Westminster Theological Seminary
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Westminster Theological Seminary is a Reformed Christian graduate educational institution with campuses located in Pennsylvania, and Texas and programs of study in New York City, London, and Seoul. In 1982, the California branch of Westminster became an independent institution, Westminster Seminary California.
The seminary was formed in 1929, largely under the leadership and funding of J. Gresham Machen, with the vision of continuing the theological tradition of Princeton Theological Seminary, from which the Westminster founders felt Princeton was departing. The first president of the seminary was Edmund Clowney, who served from 1966 until 1984.
The seminary currently offers the following accredited degrees:
- Master of Divinity
- Master of Arts in Religion
- Master of Arts
- Master of Theology
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Doctor of Ministry
Westminster has a worldwide reputation, drawing roughly a third of its student body from Korea, with numerous other countries of Asia, Europe and Africa well represented.
Pastoral training is the primary focus of the Seminary, and the seminary has historically prized its stringent academic standards, requiring that students who do not arrive with ability in Greek and Hebrew, spend a year on each language. Students are required to master a wide range of topics in not only theology and biblical studies, but also history, philosophy, and sociology.
All teaching officers are required to subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, the core doctrine of all conservative Presbyterian churches.
The Westminster faculty has included well-known theologians and scholars of the past and present such as Oswald T. Allis, Edmund Clowney, Sinclair Ferguson, John Frame, Richard Gaffin, J. Gresham Machen, John Murray, Ned Stonehouse, Cornelius Van Til, and Robert Dick Wilson.
External links
- Westminster Theological Seminary website (http://www.wts.edu)
- Westminster Seminary California (http://www.wscal.edu)