Gregg Alan Mast | |
---|---|
Born | February 7, 1952 [1] Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S. |
Died | April 27, 2020 68) Albany, New York, U.S. | (aged
Occupation(s) | Reformed clergyman, scholar, and seminary president |
Academic background | |
Education | Hope College, New Brunswick Theological Seminary |
Alma mater | Drew University (PhD) |
Thesis | The Eucharistic Service of the Catholic Apostolic Church and Its Influence on Reformed Liturgical Renewals of the Nineteenth Century (1985) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Biblical studies |
Institutions | New Brunswick Theological Seminary |
Gregg Alan Mast was a Reformed clergyman,scholar,and seminary president. Mast was the author of six books on Christian practice and theology,and the editor of a collection of sermons by Reformed minister and theologian Howard G. Hageman
From 2006 to 2017, [2] Mast served as the fourteenth president of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary located in New Brunswick,New Jersey,in the United States—one of two seminaries affiliated with the Reformed Church in America. [3] [4] Mast has overseen the seminary in a time of transition as it built a new,smaller,"technologically smart and environmentally green" campus on College Avenue and Seminary Place in New Brunswick that was completed in 2014. [5] This move—part of a large-scale redevelopment of the College Avenue area of New Brunswick by New Brunswick Development Corporation (DEVCO),Rutgers University and the seminary—was made in response to the seminary's declining enrollment,financial constraints and to replace an aging campus with a modern,environmentally-friendly campus. [6] [7]
Mast was born in 1952 and grew up in Jenison,Michigan. In 1974,Mast earned a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree majoring in religion from Hope College in Holland,Michigan. [3] Pursuing a vocation in the Christian ministry,he received a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) from the New Brunswick Theological Seminary and was ordained as a clergyman in the Reformed Church in America in 1976. [3] He earned a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) in 1981 and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Liturgical Studies in 1985 from Drew University in Madison,New Jersey. [3] His doctoral dissertation was titled The Eucharistic Service of the Catholic Apostolic Church and Its Influence on Reformed Liturgical Renewals of the Nineteenth Century (1985) which was later published as a book in 1999. [3]
Mast has served congregations in Johannesburg,South Africa,in Newark and Irvington in New Jersey,and Albany,New York. [3] [4] In addition to New Brunswick Theological Seminary,Mast has taught on the faculties of Westminster Choir College,Siena College,St. Bernard's Institute,and as a guest lecturer at the Nkhoma Theological Seminary in Malawi. [3] He served as President of the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America from 1999-2000. [3] He died on April 27,2020,of complications from COVID-19. [8] [9]
He notably said,"Worship leaders need to strive for a tone that is both relevant and dignified,personal without being private,expressive as well as evocative,and contemporary while embracing the eternal." [10]
He also said,"Worship should never remain static. As the congregation changes,so do its needs. The actions of pastor and people working together are critical in creating dynamic worship. After all,the word liturgy means,quite simply,'the work of the people.’If our liturgy,and our worship,is to be corporately offered to God,then it is important that worship committees be at the forefront of its corporate creation." [11]
The Last Supper is the final meal that, in the Gospel accounts, Jesus shared with his apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The Last Supper is commemorated by Christians especially on Holy Thursday. The Last Supper provides the scriptural basis for the Eucharist, also known as "Holy Communion" or "The Lord's Supper".
Nicholas Paul Wolterstorff is an American philosopher and theologian. He is currently Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology at Yale University. A prolific writer with wide-ranging philosophical and theological interests, he has written books on aesthetics, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of religion, metaphysics, and philosophy of education. In Faith and Rationality, Wolterstorff, Alvin Plantinga, and William Alston developed and expanded upon a view of religious epistemology that has come to be known as Reformed epistemology. He also helped to establish the journal Faith and Philosophy and the Society of Christian Philosophers.
Christian liturgy is a pattern for worship used by a Christian congregation or denomination on a regular basis. The term liturgy comes from Greek and means "public work". Within Christianity, liturgies descending from the same region, denomination, or culture are described as ritual families.
New Brunswick Theological Seminary is a Reformed Christian seminary with its main campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It was founded in 1784 and is one of the oldest seminaries in the United States. It is a seminary of the Reformed Church in America (RCA), a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States that follows the theological tradition and Christian practice of John Calvin. First established in New York City under the leadership of the Rev. John Henry Livingston, who instructed aspiring ministers in his home, the seminary established its presence in New Brunswick in 1810. Although a separate institution, the seminary's early development in New Brunswick was closely connected with that of Rutgers University before establishing its own campus in the city in 1856.
