Introducing Ourselves

Introducing Ourselves

In this article we tell you something of the Seminary, its purposes, its program, and its personnel.

ERNEST D. DICK, President, Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminar

Since the editors of THE MINISTRY are devoting a special issue of this journal to our Theological Seminary, and since the majority of its readers are either ministers in service or ministers in train­ing, it seems appropriate that we tell you something of the Seminary, its purposes, its program, and its personnel.

Because of pressures toward higher standards of scholarship in our schools, the denomination in its 1930 Autumn Council accepted the principle of accreditation for its colleges and secondary schools in the United States. This step made necessary the obtaining of advanced training by a large number of our teachers: teachers of Eng­lish, history, science, languages, mathemat­ics, et cetera. Since we had no Seventh-day Adventist facilities for offering advanced training in these lines, it was necessary for these teachers to pursue such study in non­denominational schools. Experience has long ago taught us that this procedure is neither wise nor safe. Many thus engaged lost their way and are lost to the work.

While pursuing studies in secular sub­jects in non-Adventist schools is fraught with hazards, it is abundantly clear that the study of the Bible, Biblical languages, and church history in such schools is al­together unacceptable. It was for this rea­son, therefore, that the denomination's leadership developed the plan of offering advanced training in Bible, Biblical lan­guages, church history, and related sub­jects in our own ranks.

As first conceived, the school was to be a roving school held each summer on a selected senior college campus. The first such school was held at Pacific Union College in the summer of 1934, and was known as the Advanced Bible School.

The leadership of the denomination stood squarely behind the new undertak­ing. The first meeting giving official con­sideration to this development was held on November 7, 1933, in the office of the president of the General Conference, 3. L. McElhany, and was attended by I. H. Evans, J. L. Shaw, W. H. Branson, F. M. Wilcox, M. E. Kern, H. T. Elliott, C. P. Crager, L. E. Froom, and W. I. Smith. I. H. Evans was chairman of the meeting. A number of important actions were taken, including agreement on the holding of such a school, the courses to be offered, and teaching personnel as follows:

Dean and Instructor in Bible, M. E. Kern

Instructor in Bible, M. L. Andreasen 

Instructor in Bible and Missions, B. P. Hoffman

Instructor in Church History, W. M. Landeen

Instructor in Speech, C. E. Weniger 

Instructor in Teaching Methods, G. F. Wolfkill

Instructor in Biblical Languages, L. L. Caviness

Instructor in Science and Religion, G. McC. Price

Special features included lectures on:

Evangelism and the Bible, C. B. Haynes

Spirit of Prophecy, A. G. Daniells

Missions, W. A. Spicer Ministry, I. H. Evans

Health, Dr. Mary McReynolds

The program was carried out, with marked satisfaction to all who were privi­leged to attend.

Similar sessions were conducted in the summers of 1935 and 1936 at Pacific Un­ion College. So successful was the under­taking that at the 1936 General Conference session, action was taken making the school permanent, and it was also voted that it should be located at Washington, D.C. Here it was operated in wholly in­adequate quarters until a new and suit­able building was provided in 1941.

In its beginning and for a number of years thereafter the entire faculty was bor­rowed from other organizations. When it was voted that the institution should be permanent, steps were taken to build a full-time faculty, to develop a strong li­brary, to equip the institution suitably for the work assigned, and to seek authoriza­tion to grant graduate degrees, all of which aims have been progressively attained.

Degrees Offered

With the developing awareness that the denomination's ministry was in need of facilities for study beyond those offered in our senior colleges, the work of the Seminary was broadened to make this type of training available as well. A one-year (four quarters) course leading to the M.A. degree in religion was developed, also a three-year course (ten quarters) which leads to the regular seminary degree known as the Bachelor of Divinity, or B.D. To date degrees have been granted as fol­lows:

201 Master of Arts

177 Master of Arts in Religion

34 Bachelor of Divinity

Recently the work of the Seminary has been reorganized under five departments of study, namely:

Department of Old Testament

Department of New Testament

Department of Systematic Theology and Christian Philosophy

Department of Church History

Department of Practical Theology

The scope of the present offerings may be better understood when we state that one hundred sixty-nine separate courses of study are offered. Or stated in another way, allowing an individual to take a maxi­mum allowed study load of sixteen hours per quarter, it would require continuous attendance of seven and a quarter years to complete all the courses now offered, not including any time for thesis preparation.

In pursuing the B.D. degree one may major in any one of the nine following fields:

Archeology and History of Antiquity

Bible and Systematic Theology

Biblical Greek

Biblical Hebrew

Biblical Languages

Church History

Counseling and Guidance

Practical Theology

Preaching and Speech

The strength of any school is to a very large degree measured by the strength of the individual teachers. With sympathetic undergirding of the institution's financial needs by the General Conference, progres­sive steps have been taken to build up a strong full-time faculty. Some of the de­nomination's best teachers have joined our staff, and a high standing of scholarship is maintained. A strong spiritual tone like­wise pervades the institution. The mem­bers of our regular staff are presented pic­torially in this article, together with the lines of instruction they carry.

The Seminary reaps rich benefits be­cause of its proximity to the denomina­tion's headquarters, in that a goodly num­ber of General Conference workers are drawn upon to present certain courses and lines of study, which they are qualified by special training and experience to give. These include the following guest instruc­tors and lecturers, with their particular fields:

Roy Allan Anderson Preaching and Worship

Henry E. Andren Counseling and Guidance

Dorothy Foreman Beltz Human Relationships

LeRoy E. Froom History of Prophetic Interpretation

Alvin W. Johnson Religious Liberty

Louise C. Kleuser Practical Theology

J. Wayne McFarland, M.D. Health Evangelism

Frank H. Yost  Systematic Theology 

Francis D. Nichol Christian Theology

Confidently we believe that the Seminary has an increasingly larger contribution to make in training the denomination's min­istry and its teachers for better service for God in the finishing of the work. To this end we gladly serve.


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ERNEST D. DICK, President, Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminar

October 1956

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