Union Theological Seminary: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 01:20, 27 December 2025

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The Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (often shortened to UTS or Union) is a private, ecumenical, liberal Christian seminary^[1] in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York City. It has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1928.

Presently, Columbia University lists UTS among its affiliate schools, along with the Columbia-degree conferring Barnard College and Teachers College. Beginning in 1928 and continuing until an indeterminate juncture, UTS "[had] the status of a [Columbia] University faculty in the educational system of the University through representation" on the now-defunct University Council.^[2] In 1964, UTS also established an affiliation with the neighboring Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Despite its affiliation with Columbia University, UTS has remained an independent institution with its own administration, degrees 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).

UTS is the oldest independent seminary in the United States and has long been known as a bastion of progressive Christian scholarship, with a number of prominent thinkers among its faculty or alumni. It was founded in 1836 by members of the Presbyterian Church in the USA,^[3] but was open to students of all denominations. In 1893, UTS rescinded the right of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church to veto faculty appointments, thus becoming fully independent. In the 20th century, Union became a center of liberal Christianity. It served as the birthplace of the Black theology, womanist theology, and other theological movements. It houses the Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, one of the largest theological libraries in the Western Hemisphere.^[4]

History

Early history

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1883 campus, Park Avenue and 70th Street^[5]

Union Theological Seminary was founded in 1836. During the late 19th century it became one of the leading centers of liberal Christianity in the United States. In 1891, Charles A. Briggs, who was being installed as the chair of biblical studies, delivered an inaugural address in which he questioned the verbal inspiration of Scripture.^[6] When the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. vetoed Briggs' appointment and eventually deposed Briggs for heresy two years later, Union removed itself from denominational oversight.^[7] In 1939, Auburn Theological Seminary moved to the campus. After 75 years Auburn departed in 2014.^[8]^[9]

Among its graduates were the historian of Christianity Arthur McGiffert; biblical scholar James Moffatt; Harry Emerson Fosdick, the pastor of Riverside Church who served as professor during his tenure there; and the Socialist leader Norman Thomas.

Union Settlement

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Side view at Claremont Avenue between W. 120th and W. 119th streets (1910)

In 1895, members of the Union Theological Seminary Alumni Club founded Union Settlement Association, one of the oldest settlement houses in New York City. After visiting Toynbee Hall in London and inspired by the example of Hull House in Chicago, the alumni decided to create a settlement house in the area of Manhattan enclosed on the north and south by East 96th and 110th Streets and on the east and west by the East River and Central Park.

The neighborhood, known as East Harlem, was filled with new tenements but devoid of any civic services. The ethos of the settlement house movement called for its workers to "settle" in such neighborhoods in order to learn first-hand the problems of the residents. "It seemed to us that, as early settlers, we had a chance to grow up with the community and affect its development," wrote William Adams Brown, Theology Professor, Union Theological Society (1892–1930) and President, Union Settlement Association (1915–1919).^[10]

Union Settlement still exists, providing community-based services and programs to support the immigrant and low-income residents of East Harlem. One of East Harlem's largest social service agencies, Union Settlement reaches more than 13,000 people annually at 17 locations throughout East Harlem through a range of programs, including early childhood education, youth development, senior services, job training, the arts, adult education, nutrition, counseling, a farmers' market, community development, and neighborhood cultural events.

20th century to present

Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich made UTS the center of both liberal and neo-orthodox Protestantism in the inter-war period. Niebuhr joined UTS in 1929 and Tillich in 1933. Prominent public intellectual Cornel West commenced a promising academic career at UTS in 1977. As liberalism lost ground to conservatism after the 1960s (while neo-orthodoxy dissipated) and thus declined in prestige, UTS ran into financial difficulties and shrank significantly because of a reduced student base.

Eventually, the school agreed to lease some of its buildings to Columbia University and to transfer ownership of and responsibility for the Burke Library to Columbia. These agreements helped stabilize the school's finances, which had been hobbled by increasing library costs and the need for substantial campus repairs.

On July 1, 2008, feminist theologian Serene Jones became UTS's first female president in its 172-year history, succeeding Joseph C. Hough Jr.^[11]

On June 10, 2014, Jones announced that UTS would be joining the movement to divest from the fossil fuels industry in protest at the damage the industry is causing to the environment. UTS's $108 million endowment will no longer include any fossil fuel investments.^[12] On May 9, 2024, UTS's Board of Trustees voted to endorse divestment from "companies profiting from the war in Palestine" and announced that they will be joining the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.^[13]

Classroom and faculty space was added to UTS in the early 2020s as part of the construction of Claremont Hall, a 41-story residential condominium at 100 Claremont Avenue.^[14] UTS owns 27 of the apartments in Claremont Hall.^[15]

Although administratively independent from Columbia, UTS is affiliated through representation by one voting faculty member and one non-voting student observer in the Columbia University Senate.^[16]

Presidents


No.	Name	Term	Ref
1	Thomas McAuley	1836 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1840	^[17]^[18]
2	Joel Parker	1840 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1842	^[19]^[20]^[18]
REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected Template:Efn	Henry White	1842 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1850	^[21]^[22]^[23]
REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected Template:Efn	Edward Robinson	1850 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1863	^[24]^[25]
REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected Template:Efn	Thomas Harvey Skinner	1863 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1871	^[26]^[27]^[28]
REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected Template:Efn	Henry Boynton Smith	1871 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1873	^[29]
3	William Adams	1873 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1880	^[30]^[31]^[32]
4	Roswell Dwight Hitchcock	1880 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1887	^[33]^[34]
REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected	William Greenough Thayer SheddTemplate:Efn	1887 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1888	^[35]
5	Thomas Samuel Hastings	1888 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1897	^[36]
6	Charles Cuthbert Hall	1897 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1908	^[37]^[38]
7	Francis Brown	1908 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1916	^[39]^[40]
8	Arthur Cushman McGiffert Template:Efn	1916 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1926	^[41]
9	Henry Sloane Coffin Template:Efn	1926 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1945	^[42]
10	Henry P. Van Dusen	1945 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1963	^[43]
11	John Coleman Bennett	1963 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1970	^[44]^[45]
12	J. Brooke Mosley	1970 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1974	^[46]
REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected	Roger ShinnTemplate:Efn	1974 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1975	^[47]
13	Donald W. Shriver Jr.	1975 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1991	^[47]
14	Holland L. Hendrix	1991 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected1998	^[48]
15	Joseph C. Hough Jr.	1999 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protected2008	^[49]^[50]
16	Serene Jones	2008 REDIRECT Template:En dash Template:R protectedpresent	^[51]

