This article contains academic boosterism which primarily serves to praise or promote the subject and may be a sign of a conflict of interest.(July 2023) |
Motto | "Leaders for the Next" |
---|---|
Type | Private |
Established | 1855 |
Religious affiliation | United Church of Christ |
Academic affiliations | University of Chicago Association of Chicago Theological Schools |
President | Stephen G. Ray Jr. |
Dean | Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder |
Academic staff | 13 Full-time (Fall 2022) [1] |
Students | 294 (Fall 2022) [1] |
Address | 1407 E. 60th Street , , , United States |
Campus | Urban 78,000 sq ft (7,200 m2), 4-story seminary with full basement located in the center of the University of Chicago campus |
Website | www |
The Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) is a Christian ecumenical American seminary located in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of several seminaries historically affiliated with the United Church of Christ. It is the oldest institution of higher education in Chicago, originally established in 1855 under the direction of the abolitionist Stephen Peet [2] and the Congregational Church (now the United Church of Christ) by charter of the Illinois legislature. [3]
In addition to being a seminary of the United Church of Christ, CTS offers students coursework necessary to be ordained by the Metropolitan Community Church denomination. It was the first theological school to introduce the field education experience into a seminary curriculum, [4] the first to create a distinct Department of Christian Sociology in an American theological school, [5] and the first seminary to award a degree in divinity to a woman in the United States (Florence Fensham, 1902). [6]
Unintimidated by controversy, Chicago Theological Seminary has a record of setting trends in American faith life and leadership for more than a century.
In the 1850s and 1860s, CTS founder Stephen Peet was a leader in a new generation of 19th-century American abolitionists no longer content to wait for the end of slavery nor to tolerate those who defended it. [7] Under his leadership, the seminary was active in the Underground Railroad and was a leading voice in the Christian Abolitionism movement.
The first CTS curriculum in 1855 was provided for students among congregations and missions across the Midwest. Students were encouraged to learn by direct experience the facts of community life and church needs in an experimental culture. Although such a practice was unknown at that time, this curriculum was the beginning of the first field education component introduced into seminary education. Field education is now a part of every accredited professional theological degree program.
Because of a conviction that training for ministry needed to combine the study of Christian faith and the world of secular knowledge and action, during President Ozora Davis' tenure in 1900s, CTS moved to the vicinity of the University of Chicago. Under Ozora Davis' leadership the buildings of the seminary were financed and constructed, and the relationship with the University of Chicago established.
After recognizing Florence Fensham with the first American seminary degree awarded to a woman, Chicago Theological Seminary founded the Congregational Training School for Women in 1909 to provide Congregational women with advanced educational training. The school continued its mission until it was subsumed into the Chicago Theological Seminary in 1926. Florence Fensham was the school's first dean, succeeded by Agnes M. Taylor and Margaret M. Taylor after Dean Fensham died unexpectedly in 1912. The Chicago Theological Seminary allow full acceptance of women to its programs in 1926, thereby eliminating the need for a separate institution for women.
In 1892, CTS invited Graham Taylor, a professor of theology at Hartford Theological Seminary in Connecticut who had shown success in working with the poor, to establish the United States’ first Department of Christian Sociology at CTS. Taylor worked closely with leading Chicago activist Jane Addams, founder of Hull House, an American settlement house. Taylor established the Chicago Commons settlement house in Chicago's Fulton Market neighborhood, where with the help of CTS students he brought recreational clubs, classes, a day nursery, and a kindergarten to the working poor. The house had 25 residents and was open to all ethnic groups and religious denominations. Pressed for space, the Chicago Commons moved a few blocks north to the building formerly occupied by the Chicago Congregational Tabernacle, where Taylor expanded the courses offered into the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, which later became the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. [8]
In the 1920s, Anton Boisen, a pioneer in the hospital chaplaincy movement and founder of the Council for the Clinical Training of Theological Students, began lecturing every fall quarter in the social ethics department of CTS. In 1932, he became chaplain of Elgin State Hospital (now Elgin Mental Health Center) and founded a Chicago arm of the Council for the Clinical Training of Theological Students. His work to help theological students better understand and minister to physically, mentally, and emotionally ill people ultimately led to the founding of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. Boisen's ashes are interred in the CTS cloisters.
