COMMON QUESTIONS AND MISPERCEPTIONS
Do you have questions or concerns about the University Project at Claremont? Start with these questions and answers:
Updated: June 21, 2010
What is the University Project?
As the Board of Trustees contemplated the next generation of service for the School, they developed a new vision to respond to the pressing need for religion to become a source of peace rather than conflict in the world. In 2008, they adopted a new statement of mission, vision and values. This document deftly connects the future vision of the school with its present mission and historical values.
With the new vision and mission statements, the Trustees established the University Project. This Project launches the process of developing a religiously diverse university representing an educational community drawn from major religions of the world. The University will be separate from the School of Theology, which will retain its affiliation and mission in The United Methodist Church. This will be accomplished over the next several years by creating a number of carefully chosen new schools and centers to join the School of Theology.
Like the School of Theology, some of the Schools will focus on the preparation of religious leaders; we are seeking new partners from other traditions -- for example, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism -- who want to educate their leaders in an interreligious context. And some schools (such as those in Scriptures; Ethics, Politics and Society; Healing Arts and World Spiritualities; Theologies and Cultures in Process) will offer M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in a variety of academic and practical areas.
Around its new reality, the University will forge a new identity consistent with its heritage of inter-religious understanding, focused on ethical integrity, religious intelligence, and inter-cultural understanding. This new identity will feature a distinctive, enriched set of academic programs designed to reach a broader group of prospective students espousing a variety of beliefs who have an interest in inter-religious understanding; a desire to build bridges of understanding, respect, and support among diverse peoples of faith; and a desire to improve society, the environment, and the world. Thus, the new identity will feature a multireligious university championing the positive role of ethics and religion in the education of tomorrow’s leaders, bringing the promise of greater intercultural and inter-religious communication, solving major world problems, and promoting harmony and sustainability in the Global Village.
How can a Christian seminary teach all those different faiths? Will Christian faculty be training Jewish students to be rabbis and Muslim students to be imams?
Claremont School of Theology’s Christian faculty would in no way presume to try to train students to become rabbis or imams.
Rather, Christians, Muslims, and Jews will now have the opportunity to take classes together to learn about each other's religious traditions, to study topics that deal specifically with interfaith issues, and to build bridges through coursework that assists them, our society’s future religious leaders, to act collaboratively in response to the various issues that face our society and world.
Jewish rabbinical, Cantorial and chaplaincy students will continue to receive their degrees from the Academy for Jewish Religion, California, but now they also have the option of taking CST classes—in areas such as psychology, biblical studies, music and spirituality. In the same way CST ministerial students will continue to receive their degrees from CST, but now they also have the option of taking classes from AJR-CA professors.
Once the Center for Advanced Islamic Scholarship (CAIS) begins offering classes in the proposed university, Muslim imam students will share the same arrangement.
In addition to these diverse religious schools, the University Project will include programs in key academic areas including ethics, politics and society. The non-clerical master’s and Ph.D. students who receive their degrees through the University will also have the option of taking some classes in the religious schools in order to broaden their education.
Don’t all three faiths claim exclusivity based on their Scriptures, and won’t that create some logical contradictions?
There are a variety of beliefs regarding exclusivity in each of the traditions, and not all Christians, Jews, and Muslims believe that their way is the only way.*
Some of our students and professors may hold those beliefs and others may not, and there is scholarship in each of our scriptures to support both views. We are not asking anyone to “check their beliefs at the door”; rather, we are simply asking them to show respect, honor, and love to each other in spite of their differences, in order to learn how to work together to solve the world’s problems. This fits in well with each group’s faith traditions of loving ones neighbor and practicing the Golden Rule.
* For example, Imam Jihad Turk, who is helping to establish the Islamic center, is the American-born son of a Muslim father and a United Methodist mother, who was happy to find that Islam allowed him to accept his Christian heritage too, as well as the faith of his Jewish brothers and sisters (he points out that the Qur’an says Muslims should accept Christians, Jews and others who believe in one God and practice righteousness). His parents named him “Jihad” because that word meant a “struggle to do good,” well before the word had come to mean “holy war” in American media. In much of the Muslim world, “a struggle to do good” is still its main connotation, and random violence and terrorism are considered hateful to God and the opposite of “jihad.”
