Columbia Theological Seminary Vantage, 68, number 2, February 1974

Introducing . . .

COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

^^^^

(

HR

-

]

*"

1

I*

L

1

\Jur ^hreritaae...

In the late fall of 1828, the first classes of the Theological Seminary
of South Carolina and Georgia began in the manse of the Presbyterian
Church of Lexington, Georgia. A little more than a year later the Semi-
nary moved to Columbia, South Carolina, where for 98 years through
church division, war, reconstruction and depressions it prepared min-
isters for service to the Presbyterian Church in the Southeast and what
was known as the "Old Southwest".

Columbia as the Seminary came to be called developed a
distinctive theology, rooted in the word of God and shaped by the
Westminster Confession. To Columbia the Church looked for the de-
fense of the faith.

Founded "to light another light for the Gospel to the West," Col-
umbia also was committed to the missionary enterprise of the Church
to the Western frontier (then in Alabama and Mississippi) and to the
world. The students formed the Society for Missionary Inquiry in 1830,
and that interest in missions was to mark Columbia.

Columbia provided the leadership in the development of the polity
and program of the new Presbyterian Church in the U.S. Moderators,
stated clerks, authors of key documents came from the faculty or the
graduates of the Seminary.

In 1927, the Seminary moved from the Columbia campus carrying
the name and the heritage to Decatur, Georgia, on the outskirts of
Atlanta. Now located more nearly at the center of the constituency,
the Seminary also was enriched by the church life, the educational
center, and the tremendous growth of the Atlanta area.

As Atlanta and the Southeast have changed, so has the Seminary.
Preparing ministers today is a new task, shaped by the changing mis-
sion of the church to an ever-changing world. And the Seminary seeks
in today's dynamic New South to prepare ministers for the church of
today and tomorrow.

From the heritage comes the seriousness about theology, the inter-
est in mission, and the service to the organizational life of the church.
All these are now addressed from the perspective of the heritage of
the past and the challenge of the present.

KJur L^ommitmeniA...

Three basic commitments have marked and continue to mark Col-
umbia Seminary's program.

The first commitment is to Biblical authority. Faculty members all
affirm that the Bible is the word of God, the only infallible rule of faith
and practice. All our teaching and ministry grows out of this commit-
ment. So we require serious study of the Old and New Testaments in
the Hebrew and Greek. Theology and ethics are based on the Biblical
ground. Student's preaching is measured by its faithfulness to the Bibl-
ical text. Our constant appeal is to the Scripture as it is attested to be
the word of God by the inward witness of the Holy Spirit.

The second commitment is to doctrinal fidelity. Faculty members
like all church officers, receive and adopt the Westminster Confession
of Faith, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, as containing the system
of doctrine taught in Scripture. All students study these standards
and the Reformed theology which they represent. The great central
beliefs of the Reformed tradition are in the center of our Seminary, as
we seek to express them in terms that speak to people who live in
today's world.

The third commitment is to ecclesiastical loyalty. Columbia Semi-
nary was founded by the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia to
provide leadership for the Presbyterian Church and its program. Our
students study the polity of the church and the program of the General
Assembly, synods and presbyteries. Our teaching and our ministry
seek to be loyal to the Presbyterian Church, U.S., as it works out its
life and program under the doctrinal standards, the authority of Scrip-
ture, and the lordship of Jesus Christ, the head of the church.

These basic commitments are fulfilled today in a different educa-
tional style than in an earlier time. Indoctrination leads too often to
mere rote learning and to an uncreative and wooden ministry. Our
style of teaching and community is one of openness. The Biblical wit-
ness, the Reformed doctrine, and the church's program are presented
as vital options for today. Students are called to make their own com-
mitment to them as ministers of the Gospel.

We believe that those who enter the service of Jesus Christ must
do so out of a conviction which is their own. Only then can they be
the effective ministers of our Lord that our church and our world need
today. This Columbia Seminary seeks to help them to be.

OBJECTIVES

The program of Columbia Seminary seeks to lead students (1) to
new and deeper theological and Biblical understandings, (2) to new
and tested skills, and (3) to fuller and experienced commitment to the
ministry of Jesus Christ in his church.

UNDERSTANDINGS

Each student comes to know the languages and the thought forms
of the Old and New Testaments and the methods of translation and
interpretation appropriate to the Biblical materials. Even more, the
student learns the content of Scripture the history of God's dealing
with His people and the response of the people of God as they inter-
preted their lives and times in the light of revelation and faith.

Each student learns the history of the Christian church from its
beginnings to the present. What the church has done, how it has
worshipped and governed itself, and what the church has thought,
how it has understood Scripture and its own task and life, are alike
presented.

Each student learns about and enters into the work of theology and
ethics. How the interpretation of the faith has been done and needs
to be done involves the student in understanding the Reformed faith
and forging his or her own approach to it. How the Christian com-
munity has understood the making of decisions about individual and
corporate life involves the student in understanding the principles of
Christian ethics and in the formation of his or her own ethical deci-
sions.