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Campus

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Brown Memorial Tower

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Union Theological Seminary entrance on Broadway

UTS's campus is located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, bordered by Claremont Avenue, Broadway, and West 120th and 122nd Streets. The brick and limestone English Gothic revival architecture, by architects Allen & Collens, completed in 1910, includes the tower, which adapts features of the crossing tower of Durham Cathedral. Adjacent to Teachers College, Barnard College, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and the Manhattan School of Music, Union has cross-registration and library access agreements with all of these schools.

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 23, 1980, and parts were made a New York City designated landmark in 1965.^[52] Some sections of the campus are now on long-term lease to Columbia University.

Library

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, one of the largest theological libraries in North America, contains over 700,000 items. Burke's holdings include extensive special collections, including Greek census records from 20 CE, a rare 12th-century manuscript of the Life of St. Boniface, and one of the first African-American hymnals, published in Philadelphia in 1818.

The Burke Library also maintains a number of world-renowned archival collections, including the Archives of Women in Theological Scholarship and the Missionary Research Library Archives.

In 2004, the Burke Library became fully integrated into the Columbia University Libraries system, which holds over 14 million volumes. The library is named in honor of Walter Burke, a generous benefactor to the library who served as chairman of the Board of Directors of the Seminary from 1976 to 1982.

Faculty

Both Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich taught at the seminary. Niebuhr joined the faculty in 1929 and retired in 1952. Tillich was recruited by Niebuhr to UTS following his dismissal from the University of Frankfurt. Nazi officials terminated Tillich from the University of Frankfurt and placed him on their list of "undesirables". Tillich subsequently narrowly escaped arrest by the Gestapo in October 1933 and made his way out of Germany joining UTS in December 1933.^[53]

In 1930, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Postgraduate Teaching Fellow at the seminary. He later returned in 1939 to be a member of the faculty and to escape Nazi harassment in Germany. Writing of his experience there in his book Barcelona, Berlin, New York, Bonhoeffer was dismayed by the liberalism of the seminary and its students, noting, "The students are completely clueless with respect to what dogmatics is really about. They are not familiar with even the most basic questions. They become intoxicated with liberal and humanistic phrases, are amused at the fundamentalists, and yet basically are not even up to their level...."^[54] Referring to Union Seminary, Bonhoeffer noted: "A seminary in which numerous students openly laugh during a public lecture because they find it amusing when a passage on sin and forgiveness ...is cited has obviously, despite its many advantages, forgotten what Christian theology in its very essence stands for" (pp. 309–10). He soon regretted his decision and decided that he had to return to Germany to resist the Nazis. He took the last ship from New York to Germany in late August 1939. Due to his secret involvement with the 20 July plot on Hitler's life, he was executed at the Flossenbürg concentration camp on April 8, 1945, only 15 days before the United States Army liberated the camp.

American theologian, James Hal Cone, one of the founders of liberation theology and influential in the development of Black theology, began teaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1970, holding the distinguished Charles A. Briggs Chair in systematic theology from 1977 until his death in 2018.

Serene Jones, the seminary's first female president, was inaugurated in November 2008. Civil rights activist Cornel West joined the faculty in July 2012, and rejoined in 2021.^[55]

Notable current faculty

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Cornel West

Mary C. Boys – Skinner and McAlpin Professor of Practical Theology
David M. Carr – Professor of Old Testament; contributed to Genesis in the New Oxford Annotated Bible (New Revised Standard Version)
Euan Cameron – Henry Luce, III Professor of Reformation Church History
Alan Cooper – Appointed Professor of Bible in 1998, becoming the first person to hold a joint professorship at both Union and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. His dual appointment has been described as a major step in strengthening ties between the two seminaries.
Pamela Cooper-White – Christiane Brooks Johnson Professor of Psychology and Religion
Kelly Brown Douglas – Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary as well as the Canon Theologian at the Washington National Cathedral.
Gary Dorrien – American social ethicist and theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics
Roger Haight – Visiting professor of Theology
Chung Hyun Kyung – Associate Professor of Ecumenical Theology
Cornel West – Professor of Religious Philosophy and Christian Practice