Wouldn’t it be better if you just had a Christian teach Christian students about Islam or Judaism?
Unfortunately learning about “the other” on a second-hand basis often propagates misunderstandings and mistrust. We feel it is better for students to learn about other religions first hand, from actual believers, when possible. That way our future religious leaders will better understand the multireligious landscape in which they will be leading. We want them to be able to see “the other” as neighbor, friend, and co-worker. We want to be able to facilitate love among our different traditions in order that we can begin to solve the big problems.
Aren’t you compromising Christianity by moving in this direction?
On the contrary, our board and faculty—which are overwhelmingly Protestant in composition—have decided to take Christ’s commands to be peacemakers and to love our neighbor as ourselves seriously.
This is not the way we’ve educated Christian leaders in the past.
That is true. As the historians here at Claremont can tell you, the Church has always changed with the times in order to adapt the Gospel message and the practices of Christianity to an ever-changing culture. The church is different today than it was 50 years ago when this theological school moved to Claremont. But reverting to 1950s methods of segregated education will not revive the religiosity of our religious history. Instead, we must develop new ways of educating Christian leaders, for a very different global and migratory environment.
Won’t serious ministerial candidates be scared off by this model, and instead choose a graduate school that focuses only on Christianity?
That has not been our experience so far. Although some of our students have expressed concerns, most are excited and energized by this option. They feel it will better train them in issues of diversity. In fact, young people in general seem to be much more open to this idea than their elders. They are often turned off by a rigid refusal to engage with those who hold different views. We’ve had a larger group of applicants this year than usual because of the University Project.
Will future ministers at CST still receive a quality Christian education?
Yes, they will still take their core courses in the School of Theology, and we do not plan to reduce the requirements for ministerial education. Students will take courses at the other schools in the consortium as a part of their elective units.
Aren’t you watering down Christianity and trying to create some kind of hybrid religion?
Not at all. If you come here as a United Methodist, we believe you will leave here as a much wiser United Methodist, someone who understands his or her neighbors, which in California and much of the world is a multicultural and multireligious mix. Research shows that Christian students who study in multireligious classrooms develop deeper commitments to their own religious tradition and do not readily convert to other religions. They are also more competent to speak and teach about their own religious tradition as a result of interreligious education. We need leaders who understand other cultures and religions and can work with them. There is nothing bad about being willing to reach across boundaries in order to get things done.
Some talk show hosts and bloggers have suggested that the $10 million seed money that Claremont received from its United Methodist board member David Lincoln and his wife Joan, was actually received from “Wahabist Muslim fanatics” who are trying to “flip” the seminary into a Muslim extremist organization. Where did this rumor come from?
We have no idea.
Will there be any classes that the students are required to take together in the project's core curriculum?
Once the new University is established as a separate entity from CST and AJR-CA, that institution will offer a core interreligious curriculum for students who apply to and are accepted into the new University. Claremont and AJR-CA will continue to offer degrees that do not require this core, though students at these institutions may elect to participate in the multireligious core curriculum. However, this core program does not yet exist and still needs to be worked out by the faculties.
Is it true that students from AJR-CA or the future CAIS (Center for Advanced Islamic Scholarship) students will be allowed to enroll in any of CST's classes?
In most cases yes, except for normal academic requirements (such as prerequisites). Also, some specialized classes required for ordination in a particular denomination or tradition (for example, United Methodist History and Polity) would not be available to students who did not share that denomination or religion.
How does cross-enrollment work?
Students register in their home school for the course they sign up for at the host school. The classes, grades, and converted credits will appear on their transcripts along with their home institution's classes, grades, and credits. Credits will be converted for student transcripts, for example 1 trimester hour at AJR-CA equals 2/3 semester hour at CST. (Trimesters are like quarters.)
