Dr, Pastor, Rev, Minister So and So......?

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I have noticed that quite a few pastors refer to themselves as Dr _____. I was wondering if this is something they are obligated to do provided they completed the necessary schooling? Or can they leave this out and just put Rev, or Pastor etc etc? Just wondering as I do see a fair bit of this and find it a tad off-puting in the Church Leadership World, to be honest I also have to roll my eyes at the all the Dr references in Academia as well - esp the Arts. Sorry, when I think Dr, its a medical Dr or at least someone in the Sciences. Someone who has Dr in front of their name and its the study of Milton, Shakespeare, Feminism, Political Science etc etc gets a bit of annoyed chuckle from me versus an Medical Dr or someone from the Sciences - has the term Dr been more widely circulated over the past decade or so?

Well I know its a two prong question/comment - first the titles Church leadership gives themselves and secondly my little rant/question re the watering down of the term Dr 🤷🙂
 
You would on to something except for the fact that doctorate appears in education and the church more than 500 years before the first professional doctorate in medicine.🤷
 
It represents a PhD. They have done a ton of school to earn that title!

My uncle had a PhD in English and taught at a University; therefore he was referred to as Dr. English Professor by his students and colleagues. It was a sign of respect as much as anything else.
 
My parish preist recently completed his doctorate in Theology and I notieced that in his emails to me, he used the title Rev. Dr. I went back to him asking him how I should address him in person at our next meeting. His answer was, NO, just call me Father like you always have. Never mind about the educational title!
 
In a social setting in the US, it was previously considered bad form to insist on being called by the academic title “Doctor” unless one was in one of the medical professions and held a doctorate degree. Nowadays, a lot of doctorate holders do refer to themselves as “Doctor.”

However, it can boomerang: I was at a benefit dinner when someone introduced a friend of his to my mother as “Doctor Jones.” Mom buttonholed the guy, started reciting her current symptoms, and then launched into her entire medical history, including the more graphic details of her two labor and delivery experiences. You could see the poor man wishing that something or someone would come along so he could beat a hasty retreat. Distracting Mom was not an option, she cannot be sidetracked from her favorite sport–complaining about her health, which is amazingly good for an octogenarian.

Turns out the man was a Doctor of Divinity, and a Methodist minister!

If you hold a doctorate degree, you’re entitled to refer to yourself as “Doctor.” But be forewarned that it might bring a whole lot of baggage that you might not want!
 
In the Word of Faith movement a number of well-known personalities have received honorific doctorates from institutions like ORU, and from then on they refer themselves as “Dr.” in their publicity materials.
 
waxwing said:
I have noticed that quite a few pastors refer to themselves as Dr _____. I was wondering if this is something they are obligated to do provided they completed the necessary schooling? Or can they leave this out and just put Rev, or Pastor etc etc? Just wondering as I do see a fair bit of this and find it a tad off-puting in the Church Leadership World, to be honest I also have to roll my eyes at the all the Dr references in Academia as well - esp the Arts. Sorry, when I think Dr, its a medical Dr or at least someone in the Sciences. Someone who has Dr in front of their name and its the study of Milton, Shakespeare, Feminism, Political Science etc etc gets a bit of annoyed chuckle from me versus an Medical Dr or someone from the Sciences - has the term Dr been more widely circulated over the past decade or so?

Well I know its a two prong question/comment - first the titles Church leadership gives themselves and secondly my little rant/question re the watering down of the term Dr 🤷🙂
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Well no offense,but who said the title Dr. only applied to the medical and science fields?
 
odile53 said:
In a social setting in the US, it was previously considered bad form to insist on being called by the academic title “Doctor” unless one was in one of the medical professions and held a doctorate degree. Nowadays, a lot of doctorate holders do refer to themselves as “Doctor.”

However, it can boomerang: I was at a benefit dinner when someone introduced a friend of his to my mother as “Doctor Jones.” Mom buttonholed the guy, started reciting her current symptoms, and then launched into her entire medical history, including the more graphic details of her two labor and delivery experiences. You could see the poor man wishing that something or someone would come along so he could beat a hasty retreat. Distracting Mom was not an option, she cannot be sidetracked from her favorite sport–complaining about her health, which is amazingly good for an octogenarian.

Turns out the man was a Doctor of Divinity, and a Methodist minister!

If you hold a doctorate degree, you’re entitled to refer to yourself as “Doctor.” But be forewarned that it might bring a whole lot of baggage that you might not want!
Click to expand...
Garbage…such as?
 
