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Princeton Theological Seminary
Established	1812
Type	Private
Religious affiliation	Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
President	M. Craig Barnes
Location	Princeton, New Jersey, United States
Campus	Suburban, 23 acres (93,000 m²) (Princeton Borough and Township)
Website	Princeton Theological Seminary

Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS) is an American divinity school in Princeton, New Jersey and the largest of ten seminaries associated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). It is the second oldest seminary in the United States, founded in 1812 under the auspices of Princeton University (formally College of New Jersey), Reverend Dr. Archibald Alexander, and the The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church.^[1]

The Seminary is influential in theological scholarship with the second largest theological library collection in the world, behind only the Vatican Apostolic Library in Vatican City. These collections are well known for the Karl Barth Research Collection in the Center for Barth Studies. Princeton also lists leading and preeminent biblical scholars and theologians among its faculty and alumni.

The Seminary received wide-spread attention during the 19th and early 20th centuries for its defense of Calvinistic Presbyterianism and a Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy which ultimately led to the formation of Westminster Theological Seminary, under the leadership of J. Gresham Machen. Today, Princeton Theological Seminary enrolls 500 students around 40% of whom are candidates for ministry in the Presbyterian Church. Remaining students are candidates for ministry in other denominations, or pursuing careers in academia or non-theological fields.^[2][3]

History [edit]

Princeton Seminary in the 1800s

The plan to establish a theological seminary in Princeton was in the interests of advancing and extending the theological curriculum. The educational intention was to go beyond the liberal arts course by setting up a postgraduate, professional school in theology. The plan met with enthusiastic approval on the part of authorities at the College of New Jersey, later to become Princeton University, for they were coming to see that specialized training in theology required more attention than they could give. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church established The Theological Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey in 1812, with the support of the directors of the nearby College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), as the second graduate theological school in the United States. The Seminary remains an institution of the Presbyterian Church (USA), being the largest of the ten theological seminaries affiliated with the 2.5-million member denomination.^[4]

In 1812, the Seminary boasted three students and the Reverend Dr. Archibald Alexander as its first professor. By 1815 the number of students had gradually increased and work began on a building: Alexander Hall was designed by John McComb, Jr., a New York architect, and opened in 1817. The original cupola was added in 1827, but it burned in 1913 and was replaced in 1926. The building was simply called "Seminary" until 1893, when it was officially named Alexander Hall. Since its founding, Princeton Seminary has graduated approximately 14,000 men and women who have served the church in many capacities, from pastoral ministry and pastoral care to missionary work, Christian education and leadership in the academy and business.

The seminary was made famous during the 19th and early 20th centuries for its defense of Calvinistic Presbyterianism. The college was later the center of a Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy which ultimately led to the formation of Westminster Theological Seminary under the leadership of J. Gresham Machen.

Principals and Presidents of Princeton Theological Seminary [edit]

Prior to the creation of the office of President in 1902, the seminary was governed by the principal.

The Principals

• Archibald Alexander (1812–1840) Who was Principal 1841-1850??
• Charles Hodge (1851–1878)
• Archibald Alexander Hodge (1878–1886)
• B. B. Warfield (1887–1902)

The Presidents

• Francis Landey Patton (1902–1913)
• J. Ross Stevenson (1914–1936)
• John A. Mackay (1936–1959)
• James I. McCord (1959–1983)
• Thomas W. Gillespie (1983–2004)
• Iain R. Torrance (2004-2012)
• M. Craig Barnes (2013- )^[5]

Princeton Theological Seminary libraries [edit]

The Seminary's libraries comprise the largest theological collection in the United States and second in the world, behind only the Vatican Library in Rome. The library has over 1,242,483 bound volumes, pamphlets, and microfilms.^[6] It currently receives about 2,100 journals, annual reports of church bodies and learned societies, bulletins, transactions, and periodically issued indices, abstracts, and bibliographies. The Libraries are:

• Speer Library, opened in 1957 and named in honor of the renowned missionary statesman Robert E. Speer, 400,000 volumes and 200 readers. It was closed in late 2010 to be replaced by a new, larger, and technologically advanced facility slated to open in early 2013.
• Henry Luce III Library, dedicated in 1994 and named in honor of a distinguished trustee, Henry Luce III, 350,000 volumes and 250 readers. This library is slated to be renovated in 2013.

Degree programs [edit]

• Master of Divinity (M.Div.)
• Masters of Arts (M.A.)
• Master of Arts (Theological Studies)
• Master of Theology (Th.M.)
• Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
• Dual M.Div./M.A. in Christian Education with foci in Youth & Young Adults, Teaching Ministry, or Spiritual Development

Miller Chapel

Miller Chapel [edit]

Built in 1834, Princeton's chapel was named to honor Samuel Miller, the second professor at the Seminary. Originally located beside Alexander Hall, it was moved in 1933 toward the center of the campus, its steps now leading down onto the Seminary's main quad. Miller Chapel underwent a complete renovation in 2000, with the addition of the Joe R. Engle Organ.^[7]

Endowed lectureships [edit]

