{"id":46039,"date":"2024-05-08T15:58:52","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T19:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/?p=46039"},"modified":"2024-05-08T16:00:37","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T20:00:37","slug":"princeton-seminary-is-just-on-fire-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/resources\/news\/princeton-seminary-is-just-on-fire-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"El Seminario de Princeton est\u00e1 que arde\"."},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty, the host of \u201cLeading Theologically,\u201d receives an email from Princeton Theological Seminary\u2019s president, the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Lee Walton, there\u2019s generally a \u201cOne Luv\u201d typed in above Walton\u2019s signature.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy\u2019s that?\u201d Hinson-Hasty asked Walton during last week\u2019s edition, which can be heard here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Rev. Dr. Jonathan Lee Walton is the president of Princeton Theological Seminary<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt does not come from the late, great Bob Marley<\/a>,\u201d Walton said. Rather, the phrase Walton has adopted comes from the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays<\/a>, the longtime president of Walton\u2019s alma mater, Morehouse College<\/a>, and a mentor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1957, Mays published \u201cSeeking to be Christian in Race Relations<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a chapter he starts off with, \u2018The love of God and the love of mankind is one love,\u2019\u201d Walton said. \u201cThe love of God and the love of humanity \u2014 that\u2019s one love. How can we say we love a God whom we\u2019ve never seen and not love those we walk beside each and every day?\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is what it means to live the Christian life for Benjamin Mays, and that\u2019s what it means for me,\u201d Walton said. He renders it \u201cluv\u201d because \u201cI\u2019m a GenXer of the hip-hop generation,\u201d Walton told Hinson-Hasty. \u201cI added the \u2018luv\u2019 just to add a little flair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hinson-Hasty asked Walton a question made famous by the Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman: \u201cWhat makes you come alive, because what the world needs are people who are coming alive?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s \u201cbeing an educator, and we can do that in multiple roles,\u201d Walton said. \u201cI\u2019m just glad to be part of this learning community, where we are architects of knowledge and artisans of wisdom. We are helping our students and one another expand knowledge and ways of knowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once students enroll at Princeton Seminary, \u201cit\u2019s not a three-year proposition. It\u2019s a 30- or 40-year relationship with this learning community,\u201d Walton said. He\u2019s found that five or 10 years removed from a seminary education, \u201cit\u2019s time to retool. It\u2019s time to re-equip. By 20 years out, the vocabulary has changed, and the categories have changed. We want to make sure Princeton Seminary is known as a place where people can come to retool, to re-equip, to be spiritually revived and intellectually inspired to be able to meet the demands of the age.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what it means for us to be a learning community for life,\u201d Walton said.<\/p>\n

He said the Seminary\u2019s \u201cdynamic and brilliant and diverse faculty are bringing their competencies to bear to speak to the pressing moments of our times, things like climate change \u2014 what do we owe the Earth? How should we think of these things theologically? How can we pull from the wisdom of the ages? This is who we are trying to lean into and forever be.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year-old Master of Theology and Ecology program, which is based at the Seminary\u2019s unique Farminary<\/a>, has seen \u201ca great, enthusiastic response,\u201d Walton said, because \u201cit speaks to the moral concerns and questions today\u2019s learners are asking. Does God have a word? Is there anything the church has to say about the environment and ecological sustainability?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Princeton Seminary, we said that God does have a word. God has not spoken a final word on these ethical matters. As my former biblical studies teacher, [the Rev. Dr.] Brian Blount taught us when I was in school at Princeton Seminary, a final word is a dead word. God is indeed still speaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"

The Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThat\u2019ll preach right there,\u201d Hinson-Hasty said.<\/p>\n

In theological education, \u201cMaybe we\u2019ve been a little distracted asking the wrong questions or lamenting the wrong things \u2014 the decline of the mainline church or how we are going to get people back in the pews,\u201d Walton said. \u201cWe also know that diseases of despair are on the rise. We know that depression, alienation, suicide and adolescent mental health\u201d have reached \u201ca state of emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs communities of faith, I do believe there is an urgency to speak to these pressing demands and needs of our time,\u201d Walton said. \u201cThat comes through the Gospel offering an alternative view of society. We have spent the last two generations scorching the earth, in a way, where we placed a market-based morality of efficiency and profit margin that we\u2019ve privileged at all cost. It\u2019s gotten us a generation that\u2019s alienated and increasingly disaffiliated. How can we offer a vision of a banquet table where seats are shared, not earned? How can we offer a vision of a community \u2014 even a learning community \u2014 where the doors swing wide open, and we mean it when we talk about \u2018whosoever will\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know in a knowledge-based economy we can engage people we couldn\u2019t engage 20 years ago\u201d through hybrid programs, Walton said. Another recent addition is the Seminary\u2019s Master of Arts and Theology program. The first track, on justice and public life, is designed \u201cto help us think about the question of what it means to be good\u201d by \u201cequipping professionals of faith with theological tools in history and biblical criticism to apply their faith in responsible ways to their professions.\u201d The inaugural cohort includes a pastor, several university officials, a federal judge, and people who work in nonprofits and international development. \u201cThese are professionals who are committed to learning more about their faith and see theological education as the great tool and resource for that,\u201d Walton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrinceton Seminary is just on fire right now,\u201d Walton said. \u201cEyes have not seen, and ears have not heard what God has in store for this community, because of the community that constitutes it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know it\u2019s going to be complicated. We know there will be struggles and challenges ahead,\u201d Walton said. \u201cBut we walk by faith, and we continue to follow our faith as we seek better understanding for the pressing time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walton offered Hinson-Hasty and viewers the benediction he often says on Sunday mornings.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife is short, and time is filled with swift transition. So, we don\u2019t have much time to gladden the hearts of those who travel this thing called life with us. So, let\u2019s be swift to love. Let\u2019s make haste to be kind. Let\u2019s be quick to compliment and slow to criticize.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s love ourselves, because loving ourselves is a precondition for loving our neighbor. If we do these things, we might begin to approximate what it means to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly before our God. Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch previous editions of \u201cLeading Theologically\u201d here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty, the host of \u201cLeading Theologically,\u201d receives an email from Princeton Theological Seminary\u2019s president, the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Lee Walton, there\u2019s generally a \u201cOne Luv\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":46040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46039"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46043,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46039\/revisions\/46043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}