Levellers

This page will continually be updated as I have time and can find websites. 

I. North America

    A. Canada

        1. Baptist Seminaries in Canada

Acadia Divinity College of Acadia University.  Located in Wolfville, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Closely connected to the Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches.

Carey Theological College (Affiliated with the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, the college also has a partnership with Regent College, a non-denominational evangelical seminary also at the University.  Carey Theological College is the seminary of the Baptist Union of Western Canada.)

McMaster Divinity College (Affiliated with McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. This is the seminary of the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec.  In recent years McMaster has emphasized more its evangelical identity than its Baptist identity. )

Taylor University College and Seminary in Edmonton, Alberta. This is the college and seminary of the Canadian portion of the North American Baptist Conference.

    2. Mennonite Seminaries in Canada

Conrad Grebel University College, on the campus of the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, offers the Masters of Theological Studies degree. It is in cooperation with a number of partner schools, especially the ecumenical Toronto School of Theology of the University of Toronto.

The Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre, an inter-Mennonite effort, is a fully integrated part of the Toronto School of Theology.

The Winnipeg Centre for Ministry Studies is also an inter-Mennonite cooperative venture on the campus of the University of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

      B. United States

           1. Baptist seminaries (Note: I will not list the six seminaries of the Southern Baptist Convention  since I believe these schools to have very little to recommend them since they were taken over by SBC fundamentalists. The SBC has withdrawn from the Baptist World Alliance and the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty. Since they want to “go it alone,” they don’t need any advertising help from others. Plenty of search engines will find those schools for you. I won’t do it.)  There are also “Baptist Studies” programs at ecumenical seminaries related primarily to other denominations, including Duke University Divinity School (United Methodist), Candler School of Theology at Emory University (United Methodist), Brite Divinity School of Texas Christian University (Disciples of Christ). Similar programs have been proposed at the University of Chicago Divinity School (once a Baptist school), Harvard Divinity School, and Yale Divinity School, but, so far, nothing has come of these latter conversations.

American Baptist Seminary of the West, Berkely, CA ABSW is also part of a 9-seminary ecumenical consortium known as the Graduate Theological Union of Berkeley which offers the Th.D. in its own power and the Ph.D. through the University of California at Berkeley.  This is one of the most racially/ethnically diverse seminaries anywhere. ABSW was formed as a merger of Berkeley Baptist Divinity School and California Baptist Theological Seminary.

Andover Newton Theological School, Newton Centre, MA. This is the merger of the two oldest graduate theological seminaries in the U.S.  Andover Theological Seminary was founded by Congregationalists in 1807 when Harvard University “went Unitarian.” Shortly thereafter, Baptists founded the Newton Theological Institute nearby. The two schools cooperated for decades before becoming one institution, related officially to the United Church of Christ (successor denomination to the Congregationalists) and the American Baptist Churches, USA, but with a still-more-ecumenically-diverse faculty and student body. ANTS also participates in the Boston Theological Institute, a consortium of seminaries in the Boston area.

Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, Richmond, VA.  Founded in 1989 by the Alliance of Baptists, BTSR is closely related to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. It was founded to be a mainstream Baptist seminary as an alternative to the increasingly fundamentalist outlook of the Southern Baptist seminaries. BTSR shares a campus with Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education and is part of both the Richmond Theological Consortium and the Washington [D.C.] Theological Consortium of seminaries.

Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, Lexington, KY.  Related to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Alliance of Baptists, BSK was founded as an alternative to the fundamentalist seminaries of the Southern Baptist Convention.  BSK shares the campus of Lexington Theological Seminary, a Disciples of Christ institution, and both seminaries have joint programs with the University of Kentucky in Lexington. I expect that, eventually, BSK will offer a Ph.D. in religious studies through the University of Kentucky.  There is already early talk of a joint theology/law program in conjunction with UK’s law school.

Bethel Theological Seminary with campuses in St. Paul, MN, San Diego, CA, and Philadelphia, PA, is the seminary of the Baptist General Conference, an evangelical denomination strongest in the Mid-West which began as an ethnic denomination composed of Swedish Baptist immigrants to the U.S.

Campbell University Divinity School, Buis Creek, NC. Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina founded and support this seminary which grew out of Campbell University’s religion department between 1992 and 1995.

Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Shawnee, KS. Founded by American Baptists in 1901, CBTS originally served (and was supported by) both American Baptists and Southern Baptists. When Southern Baptists withdrew support and built their own school less than 20 miles away, it left CBTS struggling for funds–as it has been ever since. Today, CBTS is strongly connected not only to American Baptists, but to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Progressive National Baptists.  It has a student exchange program with Spurgeon’s College outside London, U.K. and participates with a pooling of area schools to offer a Ph.D. in religious studies through the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Chapman Seminary of Oakland City University, Oakland City, IN is the official seminary of the General Association of General Baptists.  Since Free Will Baptists have no graduate seminary (just a Bible College), this is the only seminary for specifically Arminian Baptists in the U.S.

Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, Rochester, NY is the merger of several different Baptist seminaries.  Colgate University in Hamilton, NY (once a Baptist institution) founded a seminary in 1817, originally called Hamilton Theological and Literary Institution.  In 1850, it founded an extension in urban Rochester which quickly became Rochester Theological Seminary.  The two schools merged in 1928.  In 1961, the Baptist Missionary Training School (a women’s institution) merged with the seminary.  Crozer Theological Seminary, the alma mater of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was founded by Baptists in Chester, PA in 1867. In 1970, it moved to Rochester and became the last of the institutions “on the Hill.”  All of these components bring a rich heritage to CRDS with faculty and alumni both reading like “who was who” in Baptist history.

Denver Seminary, Littleton, CO. An evangelical seminary formerly connected to the Conservative Baptist Association of America, which split from American Baptists in the 1940s. Denver is now a generically conservative evangelical seminary whose faculty are mostly Baptists of one form or another.

John Leland Center for Theological Studies, Arlington, VA. Named after a famous 18th C. Virginian Baptist leader, the John Leland Center was founded in 1997 (and fully accredited as of 2006). It is closely related to the Baptist General Association of Virginia and more loosely related to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Logsdon School of Theology, Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, TX.  Includes an undergraduate and seminary program. LST was founded by the Baptist General Association of Texas as an alternative to the fundamentalism of Southern Baptist seminaries.

McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University, Atlanta, GA.  In partnership with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Mercer University founded McAfee School of Theology in 1994, adding it to the university’s other professional graduate schools: medicine, law, pharmacy, business and economics, engineering, education, and nursing. (There is also, of course, an undergraduate college of liberal arts.) Offers the M.Div. and D.Min. degrees. There is talk of a joint Ph.D. program with Emory University in Atlanta.

Sioux Falls Seminary, Sioux Falls, SD.  This is the U.S. seminary of the North American Baptist Conference, which began as an ethnic-German immigrant denomination in both the U.S. and Canada. It grew out of the “German Department” of Rochester Theological Seminary in the early 20th C.

Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Lombard, IL.  Related closely to the American Baptist Churches, USA. Founded in 1913 as a “protest school,” a contrast to the increasingly liberal University of Chicago Divinity School (then a Baptist institution). Over the years NBTS has become representative of the broad center of evangelical Baptist thought in the U.S., although recently it has, again, moved in a more conservative direction.

Palmer Theological Seminary, Wynnewood, PA. Formerly known as Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Palmer is the graduate seminary of Eastern Baptist University in Philadelphia, PA.  Related closely to the American Baptist Churches, USA, Palmer (EBTS)  was founded in 1925 as a conservative alternative to perceived liberalism at Crozer Theological Seminary in nearby Chester, PA. (Crozer is now part of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity school listed above.) It’s identity has consistently been evangelical, but not hard-line, separating fundamentalist.

Proctor School of Theology, Virginia Union University, Richmond, VA. Recently renamed after the late Samuel DeWitt Proctor, an amazing African-American Baptist theologian and educator. Virginia Union University is a historic African-American institution founded by American Baptists for freed slaves. It’s School of Theology was founded during an era when it was difficult or impossible for African Americans to attend integrated seminaries–and such did not exist in the South. Today, the faculty and students are from many different racial/ethnic groups. Proctor participates in the Richmond Theological Consortium.

Shaw University Divinity School, Raleigh, NC.  Shaw University was founded by American Baptist missionaries for freed slaves in 1865.  The divinity school was founded in 1900.  It is closely related today to the Baptist General State Convention of North Carolina and more loosely associated with American Baptists, National Baptists, and Progressive National Baptists.

Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University, Waco, TX.  Baylor University was founded by Texas Baptists in 1845. It’s religion department soon sprouted a theological seminary, which eventually separated to become a certain Southern Baptist seminary in Fort Worth. With the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC in the 1980s and 1990s, Baylor trustees decided to birth another seminary, this time named for George W. Truett, a major Texas Baptist pastor in the early 20th C. who fought against fundamentalism. Truett Seminary was founed in 1992-1994. It is closely related to the Baptist General Association of Texas and to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Wake Forest University Divinity School, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC. Initiated in 1989 and opening in 1999.  Wake Forest University Divinity School is an independent, university-based, ecumenical seminary in the Baptist tradition. Loosely related to the Alliance of Baptists and the Baptist World Alliance, but with an ecumenical faculty and student body.

