Apply Now

Request Program Info

Search the GTU

Displaying 1481 - 1500 of 1500
GTU News

Erin Brigham, PhD student in Systematic and Philosophical Theology, continually explores how other fields may contribute to her work in ecumenism

The journey which led PhD student Erin Brigham from her general interest in Religious Studies at Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to her current dissertation topic was shaped by questions and detours along the pathway. Like many who travel in theological discourse, she began pursuing answers to the big questions theology attempts to answer — those of meaning and purpose. She landed at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley as a Systematic and Philosophical Theology MA student, and then she fell in love with the works of Elizabeth A. Johnson. Johnson’s premise that the symbol of God...
PeopleErin BrighamTheology
GTU News

State of the GTU

Office of the President Berkeley, CA — January 2009 Dear Friends of the Graduate Theological Union, The financial and economic crisis facing our nation has presented challenges for the GTU as well as for many other institutions and for many people in their personal lives. Many GTU friends, alumni, and staff have asked about how GTU is faring and what people can do to help. We are so grateful that our well being is on your minds and in your hearts. We especially thank those, who in this difficult time, are stepping forward to support our students and the unique interreligious programs that...
GTU News

Consortial Registrar Sharon-Gay Smith Leaves GTU after 37 Years

“My job isn’t a job. It’s a ministry. And the GTU has given me community and allowed me to practice my ministry.” That’s what Sharon-Gay Smith says of her 37 years of work at the Graduate Theological Union. In return, from 1971 when she worked the GTU’s PBX system (remember those?) and typed transcripts by hand, to 1989 when she became common registrar, to 2008, Smith has given the GTU her loyalty. Day in and day out, she has given students down-to-earth, day-to-day practical help, ranging from advice about where to find affordable housing to how to register for classes. Smith says she saw...
PeopleSharon-Gay Smith
GTU News

Learning to Speak a New Tongue: Imagining a Way that Holds People Together

"Who are we as Americans? What will bring people together as Americans today and tomorrow?" Fumitaka Matsuoka attempts to answer these questions in the 2008 GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecture on November 11. Currently, Matsuoka is the Robert Gordon Sproul Professor of Theology at the Pacific School of Religion and the Executive Director for the Institute for Leadership Development and Study of Pacific and Asian North American Religion (PANA Institute). He says the voices that declare our American identity primarily stem from a single source, Western European Christian thought -- but that...
PeopleFumitaka Matsuoka
Basic Page

Stitching Hope and Beauty in Pamplona Alta

Student Stories Stitching Hope and Beauty in Pamplona Alta A stack of colorful cuadros — Spanish for “pictures” — sits on Rebecca Berru Davis’ sofa. They are hand-appliquéd and embroidered textile scenes created by a cooperative of women artists in Pamplona Alta, a shantytown outside Lima, Peru. Davis, a third-year Graduate Theological Union doctoral student in the area of Art and Religion, has just returned from her third trip to Pamplona Alta since 2006. For these cuadros, Davis asked the women to sew scenes that expressed their hopes and dreams. One artist sewed pictures of animals —...
GTU News

Holger Zellentin, Assistant Professor of Rabbinics and Late Antique Judaism, anticipates community outreach and interreligious collaboration

A member of the faculty of the Center for Jewish Studies, Holger Zellentin celebrates the center’s 40th birthday.  He believes that CJS is a pioneering institution with a bright future as it faces new challenges, one of them being adapting to the evolving needs of the GTU’s students, and surrounding community.  He hopes to see more community outreach as a means of growing the center.  In addition, Zellentin would like to see more collaboration among academic institutions, especially between GTU and the University of California, Berkeley.  CJS is focusing on working with the Center for Islamic...
The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies (CJS)
PeopleCJS | The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish StudiesJudaismHolger Zellentin
GTU News

Joan McGrath Set To Not Just Survive, But Thrive

Joan McGrath, chair of the Graduate Theological Union board of trustees, is fascinated by the power of groups to survive and thrive -- the first Christians whose tiny movement grew to today’s two billion; her own successful company built on teamwork and caring ethics; and the GTU, founded by people of distinct faiths committed to learning about one another and bringing a healing message to a world in need.  McGrath, who started her two-year term in October 2007 and has served as a GTU trustee for 10 years, says she has always been interested in religion. She earned a master’s degree in...
PeopleJoan McGrath
GTU News

