cheap RA MMaster's in Religious Studies

I am looking for a moderately-prized (=cheap) RA Masters degree in Religious Studies. Any advise is very much appreciated.
adelheid

 

So let's make sure we're clear about exactly what you're looking for...

What qualifies as "cheap"? At what cost-per-semester hour do we reach your "upper limit," financially speaking?

Will just any ol' "religious studies" program do, or do you have some sort of denominational preference? I mean, will a degree from a Buddhist seminary be okay? Baptist? Methodist? What?

If there's no denominational preference, does theo-political conservatism vs. liberalism matter? If so, which is your leaning?

Must it be "religious studies," or can it be "religion"?

A "masters degree in" can mean either a "Master of Arts in" or a "Master of"... does it matter? In other words, does it matter if it's:

• a "Master of Arts in Religious Studies"; or,
  
• a "Master of Religious Studies"; or,
  
• a "Master of Arts in Religion"; or,
  
• a "Master of Religion"; or,
  
• etc.

Have you checked the Baker's Guide?

Is it "RA or no way," or will NA do?

If anyone can think of any other questions to ask, fire away.

 

Gee, Gregg, you're being sooooooooooooooooo analytical.

But seriously, for someone who hasn't asked himself these questions already, the best resource is probably the classified ad section of the National Enquirer.

 

Very funny...

"What qualifies as "cheap"? At what cost-per-semester hour do we reach your "upper limit," financially speaking?"
--> as cheap as possible. I'm not rich, and I'm paying for this myself.

"Will just any ol' "religious studies" program do, or do you have some sort of denominational preference? I mean, will a degree from a Buddhist seminary be okay? Baptist? Methodist? What?"
--> I did not state a denominal preference, as I want to broaden my general knowledge about religion, baptist, buddhist... yes, sure.


"Must it be "religious studies," or can it be "religion"?"
--> religion, religious studies, yes, sure, it can be either way.


"A "masters degree in" can mean either a "Master of Arts in" or a "Master of"... does it matter?"
--> no, it does not matter. I wish to learn for the sake of learning, not for the parchment.

Have you checked the Baker's Guide?
--> yea, but I was undre the impression that all his universities require at least one semester on campus. I was looking for a 100% DL degree program.

Is it "RA or no way," or will NA do?
--> RA only

If anyone can think of any other questions to ask, fire away.
--> Yes, I'll fire back, Gotcha. They'll never know what hit'em.

adelheid

 

Were you looking for a broad interdisciplinary comparative religion degree (a little Christianity, a little Judaism, a little Islam, a little Hinduism, a little Budhism, a little Native American religfion, a little African traditional religion, etc.)? Because sometimes Master of Arts in Religious Studies and like degree nomenclatures really mean the study of Christianity at some schools.

 

Secular degree in "Religion"?

If what you're looking for is an inexpensive, accredited secular MA in Religious Studies, then the University of South Africa MA in Religious Studies may fit the bill, although I don't personally know anyone who has been through this program.

Peace,

Matt

 

Have a look at Liberty University's distance learning programs:

http://www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=8733

It offers a MA in Religion as well as a Master of Divinity.

 

Since the first word in the title of this thread was "cheap" I thought I'd point out that UNISA has a Masters program in Religious Studies.
Jack

 

It almost sounds as though you're perhaps interested in looking at religion as an aspect of the humanities -- as opposed to a religion degree where the focus is on developing ministry skills. I believe that with a little intentionality you could focus a good deal of attention on religious studies if you took the HUX degree at Cal State Univ DH. Am I reading your intentions correctly? What exactly are you intending to do with this degree? Your goals?

 

Re: Re: cheap RA MMaster's in Religious Studies

The only completely distance degrees they
offer are the M.A. in Relgion with a
concentration in church ministries and
M.Div with the church ministries concentration.All others = some campus
time.

They are also a Baptist school,so that
denominations teachings will be the major focal point.

