Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.)

The purpose of the Evangelization Practicum is to ensure that STL students have some practical experience with evangelization as part of the program. If a student has had adequate practical experience with evangelization before entering the program, there will be no need to get involved in a new project. If a student has not had such experience he will need to obtain such experience before completing the program. The instructor will be the judge of whether previous experience is adequate or if a proposed new experience is satisfactory.

The Evangelization Practicum should ideally be undertaken after completing three of the required courses in the program: Theology of Evangelization, Evangelization and Spirituality, and Models of Evangelization. If this is not possible because of scheduling issues, it should only be undertaken after completing at least two of these three required courses. The student should register for the Evangelization Practicum only after at least two of these courses have been satisfactorily completed.

The reason for this requirement is that the core requirement of the Evangelization Practicum is to analyze the approved evangelization project/experience from the perspective of what theology it represents, what spirituality it embodies and what methods it utilizes. Such an analysis cannot be undertaken in an adequate way without the conceptual tools provided in the required classes.

After registering for the class, the student should propose to the instructor what evangelization project/experience he wishes to evaluate. Once the instructor approves the project, the student should submit an outline of how he intends to approach the evaluation. The evaluation should result in a 15-20 page paper that gives a description of the evangelization project/experience including an analysis of the theology it represents, the spirituality it embodies, the methodology it utilizes as well as an assessment of its effectiveness, including an evaluation of its strengths and weaknesses.

When a first draft of the paper has been completed, it should be submitted to the instructor who may wish to give input or ask for changes or additions to what has been done.

Only after the student has incorporated any changes requested by the instructor should the final draft be submitted.

The final draft should be submitted no later than the beginning of exam week at the end of the semester.