Master of Peace & Justice (MPJ)
PROGRAMS / PEACE & JUSTICE
Anchoring Peacebuilding in Theology and Practice
St. Stephen's University offers a heuristic and practice-based Master of Peace and Justice (non-thesis practical option) that includes accommodating online courses, short intensive in-person collegiums, and travel-study course delivery methods, plus fieldwork and a capstone project, to allow students to complete their program without the need to uproot their lives.
Like our M.A. in Peace & Justice, this program equips students to engage the hostile, divided, unjust, oppressive, and violent corners of our world using practical grassroots and community-based peacebuilding skills and training with a theological foundation in peace and justice and through a transfigured interior life, prophetic imagination, and contemplative basis from which to participate in God's unfolding subversive and upside-down kingdom.
Tracks of the Master of Peace & Justice
To meet the different needs and interests of our students, the Master of Peace and Justice has three tracks with emphases on the inner transformation of a peacemaker, reconciling with Indigenous peoples, or peace and justice in the Palestinian context.
PEACEBUILDING, PUBLIC THEOLOGY, AND INNER TRANSFORMATION
This track is for students who want a general background in peace and justice studies, including theory and praxis, as rooted in the most pressing and pertinent theological considerations as they relate to peacebuilding and conflict transformation.
The curriculum of this track combines a focus on grassroots peacebuilding skills and training from the ground up, conflict analysis, public theology with a focus on peace and justice, trauma-healing and reconciliation, and the inner transformation of a peacemaker that engages contemplative and ascetic practices for encouraging the resilience, healing, and authenticity of a peacemaker that is then transmitted to a suffering, divided, and hostile world.
AT A GLANCE:
DURATION — 2 YEARS (FULL TIME)
CREDIT HOURS — 39
DELIVERY MODE — ONLINE COURSES, 10-DAY COLLEGIUM, 2-WEEK STUDY ABROAD TRIP, FIELDWORK, CAPSTONE PROJECT
EMPHASES — THEOLOGY OF PEACE & JUSTICE, CONTEMPLATIVE STUDIES, RELIGIOUS PEACEBUILDING, GRASSROOTS CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION
What's your experience been like as an SSU student?
JOEY AGER | SEATTLE, WA
Course Sequencing
PEACEBUILDING, PUBLIC THEOLOGY, AND INNER TRANSFORMATION
In the first year of study, students complete six online courses (18 c/h), and in the second year of study, students attend a short peace & justice 10-day collegium at SSU, travel on a two-week study abroad trip to Ireland & Britain or South Africa, and complete an 80-hour fieldwork course and capstone project (21 c/h).
YEAR ONE
FALL SEMESTER
PJST 5481 — The Inner Transformation of a Peacemaker
PJST 5380 — Theology of Peace and Justice
PJST 5180 — Peace and Violence in the New Testament
9 CREDIT HOURS
YEAR ONE
SPRING SEMESTER
PJST 5583 — Practical Nonviolence & Peacebuilding
PJST 5882 — Religion, Peace and Conflict
PJST 5182 — Peace & Violence in the Old Testament
9 CREDIT HOURS
YEAR TWO
FALL SEMESTER
Study Abroad Trip in Ireland (August – 2 weeks)
PJST 6090 — Peace and Justice Fieldwork
9 CREDIT HOURS
YEAR TWO
SPRING SEMESTER
SSU Peace & Justice 10-Day Collegium (April)
PJST 6700 — Peace & Justice Capstone Project
12 CREDIT HOURS
Delivery Methods
PEACEBUILDING, PUBLIC THEOLOGY, AND INNER TRANSFORMATION
ONLINE COURSES
Students will complete six online courses in their first year of study. These courses explore topics related to the inner transformation of a peacemaker, theology of peace and justice, the factor of religion and peace and violence, and practical nonviolence and peacebuilding. For more on these six courses, VISIT HERE.
IN-PERSON PEACE & JUSTICE 10-DAY COLLEGIUM @ ST. STEPHEN'S UNIVERSITY
This short 9-day intensive collegium takes place on-site at St. Stephen's University. It includes seminars and workshops that are led by a team of top scholars and practitioners covering such subjects as trauma healing and the inner transformation of a peacemaker; story and memory for peace & justice; approaches and skills of peace activism; and practical skills workshops on peacebuilding program planning.