Notable former faculty

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James Cone

Michelle Alexander – writer, civil rights advocate, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, opinion columnist for The New York Times. Visiting professor from 2016 to 2021.
Charles Augustus Briggs – Professor of Hebrew and Cognate Languages (1874–1891) and of Biblical Theology (1891–1904); an important early leader of the Modernist movement
Raymond E. Brown (1928–1998) – Professor of New Testament (1971–1990), member of the Pontifical Bible Commission, and the first Catholic to gain tenure^[56]
Charles Butler (1802–1897) – founder
Henry Sloane Coffin – President of Union and a leading theological liberal. Coffin also obtained his Bachelor of Divinity from the Union Theological Seminary in 1900. He declined an offer to become president of Union Theological Seminary in 1916. In 1926, offered the presidency (a second time), he accepted and retained the post until 1945.
James Cone (1936–2018) – a founder of Black theology, he was Charles Augustus Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology until his death
W. D. Davies, (1911–2001), Welsh-born Edward Robinson Professor of Biblical Theology, noted New Testament scholar and Congregationalist Minister.
Harrison S. Elliot (1882–1951) – author and leader in the Y.M.C.A., Religious Education Association, and Union Theological Seminary.
James A. Forbes, Joe R. Engle Professor of Preaching before becoming senior pastor of Riverside Church, after which he continued to serve as an adjunct professor.
Harry Emerson Fosdick – First minister of Riverside Church and professor of homiletics
Beverly Wildung Harrison - a Christian feminist ethicist, she taught for 34 years at Union and was the Caroline Williams Beaird Professor of Ethics. She was the first woman president of the North American Society of Christian Ethics.
Paul F. Knitter – Paul Tillich Professor of Theology
John Macquarrie – Professor of Systematic Theology (1962–70), afterwards Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford and Canon Residentiary of Christ Church, Oxford (1970–1986)
John Anthony McGuckin – Nielsen Professor of Early and Byzantine Church History, President of the Sophia Institute, Archpriest of the Orthodox Church
Christopher Morse – Dietrich Bonhoeffer Professor of Theology & Ethics
J. Brooke Mosley, president
Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) – Professor of Applied Christianity – Christian social ethics, author of the influential The Nature and Destiny of Man (1941), and the Serenity Prayer (popularized through the Twelve-step program)
Peter C. Phan – the inaugural holder of the Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown University^[57]
Robert Pollack – professor of Science and Religion
Edward Robinson – Biblical scholar and discoverer of Robinson's Arch and Hezekiah's Tunnel in Jerusalem
Philip Schaff (1819–1893) – Theologian and ecclesiastical historian who served as chair of theological encyclopedia and Christian symbolism, then as chair of Hebrew and the cognate languages, followed by chair of sacred literature, and finally chair of church history until his death in 1893.
William Greenough Thayer Shedd — Professor of Sacred Literature (1863–1874) and of Systematic Theology (1874–1890)
Dorothee Soelle – Socially engaged German theologian
Paul Tillich (1886–1965) – German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher
Phyllis Trible (b. 1932) – Ph.D. from Union 1963; Baldwin Professor of Sacred Literature, 1980–1998; served as a visiting professor of Old Testament after retirement; donated papers to Burke Library.
Ann Belford Ulanov – Christiane Brooks Johnson Memorial Professor of Psychiatry and Religion
Harry F. Ward – chairman of the ACLU and Professor of Ethics
Delores S. Williams earned her PhD from Union Theological Seminary, and later became the Paul Tillich Professor of Feminist Theology at Union Theological Seminary Her title was later changed to the Paul Tillich Professor of Theology and Culture. Following retirement, she became professor emerita.
Walter Wink – Biblical scholar and activist

Notable alumni

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Oliver Crane

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David Dellinger

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Conrad Tillard

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Raphael Warnock

Rubem Alves – Brazilian theologian and writer
William Scott Ament (Bachelor of Divinity, 1877) – controversial American missionary to China (1877–1909)
John Batchelor – radio news show writer and host
Frederic Mayer Bird – Class of 1860: clergyman, educator, and hymnologist.
J. Seelye Bixler – 16th president of Colby College
Dietrich Bonhoeffer – German Lutheran theologian and Nazi resister, attended UTS in 1930 for postgraduate studies and a teaching fellowship under Reinhold Niebuhr
Anton Boisen – founder of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) movement
Marcus Borg – Biblical scholar and author; former Hundere Distinguished Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University
Malcolm Boyd – Episcopal priest and author. He was one of the most prominent of the gay clergy to come out of the closet when he did so in 1977. For two years in 1956 and 1957, Boyd engaged in post-graduate studies at Union Theological Seminary where he wrote his first book, Crisis in Communication. He participated in the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements in the 1960s.
Walter Brueggemann – William Marcellus McPheeters professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary
Frederick Buechner – writer, novelist, poet, essayist, theologian, and ordained Presbyterian minister. Buechner described his time at Union at length in his 1982 autobiographical work, The Sacred Journey. In 2008 Union honored Buechner with the Unitas Distinguished Alumni/ae Awards, bestowed upon alumni/ae who exemplify the Seminary's academic breadth, diversity, and inclusiveness.^[58]
David Budbill – poet
Edwin Otway Burnham (Bachelor of Divinity, 1855) – a rifle shooting Congregational missionary in Sioux Indian territory who could bark a squirrel, swing an axe or dispense Gospel with equal fervor and efficiency.
Calvin Otis Butts III – senior pastor of the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City
W. Sterling Cary (BD 1952) – president of the National Council of Churches from 1972 to 1975^[59]^[60]
