Nine Modules

One Connected Course of Study

Dr. Marlene McMillan University brings approximately forty years of teaching, writing, research, and practical wisdom into one comprehensive educational pathway.

The program consists of nine modules, each building upon the understanding developed in the previous one. Students begin by learning to think truthfully, then examine liberty, the Kingdom of God, self-government, economics, education, government, relationships, and leadership.

These subjects are not treated as isolated fields of knowledge. They are connected through the principles of truth, cause and effect, responsibility, authority, stewardship, and the biblical order of reality.

The purpose is more than acquiring information. Students learn to examine what they believe, explain their reasoning, recognize important distinctions, test conclusions, and apply what they learn to new situations.

9 Modules · 45 Instructional Weeks · 135 Classes · 202.5 Hours of Instruction

01 — Learning to Think Truthfully

Truth, definitions, premises, evidence, and the discipline of reason

Before a person can reason accurately about liberty, economics, government, education, or the Kingdom of God, that person must learn to recognize what is actually true. The first module establishes the intellectual foundation for everything that follows. Students learn to define words precisely, identify assumptions, distinguish facts from perceptions, recognize premises, and evaluate the reasoning behind conclusions.

What students will learn to do:

• Distinguish truth, fact, opinion, perception, and interpretation.
• Recognize hidden premises and evaluate whether conclusions follow from the evidence.
• Distinguish the source of a claim from the person or institution communicating it.
• Trace cause and effect while accounting for multiple causes and alternative explanations.
• Recognize when language clarifies reality and when it conceals or changes the question.
• Represent opposing positions accurately before evaluating them.
• Construct, defend, and revise conclusions through sound reasoning.

Students complete this module with a method of thinking they will practice throughout the remaining eight modules.

02 — Liberty: What It Is and How It Works

Liberty, bondage, responsibility, rights, and self-government

Liberty is often discussed as though it simply means freedom from interference or the ability to do whatever one desires. This module examines liberty more carefully by studying its relationship to responsibility, moral order, choices, consequences, and the proper exercise of authority. Students investigate what makes a person capable of living in liberty and what conditions produce dependence or bondage. The module also explores how rights, obligations, jurisdiction, and stewardship establish boundaries within which liberty can be preserved.

Students learn to identify the responsibilities that properly belong to individuals, families, leaders, and institutions. Rather than defining liberty merely through political systems, they begin to recognize it as a question that reaches into personal conduct, relationships, education, economics, and government.

What students will learn to do:

• Distinguish liberty from license, independence, and unrestricted choice.
• Recognize how responsibility and consequences relate to the exercise of liberty.
• Examine the relationship between rights, authority, and responsibility.
• Recognize where one person’s responsibility ends and another’s begins.

03 — The Kingdom and the Order of Reality

The King, the Kingdom of God, citizenship, law, and governing order

What does it mean to understand the Kingdom of God as a present reality that informs how people live, govern, work, and relate to one another? This module examines the Kingdom in relation to God as King, the order established by His authority, and the responsibilities of those who live under that authority. Students investigate citizenship, repentance, law, government, and the relationship between God’s order and everyday human life.

The module extends the study of government beyond politics and civil institutions. Students examine how authority, responsibility, and boundaries operate within individuals, households, churches, communities, and organizations. They learn to distinguish the source of authority from the person or office exercising it and to consider how legitimate authority is received, bounded, and made accountable.

Students also examine how a biblical understanding of the Kingdom changes the questions people ask about economics, education, relationships, culture, and leadership. Rather than treating the Kingdom as a disconnected religious subject, they study its relationship to the principles and responsibilities encountered throughout ordinary life.

What students will learn to do:

• Explain the relationship between the King, His Kingdom, and citizenship.
• Distinguish divine authority from the authority exercised by human offices and institutions.
• Recognize the responsibilities and boundaries associated with different kinds of government.
• Examine repentance, law, order, and responsibility within a biblical framework.
• Apply Kingdom reasoning to practical questions beyond explicitly religious settings.

04 — Self-Government, Character and Success

Character, choices, responsibility, habits, and the capacity to lead

Before a person can faithfully govern a household, business, institution, or community, that person must learn to govern what has been entrusted to them personally. This module explores how thought becomes action, how repeated choices develop habits, and how habits contribute to character. Students examine the relationship between conscience, responsibility, preparation, conduct, and the capacity to carry greater responsibilities.

The module develops a practical understanding of leadership beginning with personal responsibility. Students learn to examine their choices, recognize the consequences of repeated conduct, and assess whether they are prepared to carry the responsibilities they desire. Success is considered not merely as obtaining a desired outcome, but as becoming capable of acting faithfully and responsibly.

What students will learn to do:

• Recognize how thought, decisions, habits, and character are related.
• Distinguish reputation, achievement, and outward success from trustworthy character.
• Evaluate the difference between intention, method, and outcome.
• Identify responsibilities within their own authority and capacity.
• Examine how preparation, character, and self-government affect leadership.

05 — Economics, Prosperity, Poverty and Stewardship

Work, money, productivity, resources, dependence, and economic responsibility

Students investigate the different conditions that can produce economic hardship or increase. Rather than assuming that all poverty has one cause, that all wealth represents success, or that visible outcomes automatically reveal someone’s character, they learn to distinguish the circumstances, choices, responsibilities, and systems involved. They examine how economic ideas influence individual behavior, families, institutions, and entire communities.

