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Article: A postdenominational seminary.(Wake Forest University's )
- Article from:
- The Christian Century
- Article date:
- September 22, 1999
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 The Christian Century Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE FIRST institute to train Baptist pastors in North Carolina was opened 160 years ago. But as classes begin in earnest this fall at Wake Forest University's new divinity school, the seminary's Baptist roots and heritage will be overshadowed by a postdenominational, ecumenical approach to training clergy. As one sign of the new approach, its faculty will include a Benedictine monk, a feminist biblical scholar and a theologian who calls God "our motherly father."
Opening as the 21st century nears, the school is premised on the conviction that denominations no longer matter. It has shaped a curriculum grounded in no single tradition but able to relate to all. ...