I am the founding dean of Sophia Theological Seminary.  This blog entry introduces Sophia.

A standard seminary curriculum overly fragments the subject matter into discrete and disjointed specialized disciples, too often leaving students on their own to integrate blocks of knowledge into a coherent and holistic understanding. Social forces undermine traditional community/communities and alienate individuals and communities from vital connections with nature, the land, and the rhythms of creation. Sophia re-imagines theological education to address these concerns through a curriculum emphasizing wisdom over data, a funding scheme stressing self-sufficiency and sustainability, and an ethos accentuating context and cooperation – in God’s good creation, in the world, and as a community.

Sophia Theological Seminary re-imagines the educational program based on the insight that the best theological education integrates the traditional fields of theological study, with one another and with life (of the individual, the community, and the world) and ministry. Consequently, its curriculum will be integrated across disciplines, seminar-based, and focused around specific, “everyday” ministry topics. Sophia recognizes that ministers of the Gospel need to be equipped with data, information, knowledge – in Sophia’s case, the traditional disciplines of theological education – in order to serve well the kindom of God, but it acknowledges further that, in the complicated and confusing modern context, ministers also need the wisdom “from above” to guide them in making their knowledge and skills relevant. Ministers need real community and experience in maintaining it; they need to harmonize with the rhythms of work and rest built into the created order; they need firm connections with the goodness of God’s world so that they can envision what redemption looks like.

Sophia expresses its core sensibilities as follows:

• being a community of inclusive welcome [which] is foundational to the life, work, and self-understanding of the seminary.
• theological education [as a] holistic endeavor, with a curriculum that is integrated across disciplines, both ‘classical’ and practical,” and that moves freely between “church” and “academy.”
• theological education …undertaken with rigor, [with] all members of the community …considered to be learners in need of continued growth and challenge.
• governance of the community [through] a collaborative partnership amongst all constituencies invested in the life of the seminary, each represented with a full and equal voice.
• its heritage as little “b” baptist, understanding this heritage as historical, transcending specific denominational confines, [while] equally commit[ting] itself to ecumenical and interfaith work, locally and globally.

One other important aspect of Sophia’s structure addresses the problem of declining denominational economic support for theological education. This circumstance has necessitated that seminaries rely for funding primarily on increased student tuition and the generosity of donors, each with a negative consequence. Students regularly graduate from seminary now with student debt resembling that of law and medical school graduates, but with significantly less prospect for earning enough to repay the debt comfortably. One result is a decline in the numbers of those willing to take the time and incur the debt to earn a theological education. Donors, meanwhile, have begun to tire of seeing their gifts go primarily into the operating budgets of seminaries, rather than into endowments that could sustain the viability of institutions. Consequently, seminaries all over the country and from virtually every denomination are closing or otherwise curtailing their activities. The earnings of Sophia Seminary’s sister institution, Sophia Farms, a 501(c)3 vegetable farm operating with sustainable, responsible farming techniques, will go to fund the operating budget of the seminary. The marketing model addresses carbon footprint issues, embraces ecologically-responsible farming practices, and, through Sophia’s commitment to “tithe” produce directly to local organizations that address food insecurity and nutrition education, responsibility to the community. If you’d like to know more, visit www.sophiasem.org and www.sophiafarms.org.