Each student learns the principles of communication in preaching
and teaching, the nature of human individuals and groups for counsel-
ing and leadership, and the structure of church government and wor-
ship.

SKILLS

Ministry is doing informed by understanding. So Columbia seeks
to develop student skills.

Some of these skills are in Biblical interpretation, theological reflec-
tion, the forming of ethical judgments. Others are in leading worship,
preaching, teaching, counseling, moderating sessions, and organizing
the work of the church.

Skills are sometimes developed on the campus, but more often
they are developed in settings where the life of people in the church
and in the world goes on. Preaching and teaching may be done in local
church settings. Supervised ministry, a key educational emphasis at
Columbia, sends students to hospitals and urban communities and for
at least one summer to a local congregation to do ministry under
careful guidance and thus develop skills.

STYLE

Seminary means "seed-bed" or "hot-house", and it is a place of
forced often painful growth. That growth is in understandings
and in skills but most important it is in personal commitment to
Jesus Christ. At Columbia the call of God is heard anew again and
again and the meaning of that call for this person is increasingly real-
ized.

Daily worship, small groups for prayer, concerned faculty advisers
these are the events and persons that serve to focus commitment
on campus. Minister-supervisors, young people, sick people, worship-
ping people in the church also enhance commitment away from the
campus.

TWIN CONCERNS

Columbia Seminary is concerned equally about what is learned
the content and about who learns the person.

All the courses and activities as a Seminary try to address these two
concerns. Learning how to interpret the New Testament is the task of
an exegesis class, but who is interpreting is also dealt with. Under-
standing the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is the aim of a theology class,
but how the Holy Spirit moves in in a person is also a concern. The
psychological understanding of the sick person and the skill of bedside
ministry is dealt with in pastoral counseling class, but also how one
feels and understands and relates'is examined.

Who are you? What do you know?

How have you grown? What have you learned?

These pairs of questions are both asked at Columbia constantly.

COLUMBIA IN METROPOLITAN ATLANTA

Columbia Seminary is located in the most exciting metropolitan
center in the South and perhaps even in the nation. Atlanta is an urban
center with a rich diversity of business and culture.

Here all the problems and opportunities of a complex urban so-
ciety can be observed and experienced. State capitol and city hall are
just blocks apart. Five Points is the financial center of the Southeast.
Automobile and aircraft plants as well as textiles and electronics facto-
ries dot the city or sprawl along the interstates. Housing projects, high-
rise apartments, affluent suburbs, swinging apartment complexes are
residential patterns. Art museum, symphony orchestra, Metropolitan
Opera, theaters along with professional football, basketball, hockey
and baseball vie for time and spectators.

Yet less than an hour away is the rural and small-town South with
farms and cotton gins and general stores and a mill or two.

Atlanta is an educational center. Columbia is associated with Can-
dler School of Theology of Emory University and the Interdenomi-
national Theological Center, itself comprising seven theological
schools for Blacks, in the Atlanta Theological Association. Georgia
Tech, Georgia State, University of Georgia, Atlanta University Center,
Emory University as well as Agnes Scott, Oglethorpe, Atlanta School
of Art, with Columbia Seminary form the University Center in Georgia.
Through these associations students and faculty have access to librar-
ies, courses, and cultural events of a bewildering variety.

Atlanta has a rich church life. Presbyterian churches of all sizes and
ministry-styles are here. And Columbia alumni or supporters are lead-
ers in Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, and Episcopalian churches. Oppor-
tunities for worship and church participation as well as for learning are
without compare. The headquarters of the Presbyterian Church in the
U.S. in Atlanta provides resources for teaching and learning.

The Urban Training Organization of Atlanta provides education in
urban problems using Atlanta as its laboratory and workshop. The
Georgia Association of Pastoral Care gives chaplaincy training in a
variety of hospitals and other settings and counseling training through
its centers in churches.

VARIETY AND DIVERSITY

The Columbia student body is a richly varied one. Men and
women, young and mature, married and single, black and white,
Americans and overseas visitors, Presbyterians and Baptists, Methodist,
Church of God or Lutherans, those dramatically called and those still
seeking God's will all study, learn, live and worship together.

Out of this diversity, the Seminary seeks for a unity of life and
purpose. Yet there is real concern for the unique needs and interests
of the black student, the woman student, the non-Presbyterian, the
overseas student, the person who has left a 10- or 20-year career to
enter seminary.

Most of all we try to model in our Seminary life openness to others
who are different willingness to listen, to confront, to learn, to share
concerns. For we at Columbia believe that the church of Jesus Christ
is an incredibly varied and diverse reality striving to become His one
body.

NORTH

701 COLUMBIA DRIVE

Columbb

Theological

6eminary

VontQQ

COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

DECATUR, GEORGIA 30031

Vol. 68, No. 2 / February, 1974

Eugene H. Tennis, Editor

Published 7 times a year

Ian., Feb., Apr., May, )uly, Oct., Nov.

Columbia Theological Seminary a learning and serving community