New Brunswick Theological Seminary is a Christian seminary affiliated with 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. [lower-alpha 1] [1] The seminary offers that offers professional and graduate degree programs for candidates for ministry and those pursuing careers in academia. The seminary also offers certificates and training programs to lay church leaders seeking advanced courses. For over 230 years, the seminary's faculty and alumni have taken key roles in the ministry of the Reformed Church and other Christian denominations, in academia, and in the professional world.
Founded in 1784, New Brunswick Theological Seminary is the oldest seminary in the United States and one of seminaries operated by the Reformed Church in America. It currently has two campuses: Its main campus, built in 1856, in New Brunswick, New Jersey adjacent to the campus of Rutgers University and its newer campus, opened in 1986, on the grounds of St. John's University in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York. While rooted in the Reformed faith, the Seminary is dedicated to providing a comprehensive Christian education as "an inter-cultural, ecumenical school of Christian faith, learning, and scholarship committed to its metro-urban and global contexts." [2]
The board of trustees appoints a president to serve as the seminary's chief administrative and executive officer. The current seminary president is Rev. Micah L. McCreary, M.Div., Ph.D., who has served in that capacity since 2017. The current Vice President and Dean of Academic Affairs is Rev. Beth Tanner, Ph.D.
The seminary's first leader was the Rev. John Henry Livingston, who was appointed in 1784 to start instructing candidates for ministry. He began to do so in his New York City home, and a few years moved the seminary to Flatbush. In 1810, Livingston accepted the presidency of Queen's College in New Brunswick, New Jersey (now Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey), and moved the seminary to that city.
The title of President of the Seminary was first used with regard to the administrator of the school in 1923. Previously, the role had been known as Dean of the Seminary from 1883 to 1888 and filled by the oldest professor in years of service who would be entrusted with the management of the seminary. That title became President of the Faculty from 1888 to 1923. [3] Today, the president of the seminary is simultaneously appointed to the John Henry Livingston Professor of Theology, created upon the recommendation of outgoing president M. Stephen James. In 1959, James was appointed to the chair in an emeritus capacity, and the chair was first occupied by the seminary's eight president, Justin Vander Kolk. [4]
# | Portrait | Person | Took office | Left office | Career | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
- | John Henry Livingston (1746–1825) | 1784 | 1825 |
| [5] [6] | |
1 | Samuel Merrill Woodbridge (1819–1905) | 1883 | 1901 |
| [7] [8] : pp.40, 397 [9] : p.105 | |
2 | - | John Preston Searle (1854-1922) | 1902 | 1922 |
| [8] : p.165 |
3 | - | John Howard Raven | 1922 | 1924 |
| [8] : p.207 |
4 | - | William Henry Steele Demarest (1863-1956) | 1925 | 1935 |
| [8] : pp.32 |
5 | - | John Walter Beardslee, Jr. (1879–1962) | 1935 | 1947 |
| [10] |
6 | - | Joseph R. Sizoo (1885–1966) | 1947 | 1952 |
| - |
7 | - | M. Stephen James | 1953 | 1959 |
| - |
8 | - | Justin W. Vander Kolk | 1959 | 1963 | - | - |
9 | - | Wallace Newlin Jamison (1918–2010) | 1963 | 1969 |
| [11] [12] |
10 | - | Herman J. Ridder (1925–2002) | 1969 | 1971 |
| [13] [14] |
— | - | Lester J. Kuyper (1904–1986) (interim) | 1971 | 1973 |
| [15] |
11 | - | Howard G. Hageman (1921–1992) | 1973 | 1985 |
| [16] |
12 | - | Robert A. White | 1985 | 1992 | - | - |
13 | - | Norman J. Kansfield (born 1940) | 1993 | 2005 |
| [17] |
— | - | Edwin G. Mulder (born 1929) (interim) | 2005 | 2006 |
| [18] [19] |
14 | - | Gregg A. Mast | 2006 | 2017 |
| [20] [21] |
15 | Micah L. McCreary | 2017 | Incumbent |
| [22] |
Faculty members listed below in bold text were also alumni of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary.
Name | Degree | Year | Career | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Gustavus Abeel (1801–1887) |
| — | ||
Philip Milledoler Brett (1871–1960) |
| — | ||
Edward Tanjore Corwin (1834-1914) | B.D. | 1856 |
| — |
William Henry Steele Demarest |
| — | ||
William Montague Ferry | 1822 |
| ||
William Elliot Griffis (1843–1928) |
| — | ||
Henry Demarest Lloyd (1847–1903) | - | - |
| — |
Gregg A. Mast | M.Div. | 1976 |
| — |
Abraham Johannes "A.J." Muste (1885–1967) |
| — | ||
Jared Waterbury Scudder | 1855 |
| — | |
John Van Nest Talmage |
| — | ||
Thomas De Witt Talmage (1832–1902) |
| — | ||
Samuel Merrill Woodbridge (1819–1905) | M.A. | 1841 |
| — |
Samuel Marinus Zwemer (1867–1952) [24] | M.A. | 1890 |
| — |
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Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh was an American Dutch Reformed clergyman, colonial and state legislator, and educator. Hardenbergh was a founder of Queen's College—now Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey—in 1766, and was later appointed as the college's first president.
Ira Condict was an American Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed minister who served as the third president of Queen's College in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
John Henry Livingston was an American Dutch Reformed minister and member of the Livingston family, who served as the fourth President of Queen's College, from 1810 until his death in 1825.
Philip Milledoler was an American Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed minister and the fifth President of Rutgers College serving from 1825 until 1840.
William Henry Campbell was an American Presbyterian minister and the eighth President of Rutgers College serving from 1862 to 1882.
William Henry Steele Demarest was an American Dutch Reformed minister and the eleventh President of Rutgers College serving from 1906 to 1924.
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.
Norman Jay Kansfield was an American minister who served as a senior scholar in residence at Drew University. He was suspended from being a minister in the Reformed Church in America and president of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in 2005 after officiating at his daughter's same-sex marriage.
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Rutgers University is an institution of higher learning with campuses across the State of New Jersey its main flagship campus in New Brunswick and Piscataway, and two other campuses in the cities of Newark and Camden, New Jersey.
From 1969 to 2007 Livingston College was one of the residential colleges that comprised Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey's undergraduate liberal arts programs. It was located on Livingston Campus in Piscataway, New Jersey. In the Fall of 2007 the New Brunswick-area liberal arts undergraduate colleges, including Livingston College, merged into one School of Arts and Sciences of Rutgers University.
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
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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.
The Queens Campus or Old Queens Campus is a historic section of the College Avenue Campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in the United States.
Rev. John Preston Searle, D.D. was a U.S. minister and educator in the Reformed Church in America. Searle was the James Suydam Professor of Systematic Theology at New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Brunswick, New Jersey (1893-1922), as well as President of the Faculty (1902–22). He was born in Schuylerville, New York and died in Cragsmoor, New York.