The Doctor of Education

The Doctor of Education with an emphasis in Christian Counseling is a terminal research degree that prepares scholars to develop others who are called to serve through Christian counseling. This academic experience provides those already trained in Christian counseling with additional professional skills needed to teach in the local church and higher education, problem solve using social science research techniques, and influence thinking in this field through writing that is both biblical and academically persuasive.

Our guiding foundation is that the Holy Scriptures are both necessary and comprehensive for a holistic understanding of people as spiritual, moral, relational, psychological, and biological beings (2 Timothy 3:14-17; Psalm 1). Our aim is to bring the wisdom of God’s Word, the hope and power of His Gospel, and the unique relevance of the church community into the care and cure of souls-the restoration of broken people and their marriages and families.

We believe that Christian counselors can benefit from both the social and biological sciences. We take seriously the socially embedded and embodied nature of persons and aim to understand how social and biological factors impact one’s spiritual and psychological well-being. Thus, we aim to train students in Christian counseling that is clinically informed by the social and biological sciences, interpreted through the spectacles of Scripture, and applied from a Christian perspective on personhood and relationships.