In 1957, as the American civil rights movement escalated, CTS became the first seminary in the United States to award Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King an Honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in recognition of his activism. Two years later CTS alumnus Howard Schomer, who had received his doctorate of divinity from CTS in 1954, became president of the seminary. Schomer was a conscientious objector and former aide to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights who had assisted in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. A close associate of King, Schomer in March, 1965 led a contingent of CTS students that included scholarship recipient Jesse Jackson, Sr. to Selma, Alabama, to march with local residents against segregation. [9] Jackson dropped out of the Master of Divinity program just three courses short of degree completion in order to work on the civil rights movement full time. He went on to found Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity), a Chicago counterpart to the southern civil rights movement that focused on the economic empowerment of African-Americans and poor people of all races, and the Rainbow Coalition, which worked to unite disenfranchised American groups, from racial minorities to small farmers, in order to exercise political power. CTS ultimately awarded Jackson the Master of Divinity in 2000 in recognition of his life's work. [10]
During the 1960s, John W. de Gruchy, a white South African theologian who later became known for his work resisting Apartheid, attended CTS. [11]
In 1965, CTS began a Doctorate of Religion program, one of the first professional doctorates in ministry. As standards for the professional doctorate were established by the Association of Theological Schools, the seminary became one of the initial group of six schools to have fully accredited programs of study for the Doctor of Ministry degree.
In the 1980s, CTS engaged in the anti-Apartheid movement advocating for the divestment of resources from South Africa. In 1986, the seminary awarded Archbishop Desmond Tutu an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree for his activism to liberate black South Africans. [12]
In 2006, CTS launched the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) Religious Studies Center (Queer Center), a grant-funded research program and resource for activists seeking to move toward greater justice and to encourage new conversations. [13] [14] CTS is also home to the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Religious Archives Network, and the seminary's Heyward Boswell Society for LGBTQ people and allies engages students across campus in social activities. CTS also offers an annual Gilberto Castaneda scholarship award for outstanding GLBT students. CTS has graduated some of the nation's first transgender ministers and has many openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students, staff, and faculty. Several of the seminary's faculty members have published books and articles regarding religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The United Church of Christ Coalition for GLBT Concerns lists Chicago Theological Seminary as an officially "Open and Affirming" institution that is especially welcoming to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex concerns.
In 2007, CTS established the Center for the Study of Black Faith and Life (CSBFL), becoming the first denominational seminary to have a center devoted to engaging the larger Black Faith community through inclusivity of a variety of religions. CSBFL sponsors the annual C. Shelby Rooks lecture, which brings outstanding black theologians, ministers, activists, and non-profit leaders to campus. [15]
In 2009, CTS became the first free-standing Protestant seminary to endow a faculty chair in Jewish studies, with the hope of advancing interfaith engagement and multi-faith education. [12] The next year, CTS founded the Center for Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Studies (JCIS), the first American program of its kind based in a free-standing theological seminary. This center offers resources to students who concentrate in theology, ethics, and human sciences that enable scholars to experientially and theoretically integrate Jewish, Christian, and Muslim theology with these topics. In 2017, CTS established the InterReligious Institute (IRI), which stands counter to the idea that Christianity is the “normal” religious position for Americans and seeks to create space in the public square for people of other religions and for people with no religion. IRI does this by providing ongoing events, resources, and training materials for the public. [12] [16]
In 2019, CTS began a partnership with Bayan Claremont to provide both a graduate certificate and an accredited Master of Divinity in Islamic Chaplaincy at the seminary's Hyde Park campus. [17]
The original buildings were designed by Herbert Riddle and built between 1923 and 1928. Riddle was the architect for Mather Tower in the Loop, as well as many buildings in New York. The original CTS building complex included stained glass windows, medieval style groin vaulting, furniture, lighting fixtures, ceramic ornament and tile work, and architectural relics—all of the highest quality of the day.
