Fall 2013

by Stuart J. Moore

Simply put, Alan Kelchner (Ph.D. ‘03) has done it all when it comes to the Graduate Theological Union: student, alumnus, professor, trustee, and now executive staff, serving as the interim Vice President for Advancement.

After leading congregations for 25 years, Kelchner found himself responding to a calling to teach.  He began a doctoral program at the GTU in homiletics, focusing on post-modernism and reader response. He observes that he continues to benefit from the uniqueness of the GTU and the extraordinary education he received here. “It was such a gift to...

by Sandra Chavez

I look at my life and realize how incredible it is to find myself at the GTU in Berkeley. I am an American citizen, born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, but my abuelita (grandmother) is quick to remind me, “Mexican comes before American.  You are Mexican-American and do not forget it.”

The weight of her words did not hit me until I began the doctoral program.  The Bay Area’s wealth of diverse cultures and peoples of various ethnic, religious and socio-economic backgrounds drew me to the GTU.  I am not ashamed of my ethnic heritage, but I resist being reduced...

by Stuart J. Moore

The world is literally at our fingertips. Pull out your smart phone <tap tap tap> and you can Google huge libraries of information, see the world thanks to YouTube, and even converse via discussions boards, Facebook, Skype, and text. This ability to access information has revolutionized our culture, particularly how we view education.

Jody Passanisi, a.k.a. Jacqueline Pearce, (M.A. '05) with her colleague Shara Peters astutely observes in a post at Scientific American, “[E]ducated people were those who knew a great deal of information about one or...

How Seminaries Are Adapting to New Realities by Stuart J. Moore

The handwriting is on the wall. As Americans distance themselves from the label of Christian, preferring “spiritual” or no affiliation, attendance continues to slip across mainline denominations. Schools for ministerial formation are struggling with lower enrollments and less denominational financial support. The composition of the Christian Church is changing and the seminaries must change with it.

Why does this shift matter to the Graduate Theological Union? Sometimes we focus so much on the academic programs, M.A....

By the Book | Pursuing Academia while in Ministry by D. Andrew Kille (Ph.D. ’97)

After graduating with my M.Div. from American Baptist Seminary of the West in 1975, I ministered at Grace Baptist Church of San Jose for thirteen years, ten of them as the Senior Pastor.

While reading the work of Morton Kelsey, John Sanford, and Walter Wink, and attending seminars sponsored by the Guild for Psychological Studies, I became increasingly interested in the intersections of psychology and biblical studies. I asked Wink where I might undertake such a study and his reply was the GTU. I began...

By the Book | Pursuing Academia while in Ministry by Angela Yarber (Ph.D. ’10)

For nearly 14 years I’ve had a foot in the church and a foot in academia.

I had planned to pursue a career in the performing arts, majoring in musical theatre or dance in college. A conversion experience in a Christian church in my late teens shifted my plans for life and career. Fortunately, wonderful religion professors quickly taught me that my calling in ministry can coincide with my gifts in the arts and my deep interest in feminism. As a college freshman, I served as a youth minister.

I...

A Letter from Acting President Riess Potterveld

Although I am new to the Office of the President at the Graduate Theological Union, I have worked on behalf of the seminaries of the GTU consortium for thirteen years in a variety of roles as fund-raiser, academic dean, and president. Students and faculty have stated that a primal value for studying and teaching at the GTU has been the access to multiple institutions embodying such rich and diverse religious traditions. Individual institutions are valuable, but the whole, creatively interacting, is uniquely valuable. As president, I feel a...