Gladwyn M. Childs – anthropologist and missionary
Grigor Cilka – reverend, missionary, teacher and founder of first Protestant parish in Korçë, Albania
Joseph Gallup Cochran (class of 1847) – reverend, Presbyterian missionary, teacher^[61]
Oliver Crane (1848), Presbyterian clergy, missionary, Oriental scholar, writer
Nelson Cruikshank (Master of divinity, 1929) – labor union activist and strategist responsible for the passage of Medicare
Claudia De la Cruz (MDiv, 2007) – socialist activist and community organizer
David Dellinger – noted American peace activist and member of the Chicago Seven
Lynn de Silva (Master of Sacred Theology) – Sri Lankan theologian, former director of the Ecumenical Institute for Study and Dialogue, Methodist minister, and a pioneer in promoting Buddhist–Christian dialogue
John R. Everett (B.D. 1944) – President of Hollins College, first Chancellor of the Municipal College System of the City of New York, and President of the New School for Social Research
Helen Flanders Dunbar (B.D. 1927) – early figure in U.S. psychosomatic medicine
Franklin I. Gamwell – Shailer Mathews Professor of Religious Ethics, the Philosophy of Religion, and Theology at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago
Francis L. Garrett – Chief of Chaplains of the U.S. Navy
Beverly Roberts Gaventa – New Testament exegete, theologian, and author most recently of When in Romans^[62]
Jeffrey Grant, lawyer and minister who co-founded Progressive Prison Ministries and White Collar Support Group.
J. T. Gulick, evolutionary biologist
Susan E. Goff, suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia
David P. Gushee – Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University. Author of 9 books and over 70 articles^[63]
Douglas John Hall – emeritus professor of theology at McGill University, and theologian of the cross.
Mark Hanson – former Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Edler Garnet Hawkins – former Moderator of the General Assembly for the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.
Carter Heyward – lesbian feminist theologian and priest in the Episcopal Church
Richard Holloway – Scottish writer and broadcaster and was formerly Bishop of Edinburgh
Dwight Hopkins – Professor of Theology at the Divinity School at the University of Chicago
Myles Horton – co-founder of the Highlander Center
William H. Hudnut III – former Mayor of Indianapolis, Indiana (1976–1992)
Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz – Professor of Ethics and Theology at Drew University
Suzan Johnson Cook – former presidential advisor and United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom (2011–2013)
Mark Juergensmeyer – Professor of Sociology, Religious Studies, and Global Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara and Director of the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies
Norman J. Kansfield – President New Brunswick Theological Seminary 1993–2005 and Senior Scholar in Residence, Theological School, Drew University
Mineo Katagiri – Minister and social activist
James Franklin Kay – Professor of Homiletics and Liturgics at Princeton Theological Seminary
George R. Lunn – Mayor of Schenectady, New York, Member of the United States House of Representatives, Lieutenant Governor of New York
Ernest Lyon (1860–1938) – Minister, former United States Ambassador to Liberia, and founder of the Maryland Industrial and Agricultural Institute for Colored Youths.
Reuben H. Markham Template:Spaced ndashmissionary educator to Bulgaria; journalist, Christian Science Monitor; author of numerous books
Rollo May – existential psychologist
Rachel Kollock McDowell – religion editor of the New York Times (1920–1948)
Andrew McLellan – former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
James David Manning – pastor in Harlem
Bruce McLeod (PhD) – Moderator of the United Church of Canada
William P. Merrill – first president on the Church Peace Union, writer of "Rise Up, O Men of God"
Frederick Buckley Newell (Bachelor of Divinity, 1916) – Bishop of The Methodist Church
Henry F. C. Nichols – member of the Wisconsin State Assembly
Lisa Oz – author and radio and television personality
Eunice Blanchard Poethig (PhD, 1985) – minister, Presbyterian Church (USA) leader and educator
Paul Raushenbush – American Baptist minister and Religion Editor for The Huffington Post
John Bunyan Reeve – first Black student, organized theology department at Howard University
Scott Rennie – minister of the Church of Scotland at Queen's Cross Church, Aberdeen
Joseph L. Roberts Jr., senior pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church from 1975 to 2005
James Herman Robinson (1938) – founder of Operation Crossroads Africa, a forerunner of the Peace Corps
Carl Rogers – pioneering psychologist
Fleming Rutledge - Episcopal priest and author
V.C. Samuel – Indian Christian theologian, philosopher and historian
E. P. Sanders – a principal founder of the New Perspective on Paul movement
Nathan A. Scott, Jr. – scholar of religion and literature
Henry Sloane Coffin – President of Union Theological Seminary
William Gayley Simpson – former associate director of the National Civil Liberties Bureau (American Civil Liberties Union)
Andrea Smith – Indigenous intellectual and anti-violence activist
John Sung – a Chinese Christian evangelist who played an instrumental role in the revival movement among the Chinese in mainland China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia during the 1920s and 1930s and also a staunch defender of traditional Christian values and outspoken opponent of liberal theology
John Stoltenberg – feminist writer
Juhanon Mar Thoma – Metropolitan of Marthoma Syrian Church in India
Norman Thomas – socialist
Conrad Tillard (born 1964) - Baptist minister, radio host, author, civil rights activist, and politician
K. H. Ting – President emeritus of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement and China Christian Council
Phyllis Trible (b. 1932) – feminist biblical scholar
Constance Cochnower Virtue - composer who developed the Virtue Notagraph
Raphael Warnock – U.S. Senator from Georgia (2021-) and senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta^[64]
George W. Webber (1920–2010) – President of the New York Theological Seminary^[65]
Floyd Wilcox – third president of Shimer College
Delores S. Williams – womanist theologian
Walter Wink – Biblical scholar and activist
Clemis Abraham - Former head of the Malankara Syriac Knanaya Archdiocese (1951–2002)

