The Houston Baptist University Master of Arts in Theological Studies (MATS) is designed to meet the needs of those planning to enter vocational or bi-vocational church ministry, or of those already engaged in vocational or bi-vocational church ministry. The program is designed to enable the graduate student or graduate of this program to greater effectiveness and accomplishment in service through vocational church ministry.

Master of Arts in Theological Studies (MATS) is also designed to enable graduates to continue in additional graduate study or develop programs of continuing education for personal growth in ministry. Students will study intensively in the four major areas of theological studies: biblical, historical/theological, philosophical, and practical studies.


The Academic Program
The Master of Arts in Theological Studies (MATS) uses a seminar format in educational approach. A professor/specialist in a category will direct the study, functioning in a tutor-to-students approach. The professor gives guidance and contributes to the study of a subject, but much responsibility falls to the student to acquire information and share with fellow students through papers, presentations, and discussion.

The Christianity and Philosophy Department offers the MATS and the MATS with Languages. The MATS program is a program of 36 hours from a menu of biblical, theological, historical, philosophical, and practical courses offered by the Department of Christianity and Philosophy. A student, upon the invitation of a professor, may complete the last six hours as a thesis option. The course options for the MATS are list on the MATS Course Description page. A student who does not have Old Testament, New Testament, and a Christian doctrine course in graduate or undergraduate study must take CHRI 5300 as a first course.  (See Course Descriptions)

The MATS with Languages requires the student to take a minimum of six hours of Greek and six hours of Hebrew. The MATS with Languages may be further enhanced by following a language track in which the student can earn up to 24 hours in Greek and Hebrew. This may include exercising the six hours thesis option as additional language application through the writing of a thesis; a student must be invited by a professor to exercise the thesis option. Otherwise, the student may achieve 15 hours in language study through the coursework. Additional courses would be selected from the list included in the MATS track description. Students in the language track are urged to take Christian Scriptures I, II, III, IV (CHRI 5310, 5315, 6315, 6320) in their remaining course schedule. A student who does not have Old Testament, New Testament, or a Christian doctrine course must take CHRI 5300 as a first course. (See Course Descriptions)

The student will be responsible for critical essays on the major works in subject categories, ongoing evaluations by the professor on knowledge in subject categories, a major paper, and a final exam. A student with less than a “B-“ average for a semester may enter a new semester of work but will be on probation for that semester. Should the student have less than a “B-” average at the end of the probationary semester, the student will be suspended for one semester after which a case review will determine whether the student will be allowed to enter the program again. A Category of discipline mastered satisfactorily will be given an evaluation between “C-” to “A” and a student will receive the appropriate hours of graduate credit for the course. A course in which the student received less than a “C-” will not count toward completion of the degree. The grading scale will be the University grading scale as described in the Catalog.

Contact the Graduate Admissions Coordinator