Certificate course in buddhist studies is the scholarly investigation of Buddhism. The term Buddhology was begat in the mid twentieth century by Estlin Carpenter – a Unitarian priest, to mean the "investigation of Buddhahood, the nature of the Buddha, and precepts of a Buddha", yet the terms Buddhology and Buddhist examinations are commonly synonymous in the contemporary setting. As indicated by William M. Johnston, in some particular settings, Buddhology might be seen as a subset of Buddhist