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Mission Statement
Princeton Theological Seminary prepares women and men to serve Jesus Christ in ministries marked by faith, integrity, scholarship, competence, compassion, and joy, equipping them for leadership worldwide in congregations and the larger church, in classrooms and the academy, and in the public arena.
A professional and graduate school of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Seminary stands within the Reformed tradition, affirming the sovereignty of the triune God over all creation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ as God’s saving word for all people, the renewing power of the word and Spirit in all of life, and the unity of Christ’s servant church throughout the world. This tradition shapes the instruction, research, practical training, and continuing education provided by the Seminary, as well as the theological scholarship it promotes.
In response to Christ’s call for the unity of the church, the Seminary embraces in its life and work a rich racial and ethnic diversity and the breadth of communions represented in the worldwide church. In response to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, the Seminary offers its theological scholarship in service to God’s renewal of the church’s life and mission. In response to God’s sovereign claim over all creation, the Seminary seeks to engage Christian faith with intellectual, political, and economic life in pursuit of truth, justice, compassion, and peace.
To these ends, the Seminary provides a residential community of worship and learning where a sense of calling is tested and defined, where Scripture and the Christian tradition are appropriated critically, where faith and intellect mature and life-long friendships begin, and where habits of discipleship are so nourished that members of the community may learn to proclaim with conviction, courage, wisdom, and love the good news that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Adopted by the Board of Trustees, May 1996
History of the Seminary
The establishment of The Theological Seminary at Princeton by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1812 marked a turning point in American theological education. Within the last quarter of the eighteenth century, all learning was of a piece and could be adequately taught and studied in the schools and colleges, nearly all of which were church initiated. General education was also the context for professional studies in divinity, medicine, and the law. In the first quarter of the nineteenth century, professional training became disengaged from the college
curriculum, medical and law schools were established, and seventeen divinity schools and seminaries came into existence.
On the threshold of the nineteenth century, powerful elements in American life, both secular and religious, were forcing some radical changes in the older, more unitive education and intellectual climate. The emergence of scientific studies, the expansion of the college curriculum, new economic and social responsibilities associated with democratic government, industrial development in the East and geographical movement toward the West, all such factors required the churches to reconsider their own mission and message.
There were also intramural conflicts within the churches. As the denominations multiplied, they became more self-conscious, polemical, and defensive. Local “parsons” found they were not always the undisputed intellectual “persons” in the community. The western migration created a sudden demand for ministers that could not be met under the old training programs, and the rough and ready people on the frontier were less exacting in their requirements for an educated ministry. Religious and theological tides in the meantime were running between deistical, rational influences and pietistic, revivalistic enthusiasm.
The plan to establish a theological seminary at Princeton was in the interests of advancing and extending the theological curriculum. It was not, as has sometimes been intimated, a sectarian withdrawal from secular university life. The educational intention was to go beyond the liberal arts course by setting up a postgraduate, professional school in theology. The plan met with enthusiastic approval on the part of authorities at the College of New Jersey, later to become Princeton University, for they were coming to see that specialized training in theology required more attention than they could give.
With fewer than a dozen students, Archibald Alexander was the only Seminary professor in 1812. He was joined the following year by a second professor, Samuel Miller, who came to Princeton
from the pastorate of the Wall Street Church in New York. Though the faculty of the Seminary was as big (or as small) as at the College, it was a venture of faith bordering on the foolhardy to lay elaborate plans for the future.
To read back over the wording of the original “Design of the Seminary” is to perceive the early growth of the modern development in theological education in America, though the Princeton innovators were not at all thinking of breaking new ground except in the literal sense. They were prophetic enough, however, and among other things the “Design” noted that the purpose of the Seminary was
to unite in those who shall sustain the ministerial office, religion and literature; that piety of the heart, which is the fruit only of the renewing and sanctifying grace of God, with solid learning; believing that religion without learning, or learning without religion, in the ministers of the gospel, must ultimately prove injurious to the church.