A central subject is stewardship: understanding what has been entrusted, who holds responsibility for it, what it is intended to accomplish, and how it should be preserved, used, developed, or transferred. Students consider the relationship between productivity, provision, generosity, responsibility, and long-term economic capacity.

What students will learn to do:

• Distinguish among different causes and conditions associated with prosperity and poverty.
• Examine economic claims through evidence and cause-and-effect reasoning.
• Recognize the relationship between work, productivity, resources, and provision.
• Distinguish stewardship from ownership, consumption, and accumulation.
• Evaluate economic decisions and systems without reducing complex outcomes to simple explanations.
• Identify how financial responsibility affects individuals, families, and institutions.

06 — Education, Language and Cultural Formation

Worldview, definitions, learning, family, institutions, and cultural change

The module considers how educational practices shape the habits of thought that individuals carry into adulthood. Students learn to examine the responsibility of teachers, parents, institutions, and learners in preserving truth, testing assumptions, and transmitting knowledge accurately. They also consider how culture develops through repeated patterns of teaching, belief, behavior, and institutional practice.

What students will learn to do:

• Distinguish the transfer of information from the formation of judgment and understanding.
• Recognize how language, definitions, and worldview influence reasoning.
• Examine how ideas move through individuals, families, and institutions.
• Identify how education can preserve truthful understanding or perpetuate faulty premises.
• Evaluate cultural claims without confusing changes in language with changes in reality.

07 — Government, Law, Authority and Citizenship

Law, rights, jurisdiction, institutions, and the responsibilities of government

Students investigate where authority originates, how it is entrusted, what limits its exercise, and what happens when a person or institution acts beyond its proper boundaries.

Building on the earlier modules, students practice evaluating laws, policies, institutions, and exercises of authority according to their underlying principles rather than the popularity or political identity of the people involved. The goal is to understand how lawful, bounded authority can preserve liberty and how the misuse of authority can produce injustice, dependence, or domination.

What students will learn to do:

• Distinguish authority, power, office, responsibility, and jurisdiction.
• Recognize when a person or institution has exceeded its proper responsibilities.
• Examine the relationship between rights, law, citizenship, and accountability.
• Evaluate governmental questions by principle rather than political allegiance.
• Consider how properly bounded authority protects liberty.

08 — Relationship, Prayer, Forgiveness and Repair

Responsibility, trust, woundedness, forgiveness, restoration, and reconciliation

Students practice recognizing what needs to change, what responsibility belongs to each person, and what evidence is appropriate when considering restored trust or access. They develop a more careful framework for pursuing repair without denying what is true.

What students will learn to do:

• Distinguish forgiveness, reconciliation, healing, repair, and restored trust.
• Identify what has been damaged and what meaningful restoration would require.
• Examine the relationship between prayer, dependence upon God, and responsible action.
• Evaluate whether changed conditions support the restoration of trust or access.
• Pursue truthful relationship repair without ignoring harm or responsibility.

09 — Integrated Kingdom Leadership

Truth, authority, stewardship, responsibility, judgment, and faithful leadership

The final module brings together the entire course of study. Students apply the principles they have studied to complex situations involving people, resources, institutions, decisions, and long-term consequences.

The module culminates in the application of a unified reasoning process. Students examine the source of authority, establish what is actually true, identify responsibilities, recognize jurisdictional limits, assess available resources and capacity, trace cause and effect, and evaluate the fruit of decisions. The objective is to develop people who can think, judge, act, and lead responsibly in circumstances they have not previously encountered.

What students will learn to do:

• Integrate the principles of all nine modules into a coherent method of reasoning and action.
• Identify the source, scope, and boundaries of entrusted authority.
• Distinguish responsible leadership from position, influence, and domination.
• Evaluate decisions through truth, responsibility, method, consequences, and observable fruit.
• Identify what needs to be corrected, restored, preserved, or carried forward.
• Apply the University’s principles to unfamiliar personal, organizational, and societal situations.

An Education Designed to Be Carried Forward

The purpose of Dr. Marlene McMillan University is not simply to teach students what Dr. McMillan believes. It is to equip them to examine claims, recognize distinctions, reason truthfully, understand responsibility, and apply biblical principles in their own lives.

The nine modules form one connected pathway. Each subject contributes to the next, enabling students to develop an increasingly comprehensive understanding of how truth, liberty, authority, economics, relationships, and leadership fit together.

Students are expected to participate actively, ask substantive questions, examine their assumptions, receive correction, and demonstrate their understanding through practical application.

The goal is an education that does not end when the classes are finished—one that students can carry into their families, work, communities, institutions, and future generations.

Apply now.

Admissions & Tuition

Tuition for the complete 45-week, nine-module program is $6,000 when paid in full. Tuition includes 202.5 hours of instruction, including 27 live Q&A sessions with Dr. McMillan.

Students may elect to pay tuition in full or through a module-based installment plan. The first module’s enrollment is $700, with balance totaling $5,300 over the remaining eight modules.

Upon acceptance, an initial payment of $700, together with completion of enrollment requirements, secures a student’s place in the cohort and is applied to Module 1 tuition. Subsequent installments are due at the commencement of each module.

Enrollment constitutes a commitment to the complete nine-module program. Individual modules are not available for separate enrollment.

Withdrawal & Tuition Refund Policy

Enrollment in Dr. Marlene McMillan University represents a commitment to the complete nine-module program. However, tuition obligations are administered on a module-by-module basis.

Students who find it necessary to withdraw may do so by submitting written notice to the University.