The seminary, which was for decades located at 5757 South University Avenue in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, adjacent to the University of Chicago, during the 2011/2012 academic year moved to 1407 East 60th Street, also in Hyde Park. The building designed by Riddle that had served as a seminary for decades became home to the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago and the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics.
Construction of the new $30 million CTS facility was a partnership between the University of Chicago and the Chicago Theological Seminary. [24] In May 2008, the University of Chicago Board of Trustees Executive Committee authorized the purchase of two CTS buildings and an adjacent parking lot. Additionally, the University of Chicago agreed to construct a new seminary building at 60th Street and Dorchester Avenue. The seminary's new building, designed by Nagle Hartray Architecture, is located at 1407 E. 60th Street and is LEED Gold-certified and fully ADA accessible. [25] By 2013, the building project had acquired numerous private and public funds. [26]
The Robinson & Janet Lapp Learning Commons, centrally located on the third floor of CTS's new building, is a working theological collection of more than 45,000 volumes. The library also subscribes to more than 700 periodicals and runs multiple research database platforms. Special holdings include the Boisen Collection in psychology and personality science, and the Campbell Morgan Collection named for G. Campbell Morgan, containing his sermons, writings, books, newspaper clips, lecture notes, photographs, and other archival materials. The Commons is also home to a number of rare books, including a 1670 first quarto edition of Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan published in London by Johannem Tomsoni. The collection is strong in the theological subject areas of Bible, Church history, and theology. Particular fields of note also include African American religion and spirituality, women's studies, LGBT/queer studies, and Jewish and Christian studies.
Besides the Lapp Learning Commons, CTS students also have access to the University of Chicago Library system, the 11th largest library collection in the United States. CTS students and faculty can use this resource in person. [27]
The seminary is accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada and the Higher Learning Commission.
In addition to being a seminary of the United Church of Christ, it offers students coursework necessary to be ordained by the Metropolitan Community Church.
The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a socially liberal mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Restorationist, Continental Reformed, and Lutheran traditions, and with approximately 4,600 churches and 712,000 members. The UCC is a historical continuation of the General Council of Congregational Christian churches founded under the influence of New England Puritanism. Moreover, it also subsumed the third largest Calvinist group in the country, the German Reformed. Notably, its modern members' theological and socio-political stances are often very different from those of its predecessors.
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a private ecumenical liberal Christian seminary in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, affiliated with Columbia University. Columbia University lists UTS among its affiliate schools, alongside Barnard College and Teachers College. Since 1928, the seminary has served as Columbia's constituent faculty of theology. In 1964, UTS also established an affiliation with the neighboring Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Despite its affiliation with Columbia University, UTS is an independent institution with its own administration and Board of Trustees. UTS confers the following degrees: Master of Divinity (MDiv), Master of Divinity & Social Work dual degree (MDSW), Master of Arts in religion (MAR), Master of Arts in Social Justice (MASJ), Master of Sacred Theology (STM), Doctor of Ministry (DMin), and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).
Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, government, and service. It also caters to students from other Harvard schools that are interested in the former field. HDS is among a small group of university-based, non-denominational divinity schools in the United States.
Eden Theological Seminary is a Christian seminary based in Webster Groves, Missouri. It is one of the six official seminaries of the United Church of Christ (UCC).
Christian Theological Seminary is an ecumenical seminary related to the Christian Church and located in Indianapolis, Indiana. It provides five degree-level education courses, three dual-degree programs, a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) program, and a Ph.D. in African American Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric. As of 2019, the seminary had an enrollment of 139 students.
The Meadville Lombard Theological School is a Unitarian Universalist seminary in Chicago, Illinois.
The Divinity School at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, is one of ten graduate or professional schools within Duke University. It is also one of thirteen seminaries founded and supported by the United Methodist Church. It has 39 regular rank faculty and 15 joint, secondary or adjunct faculty, and, as of 2017, an enrollment of 543 full-time equivalent students. The current dean of the Divinity School is the Rev. Dr. Edgardo Colón-Emeric, who assumed the deanship on August 31, 2021. Former deans include the prominent New Testament scholar Richard B. Hays, who stepped down in 2015.