Jerome Baggett Wins 2008 Sarlo Excellence in Teaching Award

Snake-handling Pentecostals in Appalachia, Muslim feminists in the Middle East, and leaders in the Central American peace movement: These are a few of the many religious groups Jerome Baggett encourages his students to explore and “to see.” Baggett is the 2008 recipient of the Sarlo Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes the values of interreligious sensitivity and commitment, interdisciplinary approach and content in teaching, sensitivity to ethnic and cultural diversity, and creative classroom pedagogical methods and performance. “We conflate religion with ‘official’ religion, that...
GTU Alums
AlumniJerome BaggettEthics
Basic Page

Learning to Teach to the "Big Ideas"

Students’ Stories: In the Classroom Learning to Teach to the “Big Ideas” Danté Quick, Teagle-Wabash scholar, strides across the classroom, his voice arresting, his manner assured. He’s dressed impeccably in a gray suit, crisp white shirt, and colorful bowtie. A dozen students, nearly all African American, regard a familiar image of a fair-haired, blue-eyed Jesus that Quick has projected onto a large screen. “Race,” he says, “is at the bottom of religion in America.” Quick is one of 12 Graduate Theological Union doctoral students participating in the GTU’s Preparing Future Faculty Project,...
GTU News

Dr. Linda Frank, GTU's New Vice President for Advancement

“Linda understands and embraces the mission of the GTU with great enthusiasm, and has a wonderful gift of relating with people,” says GTU President James A. Donahue. “We are fortunate to welcome someone with Linda's skills and commitments to the GTU community.” Prior to joining the GTU in 2007, Dr. Frank was the Executive Director of the Santa Rosa Junior College Foundation. During her nine-year tenure she managed $26 million in assets, including endowment funds which doubled in size to $18 million. She has held positions in higher education since 1980.  She was Director of Planned and...
PeopleLinda Frank
GTU News

Dr. Mia M. Mochizuki Receives CAA Publication Grant

Dr. Mia M. Mochizuki, Assistant Professor and Thomas E. Bertelsen, Jr. Chair of Art History and Religion at the Graduate Theological Union and Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley is the recipient of a College Art Association (CAA) Publication Grant for her book, Netherlandish Image after Iconoclasm, 1566-1672 (Ashgate).  The CAA Publication Grant is a single award of $23,000 to a publisher for one book, either under contract or near contract, on a topic in art, art history, art theory or criticism, visual studies, or a related field; the book must make a significant original contribution to...
Center for the Arts & Religion (CARe)
PeopleArts Culture and TechnologyExpertMia MochizukiBook
GTU News

Munir Jiwa, Director of New Center for Islamic Studies

Munir Jiwa, director of the Center for Islamic Studies, and assistant professor of Islamic Studies, has a rich background in engaging difference. His research has addressed mass media portrayals of Islam and Muslims. Jiwa was previously at the University of Toronto, where he was a Mellon postdoctoral fellow in the Department and Center for the Study of Religion. He holds a master’s degree in religion from Harvard and a doctorate in anthropology from Columbia University. “Few theological schools and seminaries offer Islamic Studies,” says Jiwa. “With its distinguished faculty and students,...
The Center for Islamic Studies (CIS)
PeopleCIS | Center for Islamic StudiesMunir JiwaExpertIslam
GTU News

Scripture for the Eyes: The Dutch Text Painting

The 2006 Reading of the Sacred Texts, delivered on February 8by Mia MochizukiAssistant Professor, Thomas E. Bertelsen, Jr. Chair of Art History and ReligionJesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and Graduate Theological Union Photos from the event It is a great honor to be invited to deliver the 14th Reading of the Sacred Texts Lecture and I’m delighted to be here. Tonight I hope to give you a new perspective on a sacred text at the core of much of western culture. We tend to think of one Bible and yet the historical reality is a multitude of productions – of different words, typefaces, title...
GTU News

