Dr. Hastings Retires

As the Rev. Dr. Thomas John Hastings retires from a long and joyful career of supporting global mission and preaching and teaching the gospel around the world, he plans to make stuff.

“I plan to make music, compost for our garden, and utilitarian furniture,” he says with a grin.

Unbeknownst to the larger Princeton Theological Seminary community, the retiring executive director of the Overseas Ministries Study Center (OMSC at Princeton Seminary) and editor of the International Bulletin of Mission Research is an amateur blues guitarist and singer-songwriter. He has even recorded a CD of his own work and plans to spend a lot more time playing his Stratocaster, Les Paul, and Taylor. Hastings says, “For me, music is a playful, visceral, and transcendent experience, and the blues, in particular, evokes a spiritual sense of joy and lament."

He's also a bit of a woodworker who has not mastered the craft but has “picked up a few tips along the way.” He enjoys making furniture that actually gets used. “It’s not fancy,” he says. “I make simple things like bookcases, stable and usable.”

As for compost for his organic garden? That may be self-explanatory, but there’s more to it: composting is a science he has studied over the years, using his knowledge to make his vegetables and fruit grow and taste like the real thing, unlike much of the stuff in the produce section.

There’s a bit more to it than just science, says the ordained Presbyterian minister who holds a PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary. “There’s something in me that links working in the garden with God’s presence.” He’ll be “tilling” a new tale in Cape May, New Jersey, where he and his wife Carol, will soon be moving.

He will continue teaching and speaking as opportunities arise, and he plans to do more writing and translation of Japanese Christian writers. In addition to numerous articles, chapters, and translations in English and Japanese, he is the author of three books and co-editor of several volumes, most recently, with Knut-Willy Sæther, the forthcoming Views of Nature and Dualism: Rethinking Philosophical, Theological, and Religious Assumptions in the Anthropocene (Palgrave McMillan).

Hastings has heard and tried to heed God’s call all his life, and it has taken him on a unique journey. He says the young man he was when pursuing his BA at Boston College would surely not recognize the retiring professor and academic administrator who can reflect on a career — more of a shared sense of calling with Carol, really — that has taken them to Western Samoa in the Peace Corps, to Japan as mission co-workers of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and back to the States to work in support of Christian mission and, finally, bringing OMSC to its new home at Princeton Seminary.

Along with Carol, who is a pianist, Tom knew early on that their path would be a less traveled one. “We decided early in our marriage that we didn’t want the mortgage, the career, you know, to settle down. We came of age at the end of the sixties generation. We had a significant amount of wanderlust, so we joined the Peace Corps. We were in Western Samoa and met some Japanese volunteers and thought, ‘Let's go to Japan next!’ No, neither one of us spoke Japanese at the time, but we gradually learned, and I taught Christian education/practical theology in Japanese for our last 15 years in Japan.”

“I would describe our journey as a testimony to insatiable curiosity, a dash of madness, and an abundance of God’s grace.”

“We fell in love with Japan, and it was in Japan that I received a sense of calling to pastoral ministry, teaching, and scholarship.”

Raised Roman Catholic, Tom joined the Presbyterian Church (USA) after meeting his future wife, a PC (USA) preacher’s kid born in Princeton when her dad was a seminarian (Princeton Seminary class of 1955). Revs. Bill and Jo Tolley were the first clergy couple in the New York Presbytery, and, along with many others, they inspired their spiritual journey.

From 1987 to 2008, Hastings taught on the faculties of Hokuriku Gakuin Junior College, Seiwa College, and Tokyo Union Theological Seminary, the flagship seminary of the Protestant church in Japan.

After returning to the States, he was director of research and associate director at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, senior research fellow at the Japan International Christian University Foundation in New York City, and research consultant for the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia in New York City.

Then a friend from Japan alerted him to an ad in the Chronicle of Higher Education seeking a new director for the Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven. He strongly urged Hastings to apply.

“I was coming to the end of a three-year grant from the John Templeton Foundation, which was so much fun and took me back to Japan 14 times, so I applied. With my experience in Japan, my theological training, and my broad ‘ecumenical awareness’ — Roman Catholic, Evangelical, mainline Protestant — I even studied Orthodox theology at Wheaton College Graduate School — So I had this broad ecumenical experience and interest, and I just love all of the expressions of Christianity. I think I owe this catholic open-mindedness to my Irish ancestors. The OMSC trustees agreed, and I was appointed in 2016!”

OMSC was founded in 1922 as the Houses of Fellowship, a place for North American missionaries on furlough to rest, study, and recover their health before returning to mission fields abroad. In 1967, the organization's name was changed to OMSC, and they launched a study program focusing on issues related to the many ways the world’s churches participate in God’s mission. Its respected International Bulletin of Mission Research (1977–present) picked up and expanded the legacy of the Occasional Bulletin from the Missionary Research Library (1950–1976). OMSC has hosted annual gatherings of local and cross-cultural church leaders from historic Protestant denominations, Roman Catholic orders, and evangelical agencies. In recent years, OMSC’s global partners have come from the majority world’s churches in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Oceania.

The work would be challenging and rewarding. For seven years, he led the center’s trustees through the dramatic decision to sell its campus in New Haven and embed OMSC’s ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary. The move has assured OMSC at Princeton Seminary’s sustainable future as a study center of the seminary and, judging from its first three years, has proven to be a blessing both for OMSC and the Seminary.

As Hastings reflects on his journey, he says he has learned some lasting lessons.

“I tell my students that God shows up in the most unexpected places, and I’m not going to try to forecast what that means,” he says. “I'm just going to remain open and wonder in life’s many surprises. I'm going to wonder in the rich diversity of God’s creation and in the worldwide Christian movement or the body of Christ, whatever you want to call the church with a capital C!”

He embraces his journey with joy.

“I ended up where I am today because of the faithfulness and support of family and friends, especially Carol, my parents, her parents, our four children and their spouses, and eight grandchildren,” he says. “They have all been blessed conduits of God's care, acceptance, and love. Through them, I have come to know the core truth of the gospel that God loves us in spite of all we do wrong!” (cf., Q. 4. Belonging to God: A First Catechism).