogmatics 2. Christan Ethics 3. Dogmatic History Church History Ancient, Medieval and Modern Periods Practical Theology 1. Pastoral Theology 2. Homiletics 3. Christian Counselling 4. Practical Parish Work and Skills Comparative Religion 1. General Theoretical Approaches and Methodology 2. World Religions (Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Bud- dhism) 3. Traditional African Religion 4. Methodology of Comparison with Christianity Christian Education Pedagogy, Didactics and Methodology of Christian Edu- cation, Lesson Planning

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I. Biblical Theology

Subject Area of Study Course Semester Credit Hours Awarded A. Introduction To 1. General Introduction to Bible 2 Biblical Theology 2. Hermeneutics 2 B. Old Testament 3. Biblical Hebrew 3 Exegesis 4. Old Testament Survey 3 C. New Testament 5. Biblical Greek 3 Exegesis 6. New Testament Survey 3 D. Selected Book 7. Genesis 1 - 11 & Deuteronomy 2 Studies 8. Matthew, Mark, John 2 Total Credits To Be Awarded: 20

II. Systematic Theology

Subject Area of Study Course Semester Credit Hours Awarded A. Dogmatics 9. Dogmatics - Overview 2 B. Ethics 10. Christian Ethics - Overview 2 C. Dogmatic History 11. Dogmatic History - Overview 5 Total Credits to Be Awarded: 9

III. Church History

Subject Area of Course Semester Credit Study Hours Awarded A. General 12. General Church History - Overview 2 B. Special Topics in 13. Special Topics in Early Church History Early Church History 4 C. The Early British 14. The Early British Church - Historical Data, Factors and Processes Church of Development 4 Total Credits To Be Awarded: 6

IV. Practical Theology

Subject Area of Course Semester Credit Study Hours Awarded A. Practical 15. Pastoral Theology 1 Theology I 16. Christian Counselling 2 17. Homiletics I 1 B. Practical 18. Homiletics II 5 Theology II C. Parish Work 19. Practical and theoretical tutorials on Marriage, Baptism, Spiritual 5 Direction, and other relevant topics Total Credits To Be Awarded: 14

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V. Comparative Religion

Subject Area of Study Course Semester Credit Hours Awarded A. Introduction to 20. Introduction to the Study of Comparative Religion, its Approaches 5 the Study of Com- and Methodology parative Religion 21. The Study of Comparative Religion 2 22. Current Issues in Comparative Religion 3 B. Comparing World 23. Islam and Christianity 3 Religions with Chris- tianity 24. Other Asian Religions (Hinduism, Buddhism) and Christianity 2 25. Judaism and Christianity 5 C. Traditional Reli- 26. Myths and Religious Faith 10 gion in Africa 27. Religious Myth of the Zulu and Khoisan 10 28. Issues of Rites and Cult 10 Total Credits To Be Awarded: 50

VI. Christian Education

Subject Area of Study Course Semester Credit Hours Awarded A. Pedagogy 29. Christian Education Pedagogy 8 B. Didactics 30. Christian Education Didactics 7 C. Lesson Planning 31. Christian Education Lesson Planning 3 Total Credits To Be Awarded: 21

Calculation of Total Credits Required for graduation from this Bachelor programme

Focus Area of Study Credits I. Biblical Theology 20 II. Systematic Theology 9 III. Church History 6 IV. Practical Theology 14 V. Comparative Religion 50 VI. Christian Education 21 Total Amount of Degree Programme Credits Required For Graduation: 120

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Semester Credit Policy and Requirements for Graduation

Semester Hour Credit Policy Semester hour credits are awarded on the basis of course module exams passed by the student with a minimum grade of 75 % required.

Transfer credits from other recognized institutions will be acceptable if appropriate documents are submitted giving evidence of such credits obtained at other reciognized institutions with a mini- mum grade of 75 % and if the contents of the respective course are within the curricular scheme of the degree programme of our school. The acceptance and or rejection of such transfer credits is at the discretion of the competent Dean of Academic Studies and/or the President of this school.

General Requirements for Bachelor Graduation 1. All course module exams prescribed for this programme must have been passed successfully with a mimimum grade of 75 % by the student and a total minimum of 120 semester hour credits must have been earned by the student.

2. A final Bachelor paper on a topic selected by the student and approved by the school of at least 30 pages must have been submitted and been awarded a minimum grade of 75 % by the supervi- sor in charge.

3. When the students has met all requirements for Bachelor graduation, a Bachelor degree docu- ment will be issued to him or her along with a Final Student Transcript.

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Curriculum and Degree Programme Design by: Dr. Muhammad W. G. A. Schmidt, Metropolitan Bishop Emeritus of the Christian Missionary Anglican Communion and President of the International Faith Theological Seminary, 2016

(C)opyright by International Faith Theological Seminary and Dr. Muhammad Schmidt, 2016 All Rights Reserved Worldwide

Office Address and other Contact Details: International Faith Theological Seminary Dr. Muhammad W. G. A. Schmidt, President Klostergasse 3 98574 Schmalkalden, Germany Tel.: 0049-3683-6849980 Web: http://www.ifts.edu.tf Email: [email protected]

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