Editor’s note: The following column was adapted from a message delivered to graduates of Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University May 2. So, this is it. We are here to bid you farewell and send you forth….
Graduation advice for seminarians and seminaries
I approached the end of my time at divinity school with relief and joy. It had been the best and worst three years of my life. I took apart everything I thought about God, myself and others and emerged with…
Finding Christian leaders in a shifting religious terrain
It’s that time of year again. New books, backpacks, technology, schedules, classes and teachers conspire with learners to develop their lives. At every level of education, including graduate study in seminaries, the goal is to engage students in the practices…
Providing ‘a hand up’ to ministers struggling with credit card, student loan debt
Mental health, congregational politics and the decline of the American church get much of the blame for minister burnout. But consultant Bo Prosser says all of those factors take a back seat to the financial struggles of pastoral leaders.
The ‘groaning’ and ‘growing’ of theological education in America
When Daniel Aleshire, whose organization accredits most U.S. seminaries, retires next year, he’ll have witnessed a quarter century of what may have been the most dramatic changes in clergy education in the country’s history. Informed ministry is superior to ignorant…
Andover Newton enters partnership with Yale
Baptist-affiliated Andover Newton Theological School and Yale Divinity School have signed a letter of intent to enter a two-phase plan toward formal affiliation beginning this fall, administrators at the two schools announced May 2. If the first phase is successful,…
Union Theological Seminary’s controversial plan to survive
The school wants to build luxury condos to pay the bills. Some students say this plan contradicts their values.
Seminary gets OK for online M.Div.
Central Baptist Theological Seminary recently got approval from the Association of Theological Schools to offer the full master-of-divinity degree online. Robert Johnson, the seminary’s dean and provost, said in a March 30 press release that ATS approval means a student…
Theology schools, facing lean times, look to one another and the Web
Seminaries and divinity schools are in a period of unprecedented experimentation. Schools are merging; or joining together, across religious lines, in interfaith consortiums; or moving online.