News

Something new is happening at the GTU: a new M.A. area of
concentration in Interreligious Studies (IR) will begin in fall 2012.
Applications are due February 15 for the first class of students.

It was standing room only in Easton Hall for the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies' lively November 29 conference “Formations of Orthodoxy,” which explored Orthodox Jewish cultural formations in interwar Poland and post-Holocaust America.
The evening ended with a keynote talk by Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland.

Izak Lattu, doctoral student in Interdisciplinary Studies, explains how the actions of one Indonesian politician marks the exception to the general principle of religious tolerance in the country for which it is revered.

"It has been years of agony for GKI Taman Yasmin Protestant church congregation members as Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto has defied a Supreme Court decision to allow them to attend Sunday mass in their place of worship.

Budiarto’s bureaucratic move reflects the failure of not only law enforcement in the city, but also of the country’s civil justice system....

Flora Keshgegian (CDSP), Inese Radzins (PSR), and LeAnn Flesher (ABSW)
Graduate Theological Union, November 3, 2011

Listen to the presentation

On Saturday, October 8, the GTU Asia Project was pleased to welcome thirteen distinguished Christian leaders from the People’s Republic of China. The group had come to the U.S. to attend a Bible exhibition in Washington, D.C. and to visit theological seminaries in Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Los Angeles before coming to the GTU. A welcoming reception and roundtable conversation was hosted by GTU Dean Arthur Holder, Professor Thomas Cattoi from the Jesuit School of Theology, GTU Ph.D. students Pui Fong Wong and Mary Mee-Yin Yuen, and CDSP D.Min. student Chun Wai Lam.

Izak Lattu, a doctoral student in Interdisciplinary Studies, speaks against acts of violence perpetrated in the name of religion.

Pink Smoke Over the Vatican is a documentary by Jules Hart about women’s ordination within the Roman Catholic Church. A discussion with Professor Victoria Rue, an ordained Roman Catholic Priest, followed the screening on September 23, 2011.

Below are audio recordings of the questions answered before and after the screening.

Discussion before

Discussion after

The GTU is pleased to announce the appointment of Eric Alexander as its new Vice President for Advancement.
GTU President James Donahue said of his appointment, “I am delighted to welcome Eric to the GTU. His range of experience in advancement, his understanding of our mission and context, and his personal qualities and energy will be an enormous addition to the leadership of the GTU.”

Jane Newhall (born October 4, 1913), a generous benefactor to the Graduate Theological Union and GTU member school San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS), died July 27 in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, at the age of 97. Newhall suffered a stroke in early July and then contracted pneumonia. A memorial will likely take place at Calvary Presbyterian Church at a date to be determined.

Ted Peters, Professor of Systematic Theology at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, gave the plenary address "Stem Cells: Who's Fighting with Whom about What?" at the 31st Annual Christian Scholars' Conference hosted at Pepperdine University. Other speakers during the three conference (June 16-18) included Dr. Francis S. Collins, National Institutes of Heath Director; Rev. Dr. John Polkinghorne, founding president of the International Society for Science and Religion; and Emmy award-winning journalist and sustainability advocate Simran Sethi.