Contemporary Usage
The Master of Divinity has replaced the Bachelor of Divinity in most United States seminaries as the first professional degree, since the former title implied in the American academic system that it was on a par with a Bachelor of Arts or other basic undergraduate education even though a bachelor's degree was and remains a prerequisite for entrance into graduate divinity programs. The Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada accredits most Christian schools in North America and approves the degree programs they offer, including the M.Div.
The M.Div. is a significantly more extensive program than most taught (as opposed to research-based) master's degrees. In the United States the degree usually consists on average of 90 semester hours, as opposed to the usual 36 or 48. Ordination in most mainline Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church thus requires seven or eight years of education past high school: the first four in undergraduate studies leading to a bachelor's degree (which may or may not be in a related field) and then three or four years of seminary or divinity school education leading to the M.Div.
The M.Div. stands in contrast to the Master of Arts (M.A.) in theology and Master of Theological Studies (M.T.S.), the usual academic degrees in the subject (which tend not to include "pastoral" or "practical" courses), and the Bachelor of Sacred Theology (S.T.B.), Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.), Master of Theology (M.Th.), Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.), and Master of Religion (M.Rel.), which are also academic degrees. Schools with Pontifical faculties in North America often award both the M.Div. and S.T.B. at the same time after a three-year period of graduate studies.
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