STUDY ABROAD TRIP TO IRELAND & BRITAIN
This 2-week intensive study abroad trip includes academic sessions at Queen's University Belfast, Corrymeela in Ballycastle, and the University of Glasgow as taught by experts and practitioners in grassroots peacebuilding and theology. This learn-study opportunity also includes a 2-day pilgrimage on St Cuthbert's Way to Lindisfarne, a documentary screening with panelists from the film, folk show w/Tommy Sands, learning tours in Belfast & Derry, a retreat at Northumbia Community, and much more.
CLICK HERE for more info.
PEACE & JUSTICE FIELDWORK AND CAPSTONE PROJECT
The fieldwork course gives peace & justice students an opportunity to participate in efforts directed at addressing issues related to peace and justice from a variety of angles. Students will identify and coordinate work, co-op, internship, or volunteer placement opportunities with organizations that are working to address peace and justice issues that may be local and/or global in scope and read relevant texts and submit reflections and reports on their experience. The capstone project (approximately 40 pages, double-spaced) involves a practical initiative or strategy that is designed and implemented under the supervision of a mentor and then described in written form. It is meant to be professional or practical in nature and must be accompanied by a 10- to 15-page theoretical defence that is academic in nature.
Leadership Track
PROGRAMS / PEACE & JUSTICE / TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP
Leading with wisdom and resilience in a fractured and tumultuous world.
Students in the Master of Peace & Justice program have the opportunity to complete a Transformative Leadership Track as part of your degree. SSU's Peace & Justice programs are designed to help students think theologically about peace and justice, consider the factor of religion in peace and violence, become equipped for practical peacebuilding and conflict transformation, and wrestle with your own inner transformation as peacemakers. The Leadership Track equips MPJ students to lead transformatively in faith-based nonprofits, NGOs, and social movements with a peace & justice focus, while being rooted in a theology with dirt under its nails expressed as co-suffering love and solidarity with the vulnerable and disinherited.
Our leadership philosophy is simple yet multi-layered: Kenotic (self-giving and self-emptying) leadership from below that seeks to subvert harmful systems and structures of dominance and oppression, heal the fractures in our polarized societies, and usher in social change with wisdom, humility, courage, resilience, through inner transformation and strength in community.
How does it work?
If a student is enrolled in the Master of Peace & Justice program at SSU, you can receive the Transformative Leadership Track as part of your degree if you replace 6 credit hours of regular JFI courses with 12 credit hours of LEAD courses, which will increase the total credit hours of the MPJ from 39 to 45 credit hours.
Students must also complete a capstone project with a Transformative Leadership focus.
Students may also take fewer than 12 credit hours of Transformative Leadership courses as part of their Master of Peace & Justice if they wish as long as all other requirements for the degree program have been met, but once the number of these credit hours reaches 12 and the student has fulfilled the additional requirements of this Track, you will automatically receive the Transformative Leadership Track.
Transformative Leadership Track Courses
To receive the Transformative Leadership Track, students can take any four of the online courses listed below and replace a maximum of 12 credit hours of the courses in the Master of Peace & Justice.
FALL SEMESTER (SEPT. – DEC.)
LEAD 5000: THE ARC OF LEADERSHIP: FOUNDATIONS & CONVERSATIONS
3 credit hours
Professor: Team Taught by SSU's Board / Dr. Bradley Jersak
LEAD 5820: LEADERSHIP & JUSTICE IN A FRACTURED WORLD
3 credit hours
Professor: Anu George Canjanathoppil
LEAD 5222: KENOTIC & DECOLONIZED LEADERSHIP
3 credit hours
Professor: Fr. Joash Thomas
SPRING SEMESTER (JAN. – APR.)
LEAD 5652: STORY & POWER DYNAMICS IN LEADERSHIP
3 credit hours
Professor: René August
LEAD 5242: INNER FORMATION & CONTEMPLATIVE LEADERSHIP
3 credit hours
Professor: Osheta Moore
LEAD 5090: LEADERSHIP PRACTICUM PLACEMENT
3 credit hours
Professor: Dr. Andrew Klager
LEAD 5811: GLOBAL IMMERSION LEADERSHIP COHORT
3 credit hours
Professor: Dr. Jer Swigart
Multifaith Chaplaincy & Spiritual Care
St. Stephen's University offers a course that prepares students for multi-faith pastoral and spiritual care in a variety of chaplaincy settings. This course can be completed as an add-on to a master's degree at SSU (i.e., not included in the total credit hours of a student's degree program) or as a stand-alone credential without a program. We offer a certificate of completion for the course that can be applied to a student's resume as an academic credential for ministry rather than a CPE/CPU clinical credential.
