Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective,with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline,typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the supernatural,but also deals with religious epistemology,asks and seeks to answer the question of revelation. Revelation pertains to the acceptance of God,gods,or deities,as not only transcendent or above the natural world,but also willing and able to interact with the natural world and to reveal themselves to humankind.
HJ International Graduate School for Peace and Public Leadership formerly known as Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) from its founding in 1975 until July 2023 is a private Unification Church-affiliated graduate seminary headquartered in Midtown Manhattan,New York City,New York. The seminary was granted an absolute charter from the State of New York in January 1984 and received accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in November 1996.
Luís Fróis was a Portuguese Catholic priest and missionary who worked in Asia,most notably Japan,during the second half of the 16th century. As a Jesuit,he preached in Japan during the Sengoku period,meeting with Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He is famous for writing "The First European Description of Japan" and "History of Japan".
Akechi Tama,usually referred to as Hosokawa Gracia,was a member of the aristocratic Akechi family from the Sengoku period. Gracia is best known for her role in the Battle of Sekigahara;she was considered to be a political hostage to the Western army led by Ishida Mitsunari. She retracted from committing suicide (seppuku) because of her Catholic faith,breaking the code of conduct imposed on women of the samurai class.
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).
Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem),officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church,is a private school of theology in Princeton,New Jersey. Established in 1812,it is the second-oldest seminary in the United States,founded under the auspices of Archibald Alexander,the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA),and the College of New Jersey. It is also the largest of ten seminaries associated with the Presbyterian Church.
Garrett–Evangelical Theological Seminary (Garrett) is a private seminary and graduate school of theology related to the United Methodist Church and is ecumenical in spirit. It is located in Evanston,Illinois,on the campus of Northwestern University. The seminary offers master's- and doctoral-level degrees,as well as certificate,micro-credentialing,and lifelong learning programs. It has thousands of alumni serving in ministry,education,organizational leadership,and public service throughout the world.
João Rodrigues,distinguished as Tçuzu and also known by other names in China and Korea,was a Portuguese sailor,warrior,and Jesuit interpreter,missionary,priest,and scholar in Japan and China. He is now best known for his linguistic works on the Japanese language,including The Art of the Japanese Language. He was also long erroneously supposed to have been the main compiler of the first Japanese–Portuguese dictionary,published in 1603.
Matsura Hisanobu was a Japanese daimyō of the late Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period,who ruled the Hirado Domain of Hizen Province. His wife,Mencia,was the daughter of the famous Christian daimyo,Ōmura Sumitada.
17th-century missionary activity in Asia and the Americas grew strongly,put down roots,and developed its institutions,though it met with strong resistance in Japan in particular. At the same time Christian colonization of some areas outside Europe succeeded,driven by economic as well as religious reasons. Christian traders were heavily involved in the Atlantic slave trade,which had the effect of transporting Africans into Christian communities. A land war between Christianity and Islam continued,in the form of the campaigns of the Habsburg Empire and Ottoman Empire in the Balkans,a turning point coming at Vienna in 1683. The Tsardom of Russia,where Orthodox Christianity was the established religion,expanded eastwards into Siberia and Central Asia,regions of Islamic and shamanistic beliefs,and also southwest into Ukraine,where the Uniate Eastern Catholic Churches arose.
Christian missionaries arrived in Japan with Francis Xavier and the Jesuits in the 1540s and briefly flourished,with over 100,000 converts,including many daimyōs in Kyushu. It soon met resistance from the highest office holders of Japan. Emperor Ōgimachi issued edicts to ban Catholicism in 1565 and 1568,but to little effect. Beginning in 1587,with imperial regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi's ban on Jesuit missionaries,Christianity was repressed as a threat to national unity. After the Tokugawa shogunate banned Christianity in 1620 it ceased to exist publicly. Many Catholics went underground,becoming hidden Christians,while others died. Only after the Meiji Restoration was Christianity re-established in Japan.
Joseph Mitsuo Kitagawa was an eminent Japanese American scholar in religious studies. He was professor emeritus and dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is considered one of the founders of the field of the history of religions. He is particularly known for his outstanding contributions to the study of religious traditions in Asia and intercultural understanding of the East and the West.
St. Paul's College of Macau,also known as College of Madre de Deus,was a university founded in 1594 in Macau by Jesuits at the service of the Portuguese under the Padroado treaty. It claimed the title of the first Western university in East Asia.
Christianity and colonialism are associated with each other by some due to the service of Christianity,in its various sects,as the state religion of the historical European colonial powers,in which Christians likewise made up the majority. Through a variety of methods,Christian missionaries acted as the "religious arms" of the imperialist powers of Europe. According to Edward E. Andrews,Associate Professor of Providence College Christian missionaries were initially portrayed as "visible saints,exemplars of ideal piety in a sea of persistent savagery". However,by the time the colonial era drew to a close in the later half of the 20th century,missionaries were viewed as "ideological shock troops for colonial invasion whose zealotry blinded them",colonialism's "agent,scribe and moral alibi".
Kyōgoku Maria (京極マリア) or Yōfuku-in (養福院) was a Japanese noble lady and religious leader from the Sengoku period to the early Edo period. She was the second daughter of Azai Hisamasa as well as Azai Nagamasa's elder sister and the mother of Kyōgoku Takatsugu and Kyōgoku Takatomo. She was the mostly successful woman catechist with her own assistants as well as NaitōJulia and her women catechists. She faced the rules of samurai governments,staying true to her missionary campaigns even when Christianity was banned in Japan.
Jeffery Tribble is an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and a professor of ministry with research interests in Practical Theology,Congregational Studies and Leadership,Ethnography,Evangelism and Church Planting,Black Church Studies,and Urban Church Ministry. Academics and professionals in these fields consider him a renowned thought leader. Tribble's experience in pastoral ministry allows for his work to bridge the gap between academic research and practical church leadership.
Kathy L Dawson is a certified Christian educator and ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Her work is focused primarily on the development of educational resources and the accessibility of resources for all educators. In 2015,she was recognized as the Educator of the Year by the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators. She is currently the Benton Family Associate Professor of Christian Education at Columbia Theological Seminary.
Ōtomo-Nata Jezebel or Lady Nata was a Japanese noblewoman from the Sengoku period. Daughter of Nata Akimoto,she was a high priestess of Usa Jingū. She was the first wife of Christian daimyo Ōtomo Sōrin. She actively resisted the Jesuit mission in Japan and the spread of Christianity in Kyushu.
Elizabeth Jane Dempsey Douglass is an American Presbyterian theologian and ecclesiastical historian. She was a professor at Claremont Graduate School before becoming the Hazel Thompson McCord Professor of Historical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. Douglass served as the President of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches from 1990 to 1997,making her the first woman to head a worldwide communion of churches.
