seminary

Theological education is precarious, inconvenient, and uncomfortable. So why do students keep enrolling?

Students protesting the war in Gaza are asking deep questions about colonialism, antisemitism, and Christian Zionism.

Four schools and the creative paths they’re charting

Talking with five former LDS members who left to go to seminary

Motivated in part by the whitewashing of a radical legacy, Patrick Parr explores King's seminary years and the roots planted there.

At times, the cost of theological diversity is painfully clear.

 Am I using my gifts and my body in a faithful manner, given my abilities? To be honest, one of the most encouraging things I had to hold on to was when I remembered the words of James Cone as he accounted for his own struggles back when he was in graduate school.

Why is theological education necessary? What are the conditions of its fruitfulness? Such questions are both basic and perplexing.

In divinity school, professors engaged my heart and mind—and began the process of helping me figure out what I believed and whether it was important enough to give my life to it.

Our intellectual architecture is being dismantled. But it is also being reassembled. I use the architecture metaphor because I believe that what we are creating will be in place for many decades to come. 

Frozen lasagna is also a pretty good metaphor for how church has been working for many communities.

I enjoyed Michelle Boorstein's piece of reporting on M. Div. students who aren't headed for parish ministry. She details how some seminarians seek to be ministers of a sort as part of their calling to other vocations; she also touches on the challenges of post-Christendom pastoring and the need for more flexible and affordable paths through seminary.

It’s time for bold, creative experiments in preparing women and men for the unique challenges of 21st-century ministry.

The idea that students will reside on a campus and attend classes at specified times seems increasingly quaint.

For all their problems, churches are often a good deal more self-critical and boldly innovative than seminaries.

Emily Scott had an idea: what if young adults got together for a weekly agape feast? Soon St. Lydia’s was born--but Scott was not ordained.

Vanderbilt was not the first school to offer theological education in a prison. But it did pioneer the approach of having seminarians learn in company with prisoners.

You might be on a committee that thinks that a candidate needs that extra training before they ought to be ordained. They could use some time in a hospital setting or in a real world setting before they earn that REV before their name. If you are, then let me tell you something that the seminary student under your care can’t tell you: students can’t afford it any longer.

When I first came to Harvard, the weekly
worship service was recognizably Protestant but flexible and welcoming. Over the years, our students have urged us toward
new ways of gathering.

I'm a part-time student at a denominational seminary, where I'm working (very slowly) on an academic-track masters. It's generally been a good experience, but the school's not a perfect fit. Again and again, professors and coursework assume a ministry context.