References

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↑ A Teacher and His Times, William Adams Brown, Scribner, 1940.
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External links

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[62] Beverly Roberts Gaventa, When in Romans: An Invitation to Linger with the Gospel According to Paul, Grand Rapids: Baker Press. Description. Forthcoming, November 15, 2016.

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Union Theological Seminary: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 01:20, 27 December 2025

Contents

History

Early history

Union Settlement

20th century to present

Presidents

Campus

Library

Faculty

Notable current faculty

Notable former faculty

Notable alumni

See also

References

Further reading

External links

Navigation menu

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 {{Hatnote group|{{For|other organizations with the same name}}
 {{Redirect|Union Seminary|the institution in Pennsylvania that preceded Albright College|Albright College}}}}
+{{More citations needed |date=August 2021}}
+{{Use American English|date=September 2025}}
 {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2019}}
-{{More citations needed |date=August 2021}}
 {{Infobox university
   |name              = Union Theological Seminary
@@ Line 63: / Line 64: @@
    | architect = [[Allen & Collens]]
    | architecture = Late Gothic Revival, Collegiate Gothic
-   | added = April 23, 1980
+   | added = April 23, 1980<ref name=nrhpdoc>{{cite report|type=none|url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75320012 |title=National Register of Historic Places Registration: New York SP Union Theological Seminary|publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |author= Bradley Frandsen, Joan R. Olshansky, and Elizabeth Spencer-Ralph |date= n.d.| access-date=November 13, 2025 }} ({{NationalArchivesNote}})</ref>
    | area = {{convert|2.3|acre}}
    | refnum = 80002725<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>
@@ Line 75: / Line 76: @@
 }}
-'''Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York''' (shortened to '''UTS''' or '''Union''') is a [[Private college|private]] [[ecumenical]] [[liberal Christian]] [[seminary]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://utsnyc.edu/about/mission-vision/|title=Mission & Vision|website=Union Theological Seminary|language=en-US|access-date=March 15, 2019}}</ref> in [[Morningside Heights]], [[Manhattan]], affiliated with [[Columbia University]] since 1928. Presently, Columbia University lists UTS among its affiliate schools, including the Columbia-degree conferring [[Barnard College]] and [[Teachers College]]. Beginning in 1928 and continuing until an indeterminate juncture, UTS "[had] the status of a [Columbia] University faculty in the educational system of the University through representation" on the now-defunct University Council.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Columbia University |url=http://archive.org/details/catalogue1928colu |title=Catalogue |date=1897 |publisher=New York |others=Columbia University Libraries |publication-date=1928 |pages=126}}</ref> In 1964, UTS also established an affiliation with the neighboring [[Jewish Theological Seminary of America]]. Despite its affiliation with Columbia University, UTS has remained an independent institution with its own administration, degrees 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).
+The '''Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York''' (often shortened to '''UTS''' or '''Union''') is a private, [[Ecumenism|ecumenical]], [[Liberal Christianity|liberal Christian]] seminary<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://utsnyc.edu/about/mission-vision/|title=Mission & Vision|website=Union Theological Seminary|language=en-US|access-date=March 15, 2019}}</ref> in [[Morningside Heights]], [[Manhattan]], New York City. It has been affiliated with [[Columbia University]] since 1928.
+Presently, Columbia University lists UTS among its affiliate schools, along with the Columbia-degree conferring [[Barnard College]] and [[Teachers College]]. Beginning in 1928 and continuing until an indeterminate juncture, UTS "[had] the status of a [Columbia] University faculty in the educational system of the University through representation" on the now-defunct University Council.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Columbia University |url=http://archive.org/details/catalogue1928colu |title=Catalogue |date=1897 |publisher=New York |others=Columbia University Libraries |publication-date=1928 |pages=126}}</ref> In 1964, UTS also established an affiliation with the neighboring [[Jewish Theological Seminary of America]]. Despite its affiliation with Columbia University, UTS has remained an independent institution with its own administration, degrees 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).
 UTS is the oldest independent seminary in the United States and has long been known as a bastion of [[progressive Christian]] scholarship, with a number of prominent thinkers among its faculty or alumni. It was founded in 1836 by members of the [[Presbyterian Church in the United States of America|Presbyterian Church in the USA]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.utsnyc.edu/Page.aspx|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20120805191253/http://www.utsnyc.edu/Page.aspx?&pid=758|archive-date=August 5, 2012|url-status=dead|title=Timeline, 1836 to 1869 – Union Theological Seminary|access-date=October 26, 2009}}</ref> but was open to students of all denominations. In 1893, UTS rescinded the right of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church to veto faculty appointments, thus becoming fully independent. In the 20th century, Union became a center of [[liberal Christianity]]. It served as the birthplace of the [[Black theology]], [[womanist theology]], and other theological movements. It houses the [[Burke Library|Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary]], one of the largest theological libraries in the Western Hemisphere.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://library.columbia.edu/libraries/burke.html|title=The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary &#124; Columbia University Libraries|website=library.columbia.edu}}</ref>
@@ Line 83: / Line 86: @@
 [[File:A history of real estate, building and architecture in New York City during the last quarter of a century (1898) (14587163619).jpg|thumb|left|1883 campus, Park Avenue and 70th Street<ref name="guide">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofrealest00durs |title=A History of Real Estate, Building and Architecture in New York City During the Last Quarter of a Century |date=1898 |publisher=Record and Guide  |location=New York City |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofrealest00durs/page/n380 371]}}</ref>]]
-Union Theological Seminary was founded in 1836. During the late 19th century it became one of the leading centers of liberal Christianity in the United States. In 1891, [[Charles Augustus Briggs|Charles A. Briggs]], who was being installed as the chair of biblical studies, delivered an inaugural address in which he questioned the verbal inspiration of Scripture.<ref name="hart">{{Cite book |title=Seeking a Better Country: 300 Years of American Presbyterianism |last1=Hart |first1=D. G. |last2=Muether |first2=John |publisher=Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing |year=2007 |isbn=9780875525747 |location=Phillipsburg, N.J. |pages=183 |oclc=122974080}}</ref> When the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. vetoed Briggs' appointment and eventually deposed Briggs for heresy two years later, Union removed itself from denominational oversight.<ref>Hart & Muether, pg. 183</ref> In 1939, the [[Auburn Theological Seminary]] moved to its campus and departed in 2014.<ref>{{cite web |title= About Us |work= Auburn Theological Seminary web site |url= http://www.auburnsem.org/about/welcome.asp?nsectionid=1&pageid=1 |access-date= January 21, 2010 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100221015803/http://www.auburnsem.org/about/welcome.asp?nsectionid=1&pageid=1 |archive-date= February 21, 2010 |url-status= dead }}</ref>