High church Lutheranism is a movement that began in 20th-century Europe and emphasizes worship practices and doctrines that are similar to those found within Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Anglo-Catholicism. In the more general usage of the term, it describes the general high church characteristics of Lutheranism in Nordic and Baltic countries such as Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Latvia. The mentioned countries, once a part of the Swedish Empire, have more markedly preserved Catholic traditions.
Theological aesthetics is the interdisciplinary study of theology and aesthetics, and has been defined as being "concerned with questions about God and issues in theology in the light of and perceived through sense knowledge, through beauty, and the arts". This field of study is broad and includes not only a theology of beauty, but also the dialogue between theology and the arts, such as dance, drama, film, literature, music, poetry, and the visual arts.
Bruce K. Waltke is an American Reformed evangelical professor of Old Testament and Hebrew. He has held professorships in the Old Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary, Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida, and Knox Theological Seminary in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Luke Timothy Johnson is an American New Testament scholar and historian of early Christianity. He is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Candler School of Theology and a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University.
Paul Frederick Bradshaw, FRHistS is a British Anglican priest, theologian, historian of liturgy, and academic. In addition to parish ministry, he taught at Chichester Theological College and Ripon College Cuddesdon. From 1985 to 2013, he was Professor of Liturgy at the University of Notre Dame in the United States.
Frank Colvin Senn is an American liturgist and pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He served as pastor of five congregations: Gloria Dei in South Bend, Indiana, Fenner Memorial in Louisville, Kentucky (1975–77), Christ the Mediator in Chicago, Illinois (1981–86), Holy Spirit in Lincolnshire, Illinois (1986–90), and Immanuel in Evanston, Illinois.
James Franklin Kay is the Joe R. Engle Professor of Homiletics and Liturgics Emeritus, and Dean and Vice President of Academic Affairs Emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Philip Edgcumbe Hughes (1915–1990) was an Anglican clergyman and New Testament scholar whose life spanned four continents: Australia, where he was born; South Africa, where he spent his formative years; England, where he was ordained; and the United States, where he died in 1990, aged 75.
Ralph Philip Martin was a British New Testament scholar.
The Reverend Samuel Merrill Woodbridge, D.D., LL.D. was an American clergyman, theologian, author, and college professor. A graduate of New York University and the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, Woodbridge preached for sixteen years as a clergyman in the Reformed Church in America.
M. Craig Barnes is an American Presbyterian minister and professor who served as president of Princeton Theological Seminary.
David G. Peterson, is a scholar of the New Testament. He was senior research fellow and lecturer in New Testament at Moore Theological College in Sydney and is an ordained minister of the Anglican Church of Australia. He now lectures at the college part-time.
Martha L. Moore-Keish is an American theologian ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Her work is primarily focused on Reformed theology, liturgical theology and ecumenical theology, including engagement with interfaith issues around the world. She currently engages this work as the J.B. Green Associate Professor of Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary.
Holy Leaven, also known as Malka, is a powder added to the sacramental bread used in the Eucharist of both the Ancient Church of the East and the Assyrian Church of the East and historically in the Church of the East. Both churches hold the Holy Leaven to be one of their seven sacraments. The Syro-Malabar Church in India, which was historically a part of the Church of the East, also uses Holy Leaven to prepare sacramental bread in several churches whereas unleavened bread is also in use. There are two rituals associated with the Holy Leaven: its addition to sacramental bread before it is baked, and the annual renewal of the Holy Leaven itself.
The Lima Liturgy is a Christian ecumenical Eucharistic liturgy. It was written for the 1982 Plenary Session of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Lima, Peru and reflects the theological convergences of the meeting's Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (BEM) document as expressed in liturgy. The liturgy was used again at the closing of a 1982 meeting of the Central Committee of the WCC in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1983 during the Sixth Assembly of the WCC in Vancouver, Canada, in 1991 at the Seventh Assembly of the WCC in Canberra, Australia, and, albeit unofficially, in 1993 at the fifth world conference on Faith and Order in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Although the Eucharist has not been celebrated at WCC Assemblies after 1991 using the Lima or any other liturgy, the Lima Liturgy has been used in ecumenical events all over the world. For instance, many churches in North America use it on World Communion Sunday.