The dialectic suggested in the juxtaposition of piety and learning deserves some comment. It is an apt text for expounding the peculiar genius of Princeton Seminary and its view of theological education. The piety side of the formula stems from the accent on personal salvation, the experience of repentance and forgiveness, the Christian life of faith, justification, and sanctification, the 
reality of new selfhood in Jesus Christ, all of which can be traced to the roots of American religion, whether of the Puritan, Calvinist, Lutheran, Quaker, Wesleyan, or “left-wing” Reformation traditions. So it was that Princeton Seminary, as was true of most other divinity schools, deliberately defined itself as a school of “that piety of the heart,” a training center for church leaders of all sorts, which specialized in preaching, the cure of souls, evangelism, and missions. To be sure, there were many at Princeton unsympathetic with much of the methodology of the new pietism and revivalism; but regarding the religious goals interpreted as personal salvation, “the fruit only of the renewing and sanctifying grace of God,” there was unanimity between thumping revivalists and proper Princetonians.
The other side of the piety-learning formula was equally important for the founders of the Seminary. The new institution was never described as a Protestant monastery or retreat, a place distinguished mainly for prayer and meditation. It was to be a school with teachers and students, library and books, ideas of the mind as well as convictions of the heart, all in the service of “solid learning.” The Reformed tradition, to which Princeton Seminary was and is committed, has always magnified the intellectual integrity of the faith. Theology has been a highly respected word on the campus. Systems and structures of thought, reflection on the meaning and application of the faith, clarity of expression, and precision of definition—these are recognized norms for theological thinking.
The Seminary has been served by a remarkable succession of eminent Presidents. Francis Landey Patton (1902–1913) came to the Seminary after serving as President of Princeton University. J. Ross Stevenson (1914–1936) guided the Seminary through some turbulent years and expanded the institution’s vision and program. John A. Mackay (1936–1959) strengthened the faculty,
enlarged the campus, and created a new ecumenical era for theological education. James I. McCord (1959–1983), whose presidency saw the institution of the first center of continuing education at a theological seminary, the establishment of full endowment for twenty-six faculty chairs, and the construction or renovation of major campus residences and academic facilities, gave leadership to both the national and world church through denominational and ecumenical councils. Thomas W. Gillespie (1983–2004) increased the size of the faculty, including the establishment of nine endowed chairs, and significantly lowered the student/faculty ratio. He led the Seminary in a building program that comprised the renovation of Stuart Hall, the addition of John and Irene Templeton Hall, a multipurpose building which houses speech and media facilities, the computer facility, and faculty and administrative offices, and the renovation of the Seminary’s historic Miller Chapel, and the construction of Scheide Hall, a companion building to the chapel that houses facilities for the Seminary choirs, the minister to the chapel, the director of music, and the director of student counseling.
Iain R. Torrance became the Seminary’s sixth president in 2004, having served as moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and dean of the Faculty of Arts and Divinity at the University of Aberdeen and professor of patristics and Christian ethics.
His pastoral experiences include service as a reservist chaplain to Britain’s armed forces. He began his calling to teach as a lecturer at the Queen’s College, Birmingham, and the University of Birmingham in England before joining the faculty of the University of Aberdeen. In 2001 he was appointed a chaplain to Her Majesty the Queen, and this is an office that he retains.
His wide-ranging scholarship has focused on early Christian thought, the ethics of war, and bioethics. He is coeditor of The Scottish Journal of Theology. He is interested in ecumenics, and is a member of the international dialogue between the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Orthodox Church. In his first years as Princeton's president, he has provided leadership in the
areas of curriculum review, Seminary governance, and information technology, and has developed a new strategic plan for the institution.
Affiliated from the beginning with the Presbyterian Church and the wider Reformed tradition, Princeton Theological Seminary is today a denominational school with an ecumenical, interdenominational, and worldwide constituency. This is reflected in the faculty, in the curriculum of studies, and in the student body.
Accreditation
Princeton Theological Seminary is accredited by The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and by The Association of Theological Schools.
The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Higher Education
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
215.662.5606
www.middlestates.org
The Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada
10 Summit Park Drive
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15275–1103
412.788.6505
www.ats.edu
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