+Union Theological Seminary was founded in 1836. During the late 19th century it became one of the leading centers of liberal Christianity in the United States. In 1891, [[Charles Augustus Briggs|Charles A. Briggs]], who was being installed as the chair of biblical studies, delivered an inaugural address in which he questioned the verbal inspiration of Scripture.<ref name="hart">{{Cite book |title=Seeking a Better Country: 300 Years of American Presbyterianism |last1=Hart |first1=D. G. |last2=Muether |first2=John |publisher=Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing |year=2007 |isbn=9780875525747 |location=Phillipsburg, N.J. |pages=183 |oclc=122974080}}</ref> When the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. vetoed Briggs' appointment and eventually deposed Briggs for heresy two years later, Union removed itself from denominational oversight.<ref>Hart & Muether, pg. 183</ref> In 1939, [[Auburn Theological Seminary]] moved to the campus. After 75 years Auburn departed in 2014.<ref>{{cite web |title= About Us |work= Auburn Theological Seminary web site |url= http://www.auburnsem.org/about/welcome.asp?nsectionid=1&pageid=1 |access-date= January 21, 2010 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100221015803/http://www.auburnsem.org/about/welcome.asp?nsectionid=1&pageid=1 |archive-date= February 21, 2010 |url-status= dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=outlook |date=2014-05-08 |title=Auburn on the move |url=https://pres-outlook.org/2014/05/auburn-move/ |access-date=2025-06-07 |website=The Presbyterian Outlook |language=en-US}}</ref>
 Among its graduates were the historian of Christianity [[Arthur McGiffert]]; biblical scholar [[James Moffatt]]; [[Harry Emerson Fosdick]], the pastor of [[Riverside Church]] who served as professor during his tenure there; and the Socialist leader [[Norman Thomas]].
@@ Line 108: / Line 111: @@
 Although administratively independent from Columbia, UTS is affiliated through representation by one voting faculty member and one non-voting student observer in the Columbia [[University senate|University Senate]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://secretary.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/University%20Statutes_January2022.pdf#page=22 | title=The University Senate | page=22 | website=secretary.columbia.edu}}</ref>
+===Presidents===
+{| class="wikitable"
+|+
+! No.
+! Name
+! Term
+! Ref
+|-
+| 1
+| Thomas McAuley
+| 1836{{endash}}1840
+| <ref>{{cite book|title=A History of Union Theological Seminary in New York|first=Robert T.|last=Handy|publisher=Columbia University Press|date=1987|page=6|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofunionth0000hand/page/6|quote=Thomas McAuley was elected president of both board and seminary.}}</ref><ref name=mcauleyparker>{{cite book|title=A History of Union Theological Seminary in New York|first=Robert T.|last=Handy|publisher=Columbia University Press|date=1987|page=20|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofunionth0000hand/page/20|quote=Early the following year [1840], when McAuley resigned as president of both board and faculty... Joel Parker was then elected president.... No president was then appointed for 31 years.}}</ref>
+|-
+| 2
+| [[Joel Parker (clergyman)|Joel Parker]]
+| 1840{{endash}}1842
+| <ref>{{cite news|title=Honest Joel|newspaper=The Times-Picayune|date=May 5, 1842|page=2|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/25551458/}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Parker on Universalism|newspaper=The Charleston Daily Courier|date=June 29, 1841|page=1|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/604514310/}}</ref><ref name=mcauleyparker />
+|-
+| {{endash}}{{efn|name=nopres|From 1842 to 1873, Union chose no person to serve as president of the seminary.<ref name=adams31 /><ref name=mcauleyparker /> However, the longest serving professor was sometimes recognized as the unofficial head of the faculty as "senior professor."<ref>{{cite news|title=The Reunion Affirmed|newspaper=New-York Tribune|date=May 28, 1869|page=5|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/85353720/|quote=The Rev. Thomas H. Skinner, D. D., Senior Professor in Union Theological Seminary....}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Died: Skinner|newspaper=The New York Times|date=February 2, 1871|page=5|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/26007503/|quote=Rev. Thomas H. Skinner, D. D., senior professor in the Union Theological Seminary....}}</ref>}}
+| ''Henry White''
+| ''1842{{endash}}1850''
+| <ref>{{cite book|title=A History of Union Theological Seminary in New York|first=Robert T.|last=Handy|publisher=Columbia University Press|date=1987|page=11|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofunionth0000hand/page/11}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=A History of Union Theological Seminary in New York|first=Robert T.|last=Handy|publisher=Columbia University Press|date=1987|page=19|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofunionth0000hand/page/19|quote=...Henry White, the first full-time professor and also (until 1840) a member of the board.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=A History of Union Theological Seminary in New York|first=Robert T.|last=Handy|publisher=Columbia University Press|date=1987|page=22|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofunionth0000hand/page/22|quote=...death came to Union's first professor in late August of 1850 when Henry White was in his 50th year.}}</ref>
+|-
+| {{endash}}{{efn|name=nopres}}
+| ''[[Edward Robinson (scholar)|Edward Robinson]]''
+| ''1850{{endash}}1863''
+| <ref>{{cite book|title=A History of Union Theological Seminary in New York|first=Robert T.|last=Handy|publisher=Columbia University Press|date=1987|page=11|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofunionth0000hand/page/11|quote=...early in 1837, when the board was successful in attracting... Edward Robinson, as the professor of biblical literature.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=A History of Union Theological Seminary in New York|first=Robert T.|last=Handy|publisher=Columbia University Press|date=1987|page=39|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofunionth0000hand/page/39|quote=In 1863 Edward Robinson... died in his 69th year.}}</ref>
+|-
+| {{endash}}{{efn|name=nopres}}
+| ''Thomas Harvey Skinner''
+| ''1863{{endash}}1871''
+| <ref>{{cite news|title=Rev. Thomas H. Skinner, D.D.|newspaper=New-York Tribune|date=February 2, 1848|page=2|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/79062729/}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=A History of Union Theological Seminary in New York|first=Robert T.|last=Handy|publisher=Columbia University Press|date=1987|page=21|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofunionth0000hand/page/21|quote=...a third regular faculty member [other than White and Robinson] was much needed, and... Thomas H. Skinner [came] to Union in 1848 as professor....}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=A History of Union Theological Seminary in New York|first=Robert T.|last=Handy|publisher=Columbia University Press|date=1987|page=51|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofunionth0000hand/page/51|quote=...Thomas H. Skinner... died in 1871.}}</ref>