Students will continue to pay tuition to their home institution. Alums from each school may audit classes from the other institution, with the professor’s permission. Faculty will be able to limit the number of students from other institutions in their classes.
Is tuition paid to Claremont or to the contingent schools?
Tuition is paid to the institution where the student was accepted and has enrolled. There is no money changing hands at the moment. We will monitor the cross registration numbers to see if there is equity. If we find any inequity, that will be addressed.
What classes will each contingent offer in the fall?
While CST offers about 50 of their total courses each semester, and AJR-CA offers about 30 of their 120 total courses each trimester, the deans have crafted a shorter list of those courses at each institution that don’t have prerequisites and that would be easily accessible to students across the traditions.
How many students are projected to enroll in each of the schools?
AJR-CA has about 70 students and CST has about 275 students. We don’t know yet how many will cross-enroll in each other’s classes this fall. CAIS has yet to be established, so it has no students at the moment.
What is the history of Claremont School of Theology?
Claremont School of Theology has been a major presence in theological education since 1885. Operating under the auspices of The United Methodist Church (and its Methodist predecessors), the School has produced generations of leaders including ministers, teachers, scholars, pastoral counselors, and university administrators. The spirit of the School has always been broadly ecumenical and interfaith. Its founder, Robert Maclay, was a Methodist missionary to Southeast Asia and was also instrumental in founding Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, one of Japan’s major universities. Located at the University of Southern California for many years, the School played a significant role in university life in that institution.
When it moved to Claremont in 1957, it continued its open, welcoming spirit and its focus on the broad study of religion in service to the world. Its internationally renowned scholars have pioneered programs in many important areas – including biblical studies, theology, pastoral counseling, and religious education – and have a long history of leading the way in addressing new and important challenges. Recently, the trustees and faculty perceived that it was now time to recast the School’s role in the light of dramatic and urgent needs of the twenty-first century. The faculty, therefore, developed a new academic plan to launch an interreligious graduate university -- distinct from the School of Theology.
Why did the Trustees and faculty decide to establish the University Project?
A central passion provides the guiding impetus for the trustees to move the school in this direction. In what is sometimes referred to as a post-Christian or secular culture, the trustees see a growing need to produce graduates for all walks of life who are capable of providing leadership in today’s increasingly complex environment of many cultures and religious traditions. Further they see an urgent need for leaders who will begin to create active rapport among religions in order to use the power inherent in religions to solve the world’s problems. To accomplish this, they envision a university that imparts to its graduates a combination of ethical integrity, knowledge of their own tradition, substantial understandings of other religious traditions, and the experience of and appreciation for different cultures.
Is the University Project consistent with Claremont’s history, Pan-Methodism, and the Wesleyan heritage?
The new undertaking is firmly rooted in the school’s Wesleyan heritage, in which founder John Wesley borrowed ideas freely from the best thinking of his time, regardless of its denominational source, to create the religious posture now identified as Methodism. When Claremont School of Theology was relocated in 1957 from the University of Southern California to Claremont, it was given the charge to produce an educated clergy and to do so with an ecumenical sensibility. Though the idea of promoting an ecumenical spirit is widely accepted today, 50 years ago it was a controversial idea that stretched our denominational horizons.
Today, over 50 years later, extending the idea of ecumenical (within Christian groups) to a multireligious model (including a variety of religious traditions) stretches us once again. But if tomorrow’s religious and civic leaders cannot be both grounded in their own culture and faith and comfortably conversant with the different cultures and faiths in their communities, they cannot lead in the emerging culturally and religiously mixed world of the twenty-first century.
So from its beginning, this evolving university will welcome and embrace adherents of other religions to its faculty, staff and student body. It will also diversify cultural and religious perspectives embodied in its curriculum. It will do so in order to create new hope for complex communities to live and work in harmony and to provide new opportunities for such communities to take on large-scale problems such as hunger, poverty, disease, conflict and sustainability of the earth.
