Courses

CCS offers a diverse range of over 35 master’s and doctoral level courses designed to equip chaplains with the skills and knowledge necessary for effective spiritual care in various contexts. Our curriculum integrates practical and theoretical components, ensuring that students are well-prepared for the multifaceted demands of chaplaincy.

Course offerings can be tailored to meet student and partner institution demand. All courses that have can be taught in one of two modalities:

  1. Fully online, making use of Zoom and the Canvas online learning platform.

  2. Hybrid format with an included in-person intensive.

Whether you’re an individual who wants to serve as a chaplain or an institutional leader who wants to make more educational opportunities available for those they serve, CCS courses provide the comprehensive training you need. If you are considering learning with us but are not connected to a partner school, you can be in touch about enrolling as an independent student.

300-499:
Master’s Level Only

  • This foundational course introduces chaplaincy studies. Chaplains are rooted in their religious traditions yet serve diverse populations. Students explore ministry resilient to pluralistic demands, complex suffering, and institutional challenges. The course covers five chaplaincy contexts: hospital, military, prison, campus, and hospice.

  • This course equips students to lead liturgical practices specific to chaplaincy, addressing pluralistic ministries. Topics include spiritual practices, prayer, worship, sacraments, and end-of-life liturgies.

  • Students explore strategies for self-care and fostering healthy organizational cultures in demanding ministry contexts. Topics include emotional fatigue, vicarious trauma, and replenishing practices, blending theory with experiential learning.

  • This course examines group theories and practices within multicultural contexts. Students study community organizing, solidarity, and pastoral approaches to community development.

  • Students engage with systems theory to analyze family systems, spiritual traditions, and religious institutions, with insights from Bowen’s approach and theological critique.

  • This course covers professional ethics, including confidentiality, informed consent, mandatory reporting, misconduct, and power dynamics in spiritual care.

  • Students gain proficiency in caring for individuals of diverse religious backgrounds through interdisciplinary perspectives and psychodynamic reflection.

  • Focusing on cultural humility and sensitivity, this course examines how cultural differences shape spiritual care practices and relationships.

  • The course explores chaplaincy in medicalized contexts, including skills in cultural analysis and providing care for the sick.

  • This course examines prisons, systemic injustices, and restorative justice. Students learn about reconciliation, pastoral care, and sustaining ministry in challenging contexts.

  • Students explore chaplaincy in social justice movements, focusing on trauma, caregiver boundaries, and practices to sustain wellness.

  • This course integrates somatic practices with spiritual care, highlighting yoga, breathwork, and meditation for emotional regulation and health outcomes.

500-599:
Doctoral Level Option



  • This course explores theories of human and faith development, emphasizing liberative praxis and case studies for practical application.

  • Students explore chaplaincy in higher education, focusing on identity formation, vocational discernment, mental health, and community building in multicultural settings.

  • This course introduces narrative therapy approaches to spiritual care, emphasizing social justice and short-term caregiving strategies.

  • Students study mindfulness practices for stress reduction, empathy development, and spiritual formation within and beyond Buddhist traditions.

  • Students engage trauma studies, theologies of suffering, and healing practices to address the pervasive effects of trauma in ministry.

  • This course explores spiritual trauma, its impacts, and strategies for assessing and supporting healing in diverse traditions.

  • Students study moral injury across contexts like the military and healthcare, focusing on effective community responses to guilt, shame, and betrayal.

  • This course examines pastoral care for veterans and military families, addressing deployment challenges, reintegration, and congregational support.

  • Students explore interventions for providing care to individuals impacted by gang violence, including existential, theological, and social resources.

  • This course examines pastoral care at the time of death, funerary practices, and theological perspectives on death and dying.

  • Students analyze grief experiences and pastoral care approaches, developing practical models for supporting grieving individuals.

  • This course explores Black theological approaches to suffering, emphasizing liberative strategies for spiritual care.

  • Students reflect on providing spiritual care addressing systemic racism, police brutality, and anti-Blackness, with practical interventions for care.

  • This course focuses on care for African American women facing systemic oppression, exploring theological and practical resources for support.

  • Students examine feminist spiritual care theories, promoting social equality and addressing diverse women’s experiences in spiritual care.

  • This course explores pastoral issues in LGBTQ lives, emphasizing theological and social insights for effective spiritual care.

  • Students study the First Amendment’s implications for chaplaincy, focusing on religious freedom, civil rights, and responsible public religious practice.

  • This course explores indigenous spiritual wisdoms, emphasizing respectful engagement and understanding in spiritual care contexts.

  • Students examine mystical traditions and their relevance for deepening compassion, spiritual care practices, and equitable engagement.