Graduate Theological Union

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Summer's no vacation from vocation

Traditionally, summer serves as a respite between academic seasons, unless you’re catching up or getting ahead on credits. For some GTU students, it’s an opening to tackle different scholastic opportunities; to take advantage of unique prospects for study or collegiality. Read about some students' summer exploits and tell us about your own.

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Featured comment — from "Social Media and the Seminary"

My faith is digital

by Kate Harper

Well, not really, but everyday when I take a walk I listen to religious lectures and discussions (from a prior class) and I've even taken online meditation retreats. It sounds kooky, until you do it and realize that anyone in the world (or at least with high speed internet) could participate, whether they live in a small town or here in Berkeley, where the wealth of spiritual education is prevalent. It's changed my life forever. Now, I don't feel the need take notes of a teaching, when I know I'll always have the ipod recording of it later.

Doctoral student learned much hosting Islam and Authors series

Jason Hamza van Boom, a Muslim doctoral student focusing on History of Christianity, hosted this year’s Islam and Authors series at the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California (ICCNC), which sought to introduce new cutting edge books and plays that break through Muslim stereotypes to the Bay Area. These conversations would offer both scholarly and lay audiences an intimate, personal, and accessible introduction into these writers’ works. Read more...

It was a day of endings and beginnings

On May 13, 35 GTU students graduated with a Master of Arts degree. Eight received a Master of Arts with a concentration in Biblical Languages. One earned a Doctor of Theology degree. And 22 received the Doctor of Philosophy degree.
See who graduated.

Faculty speaker Martha (Marty) E. Stortz, Professor of Ethics and Historical Theology at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, urged graduates “not to think in terms of job, but in terms of journey, not a new one, but one that continues the path you’ve begun here at the GTU.”
Read the full text of Dr. Stortz’s remarks.

Matthew Haar Farris, graduate speaker, encouraged graduates to “practice the art of living by being grateful for who and what has made us better in our time at the GTU.” 
Read the full text of Dr. Haar Farris’s remarks.

And the winner is… Alejandro García-Rivera

Alejandro (Alex) García-Rivera is this year’s recipient of the Sarlo Excellence in Teaching Award. García-Rivera, a Catholic theologian, has journeyed from working as a physicist on Boeing’s Air Launch Cruise Missile Project to ministering to poor Hispanics in a Lutheran church he created in Allentown, Pennsylvania to teaching Systematic Theology as a GTU Core Doctoral Faculty Member and Professor at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University. He has a passion for aesthetics and devotional art, which he says, “returns theology to its most profound insights and to the claim that God and beauty are one …” Read more…

GTU offering weekend and evening classes

Ever considered taking a course in theology or Biblical studies but couldn’t because of your schedule? This fall, the GTU will offer an expanded selection of evening and weekend courses. It will fit in with your busy lifestyle and it is a great way to ease into a Master’s degree program.

Among the classes offered are: Women in Religious Leadership, Sexuality and Christian Spirituality, and Divine Shakti. Find out how to register and view a list of courses…

We need to talk about death

“We all live. And we all die. The recent health care debate raised a hue and cry about “death panels” without giving us an opportunity to carefully consider how it is that we die, and how it is that we want to die, in an authentic and meaningful way.

“We need to talk about death. About what it means, and how we wish to go about it. Death rarely just happens. There are emotions to be managed, information to be understood, decisions to be made. And we need to talk about death not only huddled safely around the kitchen table, but also exposed within the public square.  And in both our private and our public conversations, we need to be respectful, and we need to be honest. The inflammatory invocation of death panels and of “killing granny” reveals our fears … but does nothing to address them or to move the conversation forward.”

— Margaret R. McLean, GTU Ph.D. ’97, Associate Director and Director of Bioethics  Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University

Listen to the audio of McLean’s talk at the GTU’s Seventh Annual McCoy Memorial Lecture on Religion, Ethics, and Public Life. See McLean's presentation.

We launched the public phase of our campaign on March 22.

Visit our new site! Read about our case for support, campaign donors, and leadership.

Most of all, DONATE! Help us reach our goal of $12 million. Thanks to generous supporters, we’ve raised $11 million for GTU student scholarships, programs, the Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, and the unrestricted endowment. No contribution is too small. We're almost there!

“We live in a world where religion is often interpreted to serve divisive agendas that fuel fear and hatred. Scores of people around the world die or are marginalized each day because of this unfortunate reality. We want nothing less than to be a leading force for world peace through innovative interfaith education.” — Hal Leach, Chairman, GTU Board of Trustees and Dale Walker, GTU Board Member and Chair, Advancement and Major Gifts Committees