What impact will the University Project have on the School of Theology?
The University Project will have a decidedly positive impact on Claremont School of Theology. Claremont School of Theology will remain affiliated with The United Methodist Church and continue to educate Christian leaders for service to the church, academy and the world. As such, it will strengthen its curriculum in key areas to address the opportunities and challenges confronting the church and church leaders in today’s complex world. Areas to be strengthened include Liturgics and Homiletics, Religious Leadership and Church Life, Religions and Education, and Religions and Arts. It will also maintain and strengthen its relationship with other religious groups including the Disciples Seminary Foundation, the Episcopal Theological Seminary at Claremont / Bloy House, the Center for Lutheran Studies at Claremont, and others.
As it strengthens its curriculum and relationships, CST will serve even better the needs of its students. Like The United Methodist Church with which it is associated, CST will continue to welcome and educate both evangelical and progressive Christians. Many of its students will have experienced a call to ordained ministry and come to CST to acquire the skills they need to serve as parish pastors. Still others will be preparing for religious vocations both within and beyond the parish context in areas such as religious education, spiritual counseling and spiritual direction, urban ministries, and cross-cultural ministries. Others will train, as they do today, for the full range of non-ordained service in the church. A final group will attend CST as an important step on the way to doctoral studies. All such students will continue to be welcomed at the School of Theology.
The School of Theology, therefore, will continue to be a unique place for the study of theology and the training for ministry, offering an education in scriptural studies and traditional Protestant theology second to none. At the same time, each student will be encouraged to bring these resources to bear on the burning problems facing the church and the world today. Because the larger university setting will welcome into its midst the presence of Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist students, as well as those who consider themselves as seekers, each CST student will also be trained for ministry in the multicultural and multireligious context of today's world.
What is the Institute of Life-Long Learning?
A new Leadership Center, co-sponsored with the California-Pacific Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church, will launch a new intensive emphasis on continuing education to provide relevant educational opportunities for mid-career pastors and other interested lay people. The Leadership Center will be part of an Institute of Life-Long Learning, which will offer continuing education from the various schools of the new university. Programs within the Institute of Life-Long Learning will also include offerings for people of religious traditions beyond Christianity. The new university will begin to adopt the latest educational technologies so that its world-class courses will be available to interested parties regardless of their location.
How long will the University Project take?
It is anticipated that the University Project will take up to ten years to achieve the full parameters envisioned by the Trustees and faculty. However, concrete steps are being taken and partnerships are being established so that new programs and course offerings will be available as early as Fall 2010. (Check back often for updates and new developments!)
How can I help support the Claremont University Project?
The success of the University Project depends in part on the support of those beyond the immediate community of faculty, staff and students. You can help support the Project in a number of ways.
- Become fully informed on the Project with correct and current data enabling you to converse with church members, colleagues and others in a positive way that ensures continuation of momentum.
- Follow the School online by following the “President’s Pen blog,” becoming a “fan” on Facebook, and signing up to receive our monthly e-newsletter, the “Claremont Connection.”
- Consider hosting events with people you know who might be interested in the Project and future expansion of the School. The School can help arrange such meetings in your places of worship, community spaces, or private homes.
- Visit with CST administrators to assist in identification of others who may be interested in providing support for the project.
- Encourage prospective students considering religious vocations or graduate education to establish a relationship with Claremont to make this their school of choice.
- Consider making a gift to The Claremont Fund (formerly the Annual fund), which supports the day-to-day operation of the School.
- Consider endowing a scholar ship fund. Scholarship Funds will become increasingly important to ensure affordability for students seeking enrollment. Our focus will be to endow a significant share of scholarships to guarantee their availability in perpetuity. We are seeking major scholarships that will be full tuition or full cost. Currently the annual full tuition scholarship is approximately $20,000. The annual full cost scholarship is $40,000.
- Keep in touch! Let us know what you are thinking. How can we help you?
For more information or to convey your message to the administration, email publicrelations@cst.edu.
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