In a bow to the growing diversity of America’s religious landscape, the Claremont School of Theology, a Christian institution with long ties to the Methodist Church, will add clerical training for Muslims and Jews to its curriculum this fall, to become, in a sense, the first truly multi-faith American seminary.
Those words begin Mitchell Landsberg’s article in the Los Angeles Times that explains the school’s recent announcement. Claremont School of Theology (CST) has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since it was founded as MaClay College of Theology in 1885. It is currently one of thirteen official United Methodist seminaries in the United States. While the initial expansion will provide for clerical training for Muslims and Jews the ultimate plan is to expand to include Buddhists and Hindus. According to their website, CST:
While maintaining a strong School of Theology to prepare Christian ministers, Claremont is developing other schools to prepare teachers, counselors, scholars and community leaders for the interreligious realities of the 21st Century.
We are convinced that by studying, working and praying together, people of diverse religious backgrounds will be better prepared for cooperative leadership, service, and study in a world that needs repair.
So What?
Since The United Methodist Church isn’t the most progressive Christian tradition, my initial reaction to the news was to ask why this tradition and why now. The answer appears to be rather complicated and is motivated in part by at least three factors:
- CST has recently been as theologically liberal as any United Methodist seminary.
- CST faced serious financial issues and had to downsize faculty and staff and work to make major reforms after losing money for multiple consecutive years and being placed on probation by an accrediting agency.
- CST received a major ($10 million) gift from David and Joan Lincoln to help turn the idea of what is now called the University Project into a reality
According to CST the University Project:
We envision a model of theological education in which students are educated rigorously and intensively in their own religious traditions and in contact with the other religious traditions that are thriving throughout our society. We aim to instill our students with a strong sense of their own religious identities and the integrity of the religious traditions that they represent, while simultaneously teaching them to recognize the legitimacy and integrity of the other religious traditions which they will encounter at Claremont and the world beyond.
CST’s decision has caused concern among many in the United Methodist Church and may lead to a loss of funding from the denomination. Whether or not that happens, this decision moves them out of a model that was leading to decline and toward a model that is leading edge and could create a far larger and more diverse student body.
Can CST remain faithful to its Methodist heritage and continue to train clergy in that tradition while also providing similar training for those of many other faiths? How might this new venture enrich the academic preparation for ministry of Christians? Do you think this is the first of many schools that will expand their missions and course offerings enough to be called multi-faith seminaries or do you believe they will stand alone for quite some time in that category?