Yale Divinity School (YDS) is one of the twelve graduate and professional schools of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Iliff School of Theology is a graduate Methodist theological school in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1892, the school's campus is adjacent to the University of Denver. Fewer than 200 students attend the school.
Boston University School of Theology (STH) is the oldest theological seminary of American Methodism and the founding school of Boston University, the largest private research university in New England. It is one of thirteen theological schools maintained by the United Methodist Church. BUSTH is a member of the Boston Theological Institute consortium.
The Vanderbilt Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion is an interdenominational divinity school at Vanderbilt University, a major research university located in Nashville, Tennessee. It is one of only six university-based schools of religion in the United States without a denominational affiliation that service primarily mainline Protestantism.
Andover Newton Theological School (ANTS) was a graduate school and seminary in Newton, Massachusetts, affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA and the United Church of Christ. It was the product of a merger between Andover Theological Seminary and Newton Theological Institution. In recent years, it was an official open and affirming seminary, meaning that it was open to students of same-sex attraction or transgender orientation and generally advocated for tolerance of it in church and society.
Bangor Theological Seminary was an ecumenical seminary, founded in 1814, in the Congregational tradition of the United Church of Christ. Located in Bangor, Maine, and Portland, Maine, it was the only accredited graduate school of religion in Northern New England
Lynda Serene Jones is an American Protestant theologian. She is the president and Johnston Family Professor for Religion and Democracy at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. She was formerly the Titus Street Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School and chair of gender, woman, and sexuality studies at Yale University.
Gabriel Joseph Fackre (1926–2018) was an American theologian and Abbot Professor of Christian Theology Emeritus at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, Massachusetts. He was on the school's faculty for 25 years before retiring in 1996. Previous to that he was Professor of Theology and Culture at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, teaching there from 1961 through 1970. Fackre has also served as visiting professor or held lectureships at 40 universities, colleges, and seminaries. His papers are housed in Special Collections at Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries, Princeton, New Jersey.
United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities (United) is an ecumenical graduate school, historically rooted in the United Church of Christ and located in St. Paul, Minnesota. The school was formed in 1962 with the merger of Mission House Seminary of Plymouth, Wisconsin, and Yankton School of Theology in Yankton, South Dakota. The seminary was located in New Brighton, Minnesota, from its 1962 opening until 2019, when it moved to St. Paul.
Howard Schomer was a United Nations Commission on Human Rights aide, civil rights activist, scholar, drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and editor-at-large for The Christian Century. He received a B.S. from Harvard College in 1937; a D.D. from the Chicago Theological Seminary in 1954, and was ordained as a minister in the United Church of Christ in 1941. He was assigned to Civilian Public Service for refusing his ministerial exemption from the draft in World War II as a conscientious objector. Schomer was a close associate of Martin Luther King Jr. and remained a civil rights activist for his entire life.
Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite is an author, former president of Chicago Theological Seminary, a syndicated columnist, ordained minister, activist, theologian, and translator of the Bible. She is currently an emeritus faculty member at Chicago Theological Seminary. She also spent some of her time serving as a trustee for different organizations.
Robin Rex Meyers is an American Christian minister, peace activist, philosopher and author of seven books on Liberal and Progressive Christian theology in Western society and the Christian left. He has been a syndicated columnist and a commentator for National Public Radio and was the Senior Minister of the Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ in Oklahoma City from 1985 to 2020. He is a Distinguished Professor of Social Justice in the Philosophy Department at Oklahoma City University, where he has taught since 1991. Meyers is currently the Teaching Pastor of First Congregational Church of Norman UCC in Norman, Oklahoma, and Distinguished Professor of Social Justice Tenured at Oklahoma City University.
Bayan Islamic Graduate School is a private, non-sectarian Islamic graduate school based in Orange, California with its campus located in Chicago, Illinois. It offers accredited Master of Arts degrees in four subject areas: Islamic Studies, Islamic Leadership, Islamic Education, and Advanced Islamic Theology as well as a Master of Divinity in Islamic Chaplaincy.