 

The Bakers Guide simply lists distance-learning religious degrees that are accredited by USDE- and/or CHEA-approved agencies... with the accreditors in bold meaning that they're regional accreditors. Nothing about residencies is mentioned. Some of the programs listed there may very well require residencies, but most probably don't. I don't think whatever residency a given program requires -- if any -- was a consideration at Baker's Guide. You should definitly look at it and check-out whatever programs it lists which seem appropriate to you. Just remember that it's kinda' out-of-date. What I mean is, several other programs have cropped-up since the Baker's Guide listing was compiled. A new and updated listing is in the works, but hasn't been released yet.

If you want us to take your "cheap" criterion seriously, you're going to have to specify a range of numbers. One's person's "cheap" is another's "out of the question."

If you really want "cheap" -- by US standards -- then the suggestion about UNISA has no rival. It's so much less than even the cheapest (even NA) programs in the US (and even in the UK or Australia) that it's really the only choice in its general price range. UNISA has its government's approval/accreditation in the same sense that we mean that here in the US; so a masters from UNISA is easily on-par with a US regionally-accredited masters of similar name/designation. To ensure that a UNISA degree (or any foreign degree, for that matter) is viewed as truly equivalent to a US RA degree by US colleges/universities, the US government, and US private and public employers, be sure to have it evaluated by one of the US foreign credential evaluators that I link to in my signature.

If, on the other hand, you're willing to go as high as... oh... let's say $300 per credit hour for a US RA program, then that will broaden the possibilities for you quite a bit. Is that number too high?

 

Liberty is dirt cheap in this regard; is accredited, so you don't have the UNISA problems.

I would disagree that the Liberty Baptist Seminary is distinctly "Baptist" anymore-- according to faculty there, "as Liberty grows", so does its perspective.
I would characterize it more a generic "evangelical" school, not unlike Gordon-Conwell.

 

adelheid,

If one knows how to craft a search string, one can make Google produce some extremely meaningful, highly-targeted search results which may very well point one to the kind of degree you seek. You just need to have some serious patience. Don't bother unless you have some serious time on your hands to look at the links in the search results and check things out, one by one. Normally that sort of thing isn't worth it.. but that's only because the search string wasn't good enough. If you use one of my atomic search strings, below, you'll find tons of programs.

To find what you're looking for at predominantly US schools which use the .edu top level domain (TLD) in their web addresses, copy-and-paste the following into the Google search box:

• +"master of religion" OR "master of religious studies" OR "master of arts in religion" OR "master of arts in religious studies" +"distance learning" OR "distance education" OR online site:.edu

Don't worry that the above search string wraps to multiple lines on this page. There are no carriage-returns or line feeds in it here, so you may simply click-and-drag the mouse over the search string and scoop it up altogether into your computer's clipboard; then paste it into the Google search box. It will appear there as one continuous string.

• WARNING: Remember that not every institution whose web site utilizes the .edu TLD is accredited. If you find something that interests you, be sure to check it out in the CHEA database to make sure it's regionally-accredited.

To find what you're looking for among UK schools, copy-and-paste the following into the Google search box:

• +"master of religion" OR "master of religious studies" OR "master of arts in religion" OR "master of arts in religious studies" +"distance learning" OR "distance education" OR online site:.ac.uk

It's the same search string, but with .ac.uk where the previous string had .edu.

To find what you're looking for among Australian schools, copy-and-paste the following into the Google search box:

• +"master of religion" OR "master of religious studies" OR "master of arts in religion" OR "master of arts in religious studies" +"distance learning" OR "distance education" OR online site:.edu.au

It's the same search string, but with .edu.au where the previous string had .ac.uk.

Again, I stress patience. The degree you're looking for will be somewhere in one of the search results pages that will appear if you use the above-listed strings. You just need to be patient enough to find it. Were it me, I'd go as high as 30 search results pages deep... or more. That's gonna' take some time, but it will pay off.