I am persuaded that you’re right-- it was trivial. Thanks for taking the time to explain.
The difference is simple, isn’t it? Democrats are better. Right?
Matthew 23:24.
Regards,
Shodan
Is insulting through Bible quotes allowed?
Everybody thinks the Pharisees are the other guys. You know, the hypocrites.
Trivialities aside, are we all agreed that:
1- Mr Huckabee probably learned next to nothing about Islam in college,
2- What he knows about Islam he learned from right wing islamophobes, and
3- What he knows about Islam is probably mostly wrong?
The D.D. is no longer (and I’m not positive it ever was) given as an earned degree by American universities. I believe the D.D. is still granted by Oxford and Cambridge as a “higher doctorate” for religious scholars with a long history of published works. In the US, it is strictly an honorary degree. (John Dominic Crossan is the first person to come to mind with an earned D.D., which he received in from an Irish university. I don’t know if they regard it as a higher doctorate or as a Ph.D. equivalent.)
The standard “first professional” degree that most Christian denominations regard as the basic requirement for ordination is the Master of Divinity (M.Div.). This used to be called a Bachelor of Theology (B.Th.) until, I think, the 1970’s, dating back to when it did not require an undergraduate degree as a prerequisite. (The same thing happened in Law, where the Bachelor of Laws became the J.D. to reflect it’s graduate status.) There are other masters degrees in theology, variously named, for those preparing for a Ph.D. or not seeking to be ordained. My school granted the Master of Theological Studies (M.T.S.) as a general-purpose master’s degree in theology and an M.A. which was tailored for those planning on being ordained as Deacons in the United Methodist Church. At other seminaries, the names were sometimes reversed.
The standard doctoral degrees are the Ph.D., Th.D., and D.Min. The Ph.D. is, of course, an academic degree most useful for teaching at a college or university. Some ministers get a Ph.D., but most ministers who call themselves “Doctor” have a D.Min. Harvard and a few others award a Doctor of Theology (Th.D.) instead of a Ph.D. in theology just to be stuffy. It’s the same thing.
The Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) requires an M.Div. as a prerequisite and is a professional degree focussed on practical aspects of ministry. It is basically advanced continuing education for ministers and doesn’t really qualify you for anything except maybe a higher salary if you can convince your church. A lot of churches like to be able to call their pastor “Doctor.” It also looks good if you want to be a bishop or an administrator at a seminary or a big church institution. The president of the seminary I went to grad school at got his D.Min. because the school wouldn’t promote him without it–it just wouldn’t look right to have a school president who didn’t have a doctorate. (The dean and the faculty all had Ph.D.s, of course.)
More than you wanted to know, I’m sure.
FTR, the Southern Baptist Church (Huck’s denomination) doesn’t require any prerequisites for ordination. Local congregations are entirely independent, and your local church could ordain a goldfish if they saw fit. (Good luck getting them to let him vote at the convention, though.) Most moderately sized churches want someone with an M.Div. or a D.Min., but a small county church may just want someone who can get them fired up, even if he didn’t graduate 6th grade.