Westminster Theological Seminary

See also the distinct institution Westminster Seminary California.

Westminster Theological Seminary is a Presbyterian and Reformed Christian graduate educational institution with campuses located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Dallas, Texas and programs of study in New York City, London, and Seoul. In 1982, the California branch of Westminster became an independent institution, Westminster Seminary California.

History

The seminary was formed in 1929, largely under the leadership and funding of J. Gresham Machen, with the vision of continuing the theological tradition of Princeton Theological Seminary, from which the Westminster founders felt Princeton was departing. Though independent, it has long had a close relationship with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, which Machen founded in 1936. The first president of the seminary was Edmund Clowney, who served from 1966 until 1984.

The seminary was accredited in 1986 by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada[1] and received "specialized accreditation" in 1954 by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.[2]

Academics

Pastoral training is the primary focus of the Seminary, and the seminary has historically prized its stringent academic standards, requiring that students who do not arrive with ability in Greek and Hebrew, spend a year on each language. Students are required to master a wide range of topics in not only theology and biblical studies, but also history, philosophy, and sociology.

All teaching officers are required to subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, the core doctrine of all conservative Presbyterian churches.

Westminster has a worldwide reputation, drawing roughly a third of its student body from Korea, with numerous other countries of Asia, Europe and Africa well represented.

The seminary currently offers the following accredited degrees:
* Master of Divinity
* Master of Arts in Religion
* Master of Arts
* Master of Theology
* Doctor of Philosophy
* Doctor of Ministry

Cultural engagement

In May 2006, the seminary launched TheTruthAboutDaVinci.com, a website with content screened by its faculty to confront what it considers inaccurate information in Dan Brown's best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code. The seminary has promoted this website with a with full-page advertisements in USA Today and several faith-based publications. The website has received praise and criticism.^[3]

Criticism

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has called Westminster Theological Seminary "a bastion of theological conservatism" that was "founded by fundamentalist J. Gresham Machen, who was expelled from mainstream Presbyterianism in 1936" and has linked the seminary with graduate Neal Horsley, who advocates violence against doctors who perform abortions.^[4] Defenders of the seminary note that fundamentalism is a loaded term whose meaning has changed significantly and become a pejorative since Machen's day (see Fundamentalist Christianity) and that the seminary has an intellectual history that distinguishes it from much of modern-day fundamentalist Christianity. (For instance, it allows for non-literal views of the Biblical creation account such as erstwhile professor Meredith Kline's framework theory,^[5] and its professors published Theonomy: A Reformed Critique [ISBN 0310521718] in which they explicitly reject theonomy and Christian Reconstructionism.) Additionally, it rejects Horsley's methods as being "deeply mistaken" and "in violation of Jesus' order to Peter, to put away the sword (John 18:11)."^[6]