+|-
+| {{endash}}{{efn|name=nopres}}
+| ''[[Henry Boynton Smith]]''
+| ''1871{{endash}}1873''
+| <ref>{{cite book|title=A History of Union Theological Seminary in New York|first=Robert T.|last=Handy|publisher=Columbia University Press|date=1987|page=21|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofunionth0000hand/page/21|quote=In 1850 the directors decided to increase the faculty to four by adding... Henry Boynton Smith....}}</ref>
+|-
+| 3
+| [[William Adams (minister)|William Adams]]
+| 1873{{endash}}1880
+| <ref>{{cite news|title=The Rev. Dr. Adams Dead|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 1, 1880|page=8|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/20361308/}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Union Theological Seminary|newspaper=New York Daily Herald|date=May 14, 1874|page=2|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/329574335/}}</ref><ref name=adams31>{{cite book|title=A History of Union Theological Seminary in New York|first=Robert T.|last=Handy|publisher=Columbia University Press|date=1987|page=51|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofunionth0000hand/page/51|quote=Though no president had been named for 31 years, the board now wished to fill that office, so in 1873 Adams became Union's third president....}}</ref>
+|-
+| 4
+| [[Roswell Dwight Hitchcock]]
+| 1880{{endash}}1887
+| <ref>{{cite news|title=The New President of Union Theological Seminary|newspaper=The Portland Daily Press|date=November 13, 1880|page=3|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/875127453/}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Dr. Roswell D. Hitchcock|newspaper=The Kearney County Gazette|date=July 7, 1887|page=1|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/726541430/}}</ref>
+|-
+| {{endash}}
+| ''[[William Greenough Thayer Shedd]]''{{efn|Shedd served as acting president.}}
+| ''1887{{endash}}1888''
+| <ref>{{cite news|title=Tribute to the Dead: Union Theological Seminary Praises Dr. Hitchcock|newspaper=The New York Times|date=December 7, 1887|page=4|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/20366974/|quote=The Rev. Dr. W. G. T. Shedd, now Acting President of Union Theological Seminary, delivered the address of the evening.}}</ref>
+|-
+| 5
+| Thomas Samuel Hastings
+| 1888{{endash}}1897
+| <ref>{{cite news|title=The News This Morning|newspaper=New-York Tribune|date=February 10, 1988|page=4|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/85633361/}}</ref>
+|-
+| 6
+| Charles Cuthbert Hall
+| 1897{{endash}}1908
+| <ref>{{cite news|title=New President of Union: The Rev. Dr. Charles Cuthbert Hall Chosen Head of the Seminary|newspaper=New-York Tribune|date=January 14, 1897|page=7|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/85490571/}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Charles Cuthbert Hall: Death of President of Union Theological Seminary|newspaper=The Hartford Courant|date=March 26, 1908|page=2|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/369452569/}}</ref>
+|-
+| 7
+| [[Francis Brown (theologian)|Francis Brown]]
+| 1908{{endash}}1916
+| <ref>{{cite news|title=Union Seminary President Dead|newspaper=New-York Tribune|date=October 16, 1916|page=7,11|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/469247125/}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Dr. Francis Brown Elected As President of the Union Theological Seminary|newspaper=Harrisburg Star-Independent|date=May 13, 1908|page=1|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/82952716/}}</ref>
+|-
+| 8
+| [[Arthur Cushman McGiffert]]{{efn|McGiffert first served as acting president after the death of Francis Brown from 1916 to 1917.<ref>{{cite news|title=Social News|newspaper=The Springfield Daily Republican|date=May 29, 1917|page=4|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1061915806/|quote=...Rev Arthur C. McGiffert, acting president of Union theological seminary.}}</ref>}}
+| 1916{{endash}}1926
+| <ref>{{cite news|title=Dr. McGiffert Elected Head of Seminary|newspaper=The Harrisburg Evening News|date=November 14, 1917|page=5|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/57754904/}}</ref>
+|-
+| 9
+| [[Henry Sloane Coffin]]{{efn|Coffin was originally elected to the presidency in 1916 but declined the post.}}
+| 1926{{endash}}1945
+| <ref>{{cite news|title=Theological Seminary Appoints As President Henry Sloane Coffin|newspaper=Saskatoon Daily Star|date=July 17, 1926|page=6|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/508677047/}}</ref>
+|-
+| 10
+| Henry P. Van Dusen
+| 1945{{endash}}1963
+| <ref>{{cite book|title=A History of Union Theological Seminary in New York|first=Robert T.|last=Handy|publisher=Columbia University Press|date=1987|page=211|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofunionth0000hand/page/211}}</ref>
+|-
+| 11
+| John Coleman Bennett
+| 1963{{endash}}1970
+| <ref>{{cite news|title=Union Seminary Head to Address MW Graduates|newspaper=The Free Lance-Star|date=December 8, 1965|page=9|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1141502968/}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Farewell for a Theologian|first=Francis X.|last=Murphy|newspaper=The Southwest Kansas Register|date=May 28, 1970|page=2|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/811431341/}}</ref>
+|-
+| 12
+| [[J. Brooke Mosley]]
+| 1970{{endash}}1974
+| <ref>{{cite news|title=Mosley to Head N.Y.'s Union Theological Seminary|first=Eileen C.|last=Spraker|newspaper=The Wilmington News Journal|date=April 1, 1970|page=35|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/154800603/}}</ref>
+|-
+| {{endash}}
+| ''Roger Shinn''{{efn|Shinn served as interim president.}}
+| ''1974{{endash}}1975''
+| <ref name=shriver />
+|-
+| 13
+| Donald W. Shriver Jr.
+| 1975{{endash}}1991
+| <ref name=shriver>{{cite news|title=Emory Teacher Named President of Seminary|newspaper=The Atlanta Constitution|date=July 26, 1975|page=6-A|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/398975383/}}</ref>
+|-
+| 14
+| Holland L. Hendrix
+| 1991{{endash}}1998
+| <ref>{{cite news|title=Tyler Native Elected Seminary President|newspaper=Tyler Morning Telegraph|date=April 19, 1991|page=5-1|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/589330162/}}</ref>
+|-
+| 15
+| [[Joseph C. Hough Jr.]]
+| 1999{{endash}}2008
+| <ref>{{cite news|title=Wake Forest grad hired|newspaper=The Charlotte Observer|date=February 20, 1999|page=6G|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/629263071/}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=In Memoriam: Former Union President Rev. Dr. Joseph C. Hough, Jr.|website=Union Theological Seminary|date=May 2023|access-date=August 12, 2025|url=https://utsnyc.edu/blog/2023/05/25/in-memoriam-former-union-president-rev-dr-joseph-c-hough-jr/}}</ref>
+|-
+| 16
+| [[Serene Jones]]
+| 2008{{endash}}present
+| <ref>{{cite news|title=Union Seminary's first woman president who faced backlash over resurrection comments set to retire|first=Michael|last=Gryboski|date=July 23, 2025|website=The Christian Post|access-date=August 11, 2025|url=https://www.christianpost.com/news/union-theological-seminarys-first-woman-president-to-step-down.html}}</ref>
+|-
+|}
+{{noteslist}}
 ==Campus==
@@ Line 128: / Line 253: @@
