Saturday, August 3, 2019

Seminaries with a Theology and the Creative Arts Focus

My spouse has been playing the lottery--instead of going for the big jackpot, he's buying a chance (a very, very slim chance) at having $250,000 a year for life.  Last night he said that if he won, he'd keep teaching Philosophy, but I'd quit my job and go to seminary full time.

That vision is so appealing to me.

This morning, I've been thinking that maybe a slower approach to a seminary start date would be that I would have more time to research seminaries that have an arts and spirituality/ministry program.  At this point, I haven't found many.

Sadly, no Lutheran seminary offers this kind of track. 

My plan is to start keeping a list of other possibilities here, for easy reference. 

This morning, I found a new-to-me seminary, a Methodist seminary,  Wesley in D.C.  Their certificate program in Theology and the Arts sounds so perfect--except for the fact that it's only open to students in the MDiv program at Wesley.  So it's 14 additional credits.  It seems tacked on to me, as opposed to fully integrated.  If I had plenty of time, that might not be a deal breaker. 

I like that the certificate requires the student to take introductory classes in 3 different artistic disciplines:  Dance; Dramatic and literary arts; Music; Visual art.  I don't want to have to choose just one.  But then, the student does take more classes in just one of the art forms.

It sounds like a cool program--it's a shame I don't live in the D.C. area, where this school would be more feasible.

The only other seminary that I've found so far that does a mix of theology and the arts is United, a UCC seminary in Minnesota.  They have a Theology and the Arts track which sounds interesting.

Both of those programs seem to have more theology than the arts.  I wonder if there's a program out there that has a more equal emphasis?

I also discovered that Fuller has a program in Worship, Theology, and the Arts--but I'm pretty sure I'd have some very serious issues with their approach to theology, a much more evangelical/fundamentalist approach than will work for me.

That's the list as I have it so far.  If I find more, I'll keep updating this list.  I'm looking for seminaries with established histories--I worry that there are many fly-by-night seminaries with online programs, and I'm not interested in those.

1 comment:

Wendy said...

I find myself oddly wanting to defend Fuller, but I decided against that same Theology and the Arts program because I thought it would be too contemporary music focused. I hope you can find a place/program that offers what you are longing for. (And I hope your spouse wins that lottery.)