Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

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Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a preeminent independent graduate school of theology, located in Manhattan between Claremont Avenue and Broadway, 120th to 122nd Streets. The seminary was founded in 1836 under the Presbyterian Church, and is currently affiliated with the nearby Columbia University.

The brick and limestone English Gothic architecture, by Francis R. Allen (1844–1931) and Collins, completed in 1910, includes the tower (pictured), which adapts features of the crossing tower of Durham Cathedral. The Seminary is also adjacent to Teachers College, Barnard College, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the Manhattan School of Music and has cross-registration and library access agreements with several of these schools. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 23, 1980.

During the late-19th Century, Union Theological Seminary (UTS) became one of the leading centers of liberal Christianity in the United States. Among its graduates were the historian of Christianity Arthur McGiffert, biblical scholar James Moffett, Harry Emerson Fosdick, pastor of Riverside Church, who served as professor during his tenure there, and the Socialist leader Norman Thomas. It is home to the Burke Theological Library, which is second only to the Vatican Library in the scope of its collections.

UTS currently employs several prominent theologians on its faculty. Dr. Joseph Hough, the current President, is an important Christian Democratic Socialist. Henry Sloane Coffin was a past president. Dr. James Hal Cone is one of the founders of liberation theology and is especially important in the development of African-American theology. Dr. Gary Dorrien is a leading church historian and social ethicist. Dr. James Forbes, the senior pastor of the adjacent Riverside Church, is an adjunct professor at the seminary and had been a full-time, chaired professor before accepting the Riverside post.

Reinhold Neibuhr and Paul Tillich made UTS the center of liberal Christianity in the post-War period. Prominent public intellectual Dr. Cornel West commenced a promising academic career at UTS in 1977. As liberalism lost ground to conservatism after the 1960s, UTS ran into financial difficulties, and shrank significantly. Eventually, the school agreed to lease some of its buildings to Columbia University and to transfer ownership of and responsibility for the Burke Library to Columbia. These agreements helped stabilize the school's finances, which had been hobbled by increasing library costs and the need for substantial campus repairs.

The school confers Master of Arts, Master of Divinity, S.T.M, Th.D and Ph.D. degrees. The school has long been associated with ecumenism.

Contents 1 List of founders 2 Theologians and other faculty 3 Notable Alumni 4 External links

[edit] List of founders

• Charles Butler (NYU) (1802-97)

[edit] Theologians and other faculty

• William Greenough Thayer Shedd — professor of sacred literature (1863–1874) and of systematic theology (1874-1890).
• Charles Augustus Briggs — professor of Hebrew and cognate languages (1874–1891) and of Biblical theology (1891-1904); an important early leader of the Modernist movement.
• Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) — professor of Applied Christianity - Christian social ethics - , author of the influential The Nature and Destiny of Man (1941), and the Serenity Prayer (popularized through the Twelve-step program).
• James Cone — Charles A. Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology - Founder of Black Liberation Theology.
• Paul Tillich (1886–1965) — German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher.
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) — a German Lutheran pastor and theologian and participant in the resistance movement against Nazism, engaged in post-graduate studies at UTS.
• John Macquarrie — professor of Systematic Theology 1962–70, afterwards Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford and Canon Residentiary of Christ Church, Oxford 1970–1986.
• Robert Pollack — professor of Science and Religion
• Raymond E. Brown (1928–1998) — One of America's preeminent New Testament scholars and member of Pontificial Bible Commission was professor in UTS for 23 years.

[edit] Notable Alumni

• Frederick Buckley Newell (Bachelor of Divinity, 1916) - Bishop of The Methodist Church
• Nelson Cruikshank (Master of divinity, 1929) - Labor union activist and strategist responsible for the passage of Medicare
• Dr. David Gushee - professor of Moral Philosophy at Union University. Author of 9 books and over 70 articles ^[1]
• Andrew McLellan - former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
• Bruce McLeod (PhD) - Moderator of the United Church of Canada

[edit] External links

• Union Theological Seminary webpage
• The WPA Guide to New York City 1939, reprint 1982.

Colleges and Universities in the City of New York

Bank Street College of Education • Bard College • Berkeley College • Boricua College • Bramson ORT College • Brooklyn Law School • City University of New York • College of Mount Saint Vincent • Columbia University • Barnard College • Cooper Union • Fordham University • General Theological Seminary • Jewish Theological Seminary of America • Juilliard School • The King's College • Long Island University • Manhattan College • Manhattan School of Music • Marymount Manhattan College • Metropolitan College of New York • Monroe College • The New School • New York Institute of Technology • New York Law School • New York University • Mount Sinai School of Medicine • Phillips Beth Israel School of Nursing • Pace University • Polytechnic University of New York • Pratt Institute • Rockefeller University • Saint Francis College • Saint John's University • Saint Joseph's College • School of American Ballet • School of Visual Arts • Studio Maestro • Touro College • Union Theological Seminary • Vaughn College of Aeronautics & Technology • Wagner College • Weill Medical College • Yeshiva University