 Both Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich taught at the seminary. Niebuhr joined the faculty in 1929 and retired in 1952. Tillich was recruited by Niebuhr to UTS following his dismissal from the University of Frankfurt. Nazi officials terminated Tillich from the University of Frankfurt and placed him on their list of "undesirables". Tillich subsequently narrowly escaped arrest by the Gestapo in October 1933 and made his way out of Germany joining UTS in December 1933.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Stone|first=Ronald H.|title=Politics and Faith: Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich at Union Seminary in New York|publisher=Mercer University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0-88146-385-9|location=Macon, Georgia|pages=55–56}}</ref>
-In 1930, [[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]] was a Postgraduate Teaching Fellow at the seminary. He later returned in 1939 to be a member of the faculty and to escape Nazi harassment in Germany. Writing of his experience there in his book ''Barcelona, Berlin, New York'', Bonhoeffer was dismayed by the liberalism of the seminary and its students, noting, "The students are completely clueless with respect to what dogmatics is really about. They are not familiar with even the most basic questions. They become intoxicated with liberal and humanistic phrases, are amused at the fundamentalists, and yet basically are not even up to their level...."<ref name="Bonhoeffer">{{Cite book |last=Bonhoeffer |first=Dietrich |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/33206791 |title=Barcelona, Berlin, New York: 1928-1931 (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 10) |publisher=Fortress Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-4514-7965-2 |edition=1st English-language |location=Minneapolis |pages=265–266 |oclc=33206791}}</ref> Referring to Union Seminary, Bonhoeffer noted: "A seminary in which numerous students openly laugh during a public lecture because they find it amusing when a passage on sin and forgiveness ...is cited has obviously, despite its many advantages, forgotten what Christian theology in its very essence stands for" (pp.&nbsp;309–10). He soon regretted his decision and decided that he had to return to Germany to resist the Nazis. He took the last ship from New York to Germany in late August 1939. Due to his secret involvement with the [[20 July plot]] on Hitler's life, he was executed at the [[Flossenbürg concentration camp]] on April 8, 1945, only 15 days before the United States Army liberated the camp.
+In 1930, [[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]] was a Postgraduate Teaching Fellow at the seminary. He later returned in 1939 to be a member of the faculty and to escape Nazi harassment in Germany. Writing of his experience there in his book ''Barcelona, Berlin, New York'', Bonhoeffer was dismayed by the liberalism of the seminary and its students, noting, "The students are completely clueless with respect to what dogmatics is really about. They are not familiar with even the most basic questions. They become intoxicated with liberal and humanistic phrases, are amused at the fundamentalists, and yet basically are not even up to their level...."<ref name="Bonhoeffer">{{Cite book |last=Bonhoeffer |first=Dietrich |title=Barcelona, Berlin, New York: 1928-1931 (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 10) |publisher=Fortress Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-4514-7965-2 |edition=1st English-language |location=Minneapolis |pages=265–266 |oclc=33206791}}</ref> Referring to Union Seminary, Bonhoeffer noted: "A seminary in which numerous students openly laugh during a public lecture because they find it amusing when a passage on sin and forgiveness ...is cited has obviously, despite its many advantages, forgotten what Christian theology in its very essence stands for" (pp.&nbsp;309–10). He soon regretted his decision and decided that he had to return to Germany to resist the Nazis. He took the last ship from New York to Germany in late August 1939. Due to his secret involvement with the [[20 July plot]] on Hitler's life, he was executed at the [[Flossenbürg concentration camp]] on April 8, 1945, only 15 days before the United States Army liberated the camp.
 American theologian, [[James Hal Cone]], one of the founders of [[liberation theology]] and influential in the development of [[Black theology]], began teaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1970, holding the distinguished Charles A. Briggs Chair in systematic theology from 1977 until his death in 2018.
-Serene Jones, the seminary's first female president, was inaugurated in November 2008. replacing [[Joseph Hough]], UTS' immediate past president. Civil rights activist Cornel West joined the faculty in July 2012, and rejoined again in 2021.<ref>{{cite tweet|number=1369009967496237058|user=CornelWest|title=I am blessed to announce with my dear...|date=March 8, 2021}}</ref>
+Serene Jones, the seminary's first female president, was inaugurated in November 2008. Civil rights activist Cornel West joined the faculty in July 2012, and rejoined in 2021.<ref>{{cite tweet|number=1369009967496237058|user=CornelWest|title=I am blessed to announce with my dear...|date=March 8, 2021}}</ref>
 ===Notable current faculty===
@@ Line 145: / Line 270: @@
 * [[Gary Dorrien]]&nbsp;– American social ethicist and [[Theology|theologian]], Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics
 * [[Roger Haight]]&nbsp;– Visiting professor of Theology
-* Esther J. Hamori - Professor of Hebrew Bible
-* Brigitte Kahl – Professor of New Testament
 * [[Chung Hyun Kyung]]&nbsp;– Associate Professor of Ecumenical Theology
-* Aliou C. Niang - Associate Professor of New Testament
-* Jerusha T. Rhodes - Associate Professor of Islam and Interreligious Engagement
-* Kosen Greg Snyder - Senior Director and assistant professor of Buddhist Studies
-* John J. Thatamanil – Professor of Theology and World Religions
 * [[Cornel West]]&nbsp;– Professor of Religious Philosophy and Christian Practice
-* Andrea C. White – Associate Professor of Theology and Culture
-* [[Jason Wright]]&nbsp;– Board of Trustees member<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ackerman |first1=Jon |title=Washington's Jason Wright follows Christ as he becomes NFL's first Black team president |url=https://sportsspectrum.com/sport/football/2020/08/18/washington-jason-wright-christ-nfl-first-black-team-president/ |website=SportsSpectrum.com |date=August 18, 2020 |access-date=September 4, 2020 |archive-date=September 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200904090652/https://sportsspectrum.com/sport/football/2020/08/18/washington-jason-wright-christ-nfl-first-black-team-president/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
-Several of Union's members also teach in the Religious Studies department at [[Columbia University]], the [[Teachers College, Columbia University]], [[New York Theological Seminary]], and the [[Jewish Theological Seminary of America]].
 ===Notable former faculty===
@@ Line 262: / Line 377: @@
 * [[James Herman Robinson]] (1938)&nbsp;– founder of Operation Crossroads Africa, a forerunner of the [[Peace Corps]]
 * [[Carl Rogers]]&nbsp;– pioneering psychologist
-* Leroy S. Rouner&nbsp;- Professor of Philosophy, Religion, and Philosophical Theology at Boston University
 * [[Fleming Rutledge]]&nbsp;- Episcopal priest and author
 * [[V.C. Samuel]]&nbsp;– Indian Christian theologian, philosopher and historian
@@ Line 305: / Line 419: @@
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+{{National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan}}
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Union Theological Seminary: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 01:20, 27 December 2025

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