自哈佛成立以来，对部长的教育一直是哈佛使命的核心。认识到世界是一个宗教多元化的地方，许多信仰社区的MDiv学生并肩学习，以增进对宗教间对话和工作的了解。作为在事奉和力量上不断增加的多样性的一部分，HDS建立了新近专注的佛教事工倡议，其他类似的倡议也可能随之而来。HDS MDiv经验的独特性在于，相信作为一名博学的牧师，必须学习自己的宗教传统并与他人接触。HDS的MDiv学生学习让自己在某个环境中获得的知识（例如，教室，医院或会众）告知并增强在另一个环境中获得的知识。即将毕业的MDiv学生离开HDS时所拥有
The three-year, full-time master of divinity (MDiv) program consists of rigorous intellectual scholarship combined with real-world experience, in settings such as churches, synagogues, mosques, hospitals, shelters, and other institutions of care. Students study their own faith tradition (and many others) alongside students from different traditions and backgrounds. Students who consider themselves 'spiritual but not religious, atheist, agnostic, or have embarked on their own spiritual formation, are a welcome and large segment of the HDS master of divinity cohort.<br><br>Students graduating with a master of divinity leave HDS with knowledge and experience that prepare them to serve within a religious community, to explore spiritually formative intellectual work, to evaluate and act on the needs and questions of religious and other communities, and to speak with both a pastoral and a public voice in many different settings.<br><br>The MDiv program includes:<br><br>Rigorous education in the religious traditions that shape the scholarly, spiritual, and practical dimensions of a vocation to ministry<br><br>The capacity to use the fundamental intellectual tools of the study of religion<br><br>Genuine reading competence in a scriptural language and/or a language of theological scholarship that allows for the lifelong use of that language in ministerial leadership and scholarly inquiry<br><br>Education in the arts of ministry pursued in both the classroom and the field<br><br>Significant learning in a religious tradition other than one's own<br><br>Cultivation of the intellectual, spiritual, and pastoral agility that will enable graduates to move with skill, confidence, generosity, and grace across the complex and diverse religious, cultural, and moral spheres of modern society.