• Abraham Kuyper Lecture and Prize, held in April.
• The Alexander Thompson Lecture, held in February.
• The Frederick Neumann Memorial Lecture, held in November.
• Dr. Geddes W. Hanson Lecture, held in October.
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture, held in March.
• The Princeton Lectures on Youth, Church, and Culture, held in April.
• The Stone Lectures, held in October. Brings an internationally distinguished scholar to the seminary each year to deliver a series of public lectures. Created in 1871 by Levi P. Stone of Orange, New Jersey, a director and also a trustee of the seminary. Previous lecturers include Abraham Kuyper (1898) and Nicholas Wolterstorff.
• Students' Lectureship on Missions, held in October.
• The Warfield Lectures, held in October, are an annual series of lectures which honor the memory of Annie Kinkead Warfield, wife of Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, distinguished professor of theology at the seminary from 1887 to 1921. Previous distinguished lecturers include Karl Barth (1962), John Howard Yoder (1980), T. F. Torrance (1981), and Colin Gunton (1993).
• Women in Church and Ministry Lecture, held in February.

Annual conferences [edit]

• The Annual Kuyper Conference, held in April.
• The Annual Conference on Karl Barth, held in June.

Center for Barth Studies [edit]

The Center for Barth Studies was established at Princeton Seminary in 1997 and is administered by a board of seminary faculty. The Center sponsors conferences, research opportunities, discussion groups, and publications that seek to advance understanding of the theology of Karl Barth (1886–1968), the Swiss-German professor and pastor widely regarded as the greatest theologian of the 20th century. The Karl Barth Research Collection, part of Special Collections in the Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries, supports the scholarly activities of the Center for Barth Studies. The Karl Barth Research Collection is acquiring an exhaustive collection of writings by and about Karl Barth. Although many volumes are still needed, the Research Collection has already acquired Barth's most important works in German and English, several first editions, and an original hand-written manuscript by Karl Barth.^[8]

Abraham Kuyper Center for Public Theology [edit]

The heart of the Abraham Kuyper Center for Public Theology is the Abraham Kuyper Collection of Dutch Reformed Protestantism in the library's Special Collections, which focuses on the theology and history of Dutch Reformed Protestantism since the nineteenth century and features a sizable assemblage of primary and secondary sources by and about Abraham Kuyper. The Center maintains in partnership with the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam an online database of secondary literature about Abraham Kuyper.

The Center has also established an annual event organized to award the Abraham Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Life, during which the recipient delivers an address. The Abraham Kuyper Consultation, a series of further lectures, takes place on the following day.

Center of Theological Inquiry [edit]

In 1978 Princeton Theological Seminary's Board of Trustees established the Center as an independent, ecumenical institution for advanced theological research, "to inquire into the relationship between theological disciplines, [and of these with] ... both human and natural sciences, to inquire into the relationship between diverse religious traditions ... , to inquire into the present state of religious consciousness in the modern world, and to examine such other facets of religion in the modern world as may be appropriate ..." Today, the Center has its own board, funding, mission and staff, yet maintains close relations with Princeton Theological Seminary.

Journals [edit]

Koinonia Journal is published annually by doctoral students at Princeton Theological Seminary. The publication and its annual forum promote written and face-to-face interdisciplinary discussion around issues in theology and the study of religion. It is distributed to well over 100 libraries worldwide.

Notable faculty [edit]

• Bruce Metzger
• Bruce L. McCormack
• Cleophus LaRue
• Kenda Creasy Dean
• Richard Osmer
• Elsie A. McKee
• James Moorhead
• Paul Rorem
• Henry Snyder Gehman
• Otto Piper
• George Hendry
• Gordon Graham
• Wentzel van Huyssteen
• James Moorhead
• Mark Lewis Taylor
• Bernard W. Anderson
• Karlfried Froehlich
• Patrick D. Miller
• Katharine Doob Sakenfeld
• C. L. Seow
• James H. Charlesworth
• J.J.M. Roberts
• Geerhardus Vos
• James Franklin Kay
• Donald Eric Capps
• Max L. Stackhouse
• Emil Brunner
• Iain Torrance
• Diogenes Allen
• Richard Shaull
• Elmer G. Homrighausen
• John Hick
• Samuel Miller (1769–1850)
• Archibald Alexander (1772–1851)
• Charles Hodge (1797–1878)
• Archibald Alexander Hodge (1823–1886)
• Robert Dick Wilson (1856–1930)
• B.B. Warfield (1851–1921)
• J. Gresham Machen (1881–1937)

Notable alumni [edit]