It is a matter of respect. They worked hard. Real hard and earned their title. I am not a Catholic but I would call a priest Father. I would call anyone who earned one Dr. unless they asked me not to.
The OP did not put the energy into getting one but is bagging on people that did.:cool:
 
Catholic90 said:
It represents a PhD. They have done a ton of school to earn that title!

My uncle had a PhD in English and taught at a University; therefore he was referred to as Dr. English Professor by his students and colleagues. It was a sign of respect as much as anything else.
Click to expand...
Dr. does not always represent a PhD. Dentists, Physical Therapists, Vets, Podiatrists etc get clinical doctorates. eg DDS, DPT, DC, DPM are examples within healthcare. The main difference being the amount of research vs. clinical work required.
 
If one has a true doctorate, they have more than likely either done a tough residency/clinical (medical doctor and the like) or a TON of research in order to get a PhD, EDD, etc. So I think all have earned the title doctor. The only exception, I think, is some one who earns a J.D.–a law degree or juris doctorate. Law students don’t do any type of year long or longer work for another lawyer nor do they do a dissertation, so if lawyers want to be called Dr. it really irritates me. My DH is a lawyer and I bug him that I did more work for my master’s than he did for his law degree. 😃
 
simspt said:
Dr. does not always represent a PhD. Dentists, Physical Therapists, Vets, Podiatrists etc get clinical doctorates. eg DDS, DPT, DC, DPM are examples within healthcare. The main difference being the amount of research vs. clinical work required.
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I think the PP was meaning in this particular situation it probably meant PhD
 
Sherry_G said:
My parish preist recently completed his doctorate in Theology and I notieced that in his emails to me, he used the title Rev. Dr. I went back to him asking him how I should address him in person at our next meeting. His answer was, NO, just call me Father like you always have. Never mind about the educational title!
Click to expand...
This is the gist of what I was getting at regarding my first question/comment. The mere fact the someone has the University Document indicating he/she has reached this level of education to be referred to as Dr and chooses to “play it down” and refers to themselves as Pastor _______ or Father ________. Maybe on church brochures/web site leave out the Dr bit…I respect that. Dunno why it kinda gets on my nerves a little when I see fair bit of pastors with these Dr titles, could be the money or pride implications or just my sensibility issues 🙂
 
Nicea325 said:
Well no offense,but who said the title Dr. only applied to the medical and science fields?
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it applies to all fields in the arts and sciences that grant doctoral degrees through universities. as a previous poster notes, there were doctoral degrees in divinity or theology issued long before such honors in other fields. a clergyman who uses this honorific general is a doctor of divinity, or theology, depending on what his school calls it, or sometimes pastoral studies or other related disciplines. Just as it is important in the Catholic world that someone know the credentials of someone claiming knowledge to teach the faith, so it is in the non-Catholic world and a doctorate or equivalent is a pre-requisite for pastors in some denominations at least in larger congregations, so it is not just a matter of pride or self-aggrandizement. Please be careful about making such general assumptions.
 
Nicea325 said:
Well no offense,but who said the title Dr. only applied to the medical and science fields?
Click to expand...
No one…I simply respect a medical Dr (and have no qualms about calling him or her Dr) more than I respect someone who has attained a Doctorate level of education in say Philosophy or Literature or Management etc etc. Maybe its just that I see a MD having greater impact on the lives around them vs some Prof (who has Dr title) teaching Hume to students at University.
 
waxwing said:
No one…I simply respect a medical Dr (and have no qualms about calling him or her Dr) more than I respect someone who has attained a Doctorate level of education in say Philosophy or Literature or Management etc etc. Maybe its just that I see a MD having greater impact on the lives around them vs some Prof (who has Dr title) teaching Hume to students at University.
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Actually, the term “doctor” was used for the teaching profession long before it was used for physicians; in the King James translation the 12-year-old Jesus was found “sitting in the midst of the doctors,” while the woman with the issue of blood had “spent all her living on physicians.”

Even today, in Britain surgeons are not called “doctor;” they are called “Mister.”