2006 Reading of the Sacred Texts

On February 8, 2006, 100 students, professors, alumni and community members gathered in the Richard S. Dinner Boardroom for the 14th Annual Reading of the Sacred Texts at the Flora Lamson Hewlett Library. This year, the Friends of the Library were proud to host new faculty member Dr. Mia Mochizuki, holder of the joint Bertelsen Chair in Art History and Religion at the Graduate Theological Union and Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. In her lecture “Scripture for the Eyes: The Dutch Text Painting,” Dr. Mochizuki explored the significance of the transition to text-based religious art in the...
EventsPresentationStub
GTU News

In the Beginning Were Stories, Not Texts

The 2005 Reading of the Sacred Texts, delivered on February 16by Choan-Seng SongProfessor of Theology and Asian CulturesPacific School of Religion Joseph’s Dreams Surrounding an Evening Fire “I Love to Tell the Story” In the Beginning were Stories “All I can do is to tell the story” Life is the Heart of Story There are no Stories in Hell God Loves Stories The story time! Australian aborigines will say, “dream time.” What a beautiful expression! Story is conceived in the womb of dreams, nurtured and developed in it. And when the womb can not hold it any longer, it gives birth to it. As...
Basic Page

A Lived Theology: Graduate's Work Focuses on Faith and Identity

For Uriah Kim, May 2004 marked a new transition: graduating from the GTU with a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies, and preparing to move east for his new position as assistant professor of Hebrew Bible at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY. Kim’s story reflects a series of such changes and life-transformations, as he explores what it means to be a person of faith, a scholar, a teacher, and an Asian-American. Born to a Buddhist family in Korea, he came to the United States at the age of ten and converted to Christianity at eighteen. Kim was struggling at the time with existential questions about...
GTU News

Interpreting the Constitution: Spirit or Structure

The 2004 Reading of the Sacred Texts, delivered on February 11 by John T. Noonan, Jr.United States Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and Robbins Professor Emeritus at Boalt School of Law at University of California, Berkeley Introduction. It is an honor and a pleasure to address you this evening on the Constitution of the United States and to have this document ranked among the texts considered sacred. Having invited someone whose profession involves the interpretation of this document, you no doubt expect more than patriotic pabulum and would like a realistic account of...
Basic Page

2002-03 Newhall Awards

Student, faculty member, and subject of the proposal. For more information or to contact any of the faculty members, visit the GTU Faculty web pages Thomasin Alexander and Lewis RamboConversion to Christianity Jorge Aquino and Clare Fischer History of Western social thought Kate Bellm and Alejandro Garcia-Rivera Theology, aesthetics, and the arts Jade D'Aquilarive Benson and Alicia ForseyUnitarian-Univeralist history Byron Breese and Doug AdamsEnvironmental Religions: Cosmology and Art Joanne Doi and Uriah Kim with Fumitaka Matusoka The Bible, Memory and Asian America Brian Froese and Randi...
Basic Page

Innovative GTU Class Tackles Globalization and Ethics

This year's course "Ecumenical Social Ethics in an Age of Globalization" is exploring a question that touches on one of the GTU's abiding concerns: what is the role of religion in the public sphere, now that most local issues are also global in their import, and most global issues are also local? Co-taught by SFTS professor emeritus Lewis Mudge and GTU doctoral student Tamara Rodenberg, the course explores the possibility of "faith-based witness to interrelated values such as human rights, economic justice, the reduction of violence, participatory politics and environmental sustainability."...
Basic Page

A New Crop of Newhalls

Twenty-one student-faculty pairs, and one quartet, were awarded Newhall Fellowships for 1999–2000. These research or teaching awards are designed to support both students, through grants, and faculty, through the student’s assistance. With themes ranging from biblical scholarship, Taoist spirituality, and social welfare policy to the spiritual aspects of bereavement and religion in cinema, the Newhall projects exemplify the spirit of diversity which is the GTU’s greatest strength. These fellowships are made possible by Jane Newhall, who retired from the Board of Trustees after 22 years of...

ContrastHigh|Normal