• John Finley Crowe, 1815, founder of Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana.
• John Maclean, Jr.
• George Washington Gale, 1819
• Charles Hodge, 1819
• William Buell Sprague, 1819
• Samuel Simon Schmucker, 1820
• Albert Barnes, 1823
• James Waddel Alexander, 1823
• John Williamson Nevin, 1826
• Elijah P. Lovejoy, 1834, first American martyr for freedom of the press. He was a Presbyterian pastor and publisher of an abolitionist newspaper in Alton, Illinois, and he was killed while defending the press from an angry mob.
• Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg (educator), 1839
• Michael Simpson Culbertson, 1844, missionary to China.
• William Henry Green, 1846
• Basil Manly, Jr., 1847
• Hunter Corbett, was a pioneer American missionary to Yantai, Shandong China.
• John Livingstone Nevius, missionary to China
• Francis Landey Patton, 1865
• George Leslie Mackay, Canadian missionary to Taiwan
• William Imbrie, missionary to Japan
• Henry van Dyke, 1874
• Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, 1876
• Geerhardus Vos, 1885
• Sherwood Eddy, 1896, missionary to India, YMCA leader, author, educator
• Thornwell Jacobs, 1899, founder of Oglethorpe University
• Louis Berkhof, 1904
• Oswald T. Allis, 1905
• Clarence Macartney, 1905
• John Gresham Machen, 1905, founder of Westminster Theological Seminary
• George S. Rentz, ordained in 1909; Navy chaplain during World War I and World War II
• Toyohiko Kagawa, 1916
• Cornelius Van Til, 1924, presuppositional apologist
• Ned B. Stonehouse, 1927
• Allan MacRae, 1927, founder of Faith Theological Seminary and Biblical Theological Seminary
• Loraine Boettner, 1929
• Kyung-Chik Han, 1929, founder of Young Nak Presbyterian Church and winner of Templeton Prize
• Bruce Metzger, 1938
• John H. Eastwood, 1941, chaplain US Army Air Corps 464th Bombardment Group in World War II
• Samuel H. Moffett, 1942, missionary, educator
• Gleason Archer, 1945, evangelical theologian
• James Leo Garrett Jr., 1949, theologian
• James Reeb, 1953, Civil Rights martyr
• Thomas W. Gillespie, 1954, seminary president
• Louis P. Sheldon, 1960
• James Montgomery Boice, 1963
• William H. Gray (Pennsylvania politician), 1970
• Robert B. Sloan, 1973, educator
• Jana Riess, 1994
• William Dembski, Philosopher, Mathematician, and Intelligent Design advocate, 1995
• Rev. Dr. Lu The Nguyen, Esq., 1997, An attorney, historical theologian and ordained as an Episcopal priest.
• William Patterson Alexander, missionary to Hawaii
• Rubem Alves
• Howard Baskerville
• Greg Boyd
• Shane Claiborne (attended but did not graduate)
• Jack Cottrell
• Bart D. Ehrman
• George Forell
• David Otis Fuller
• Timothy Tennent
• Francis James Grimké, African American Presbyterian pastor, co-founder of the NAACP
• John Will Harris, founder of the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico
• Elmer George Homrighausen
• David McKinney (publisher)
• John Murray (theologian)
• Abune Paulos, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
• Jay Richards
• DeForest Soaries
• Loren Stuckenbruck
• J. G. Vos
• Neil Clark Warren
• Victor Paul Wierwille, Th.M, founding president of The Way International biblical research, teaching and fellowship ministry in New Knoxville, Ohio.
• Bobby Olympic
• Jim Garlow, pastor of Skyline Church
• Charles Templeton, former friend of Billy Graham.

Navigating the Waters [edit]

In 2011, Princeton Theological Seminary's Office of Multicultural Relations and The Kaleidoscope Institute worked together to initiate an effort known as "Navigating the Waters," a program designed to promote cultural proficiency and diversity competency in faculty, staff, and students.^[9]

Bibliography [edit]

• Princeton Seminary in American Religion and Culture, by Dr. James Moorhead (2012) is now considered the most up-to-date history of the Seminary
• With Piety and Learning: The History of Practical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary 1812-2012, by Dr. Richard Osmer and Dr. Gordon Mikoski (2012)
• Princeton Seminary, 2 volumes, by David B. Calhoun (1996)
• John Updike's 1986 novel Roger's Version appears to be partly set in Princeton Seminary; his 1996 novel In the Beauty of the Lilies features the family is Clarence Wilmot, a Princeton-educated preacher schooled in the works of theologians Charles and A. A. Hodge and Benjamin Warfield.

References [edit]

1. ^ http://www.ptsem.edu/index.aspx?menu1_id=2030&menu2_id=2031&id=1264
2. ^ ATS - Member Schools
3. ^ http://ptsem.edu/index.aspx?menu1_id=2030&menu2_id=2031&id=1242
4. ^ http://www.ptsem.edu/index.aspx?menu1_id=2030&menu2_id=2031&id=1264
5. ^ http://old.post-gazette.com/pg/12283/1267865-53.stm
6. ^ Princeton Seminary Library
7. ^ http://www.ptsem.edu/index.aspx?menu1_id=2030&menu2_id=2031&id=1240
8. ^ http://libweb.ptsem.edu/collections/barth/Default.aspx?menu=296&subText=468
9. ^ http://www.ptsem.edu/Student_Life/omr/default.aspx?hdr=7909&id=7937&vlink=8504

External links [edit]

• Princeton Theological Seminary

Coordinates: 40°20′40″N 74°39′52″W / 40.34444°N 74.66444°W / 40.34444; -74.66444