“Doctor” is the proper term of address for anyone who has earned any doctorate, whether it is a PhD, MD, DD, whatever. Notice, I said “earned.” People with honorary doctorates who start advertsing themselves as “Dr. So-and-so” are just plain cheesy.
 
waxwing said:
I have noticed that quite a few pastors refer to themselves as Dr _____. I was wondering if this is something they are obligated to do provided they completed the necessary schooling? Or can they leave this out and just put Rev, or Pastor etc etc? Just wondering as I do see a fair bit of this and find it a tad off-puting in the Church Leadership World, to be honest I also have to roll my eyes at the all the Dr references in Academia as well - esp the Arts. Sorry, when I think Dr, its a medical Dr or at least someone in the Sciences. Someone who has Dr in front of their name and its the study of Milton, Shakespeare, Feminism, Political Science etc etc gets a bit of annoyed chuckle from me versus an Medical Dr or someone from the Sciences - has the term Dr been more widely circulated over the past decade or so?

Well I know its a two prong question/comment - first the titles Church leadership gives themselves and secondly my little rant/question re the watering down of the term Dr 🤷🙂
Click to expand...
Goodness. My dad worked hard for his doctorate in Sacred Theology. He certainly earned the title, “Reverend Doctor…”, just as much as any dentist or physician. But his parishioners always called him “Pastor…”.

Jon
 
Well after reading through this thread at the very least I think I can say that this very informal and unscientific “poll” indicates CAF folks still do regard academia is high esteem. Some suggested that my comments regarded Doctorates in Theology indicates that it is not legitimate or minimal work was involved in comparison to a Medical Dr. Or, that Doctorates in Theology or perhaps another Arts field is a newfangled concept that is faddish in nature.

Maybe I should rephrase the comment/question: Are all Doctorates Equal, to you?

Let us look at the following social scenario:

You meet a few people at a Church Picnic, first one introduces themselves as Dr_______, you ask Oh, where do you work? Dr_____, at the College in town - teach Art History to Sophomores…a lot stuff on Abstraction - you know Rothko, Pollock, that group.
You:Oh ok, interesting, I like art, don’t much about it, but seen some stuff my a Sargent guy kinda like.

Five minutes later you meet another new person: This Dr______, you ask where do he work? He says at church in nearby city, his Doctorate was in Theology, says he is working on a book on the Book of Jeremiah now and preaches every other Sunday at XYZ Church. You get into a enjoyable discussion over this and indicate you will keep your eye open for this book when it comes out as you would like to read it.

Lastly you meet someone who says she’s Dr _________, you ask are you a medical Dr, she say yes, You: family Dr or do you work at the Hospital? She says she is on the Oncology Department at the hospital. Specifically treating patients via Surgical Oncology. You remark, must be at the same time a rewarding yet trying line of work.

Now the three above persons all can legitimately be called Dr - they all worked hard for this degree. But if it was me in this social situation, my internal chatter would rank them in “importance” in a Doctoral Sense

MD
Dr of Theology
Dr of Art History
 
waxwing said:
Well after reading through this thread at the very least I think I can say that this very informal and unscientific “poll” indicates CAF folks still do regard academia is high esteem. Some suggested that my comments regarded Doctorates in Theology indicates that it is not legitimate or minimal work was involved in comparison to a Medical Dr. Or, that Doctorates in Theology or perhaps another Arts field is a newfangled concept that is faddish in nature.

Maybe I should rephrase the comment/question: Are all Doctorates Equal, to you?

Let us look at the following social scenario:

You meet a few people at a Church Picnic, first one introduces themselves as Dr_______, you ask Oh, where do you work? Dr_____, at the College in town - teach Art History to Sophomores…a lot stuff on Abstraction - you know Rothko, Pollock, that group.
You:Oh ok, interesting, I like art, don’t much about it, but seen some stuff my a Sargent guy kinda like.

Five minutes later you meet another new person: This Dr______, you ask where do he work? He says at church in nearby city, his Doctorate was in Theology, says he is working on a book on the Book of Jeremiah now and preaches every other Sunday at XYZ Church. You get into a enjoyable discussion over this and indicate you will keep your eye open for this book when it comes out as you would like to read it.

Lastly you meet someone who says she’s Dr _________, you ask are you a medical Dr, she say yes, You: family Dr or do you work at the Hospital? She says she is on the Oncology Department at the hospital. Specifically treating patients via Surgical Oncology. You remark, must be at the same time a rewarding yet trying line of work.

Now the three above persons all can legitimately be called Dr - they all worked hard for this degree. But if it was me in this social situation, my internal chatter would rank them in “importance” in a Doctoral Sense

MD
Dr of Theology
Dr of Art History
Click to expand...
I see you perspective, and respect your opinion. For me, when the times comes that the MD says, “you have xyz disease, and there’s nothing we can do”, I suspect I’ll put the Reverend Dr. _______ on the top of my list.

Jon
 
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