Washington Baptist University and Seminary, Annandale, VA founded in 1982 by American Baptists to provide major theological education for Korean Baptists, both in North America (where they often face language problems in other seminaries) and in South Korea.

Western (Conservative Baptist) Seminary, Portland, OR.  This is the only remaining seminary of the Conservative Baptist Association of America which split from American Baptists in the 1940s.

White School of Divinity, Gardner-Webb University, Boiling Springs, NC. Founded in 1992 and closely connected to the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and more loosely to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

        2. Brethren Seminaries

Ashland Theological Seminary, Ashland, OH.  Founded and run by the Brethren Church (Ashland, OH).

Bethany Theological Seminary, Richmond, IN.  Founded in 1905, this is the official seminary of the Church of the Brethren.

         3.  Mennonite Seminaries

Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, IN.  Originally 2 seminaries:  Mennonite Biblical Seminary (of the General Conference Mennonite Church) and Goshen Biblical Seminary (of the Mennonite Church), the two began to share resources in 1954 and the same campus in 1958 (when they became the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries–plural).  Ross T. Bender became president of both seminaries in 1964.  The two institutions, which had been sharing faculty and resources for decades, formally became one institution in 1994.  During the ’90s, the two denominations also merged to become the Mennonite Church, USA.  This is an excellent school with a distinguished faculty.

Eastern Mennonite Seminary, of Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, VA.  This is the other official seminary of the Mennonite Church, USA, attached to the largest Mennonite University in the world, with a renowned program in peace studies.

Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary, Fresno, CA.  The official seminary of the Mennonite Brethren Church, an Anabaptist denomination with some Pietist and Revivalist influences.  There is also a campus in Winnipeg, Manitoba serving Mennonite Brethren in Canada.

Seminario Biblico Anabautista, Dallas, TX.  This is a Spanish-language extension of AMBS for Latino Mennonites and other Anabaptists.

 II. Latin America (including Mexico, Central America, and South America). Baptists are plentiful throughout Latin America and have established theological seminaries in many nations, including numerous ones in Brazil. Anabaptists such as Mennonites, Mennonite Brethren, and the Church of the Brethren, are much smaller in number and usually much poorer economically. They consequently have only a scattering of theological seminaries–the major one is in Guatemala.

  A. Mennonite

Latin American Anabaptist Theological Seminary, Guatemala City, Guatemala. Serves all of Latin America, especially Central America.

Centro Evangelico Menonita de Teologica Asuncion (CEMTA), Asuncion, Paraguay.  An inter-Mennonite effort founded in 1956 in Montevideo, Uruguay which moved to Asuncion in 1974. I have not yet found a website for this institution. It does MUCH theological education by extension.

Institutio e Seminario Biblico dos Irmaos Menonitas (ISBM), Curitiba, Brazil. Serves Mennonite Brethren in Brazil primarily in Portuguese. There is an extension arrangement with the Latin American Anabaptist Theological Seminary in Guatemala.

B. Baptist–Finding current information on the web has proved difficult, but I will persevere. There used to be a listing of all Baptist theological education around the world on the website of the Baptist World Alliance, but, for some reason, it is no longer there.

International Baptist Theological Seminary, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

International Baptist Theological Seminary, Cali, Columbia (founded 1953).

Baptist Theological Seminary of Eastern Bolivia, Santa Cruz.

The largest number of Baptists in Latin America are in Brazil. A seminary was established in 1902 in Recife for North Brazil and in 1908 in Rio de Janeiro for South Brazil. Other seminaries have been added in Brazil since. Since I do not speak Portuguese, I am having difficulty tracking down these institutions.

Chilean Baptist Theological Seminary at Santiago, Chile, founded in 1939.

There is a Baptist-related theological institute in Quito, Ecuador.

A Baptist-related seminary was founded in Los Teques, Venezuela in 1970 and it does much theological education by extension.

Baptist Theological Institute of Costa Rica, San Jose, founded in 1950.

Baptist Theological Seminary of Mexico, Mexico City. Founded by Southern Baptists, it became wholly controlled by Mexican Baptists in 1977.

Baptist Theological Seminary of Nicaragua, Managua. Originally founded in El Salvador, it moved to Nicaragua in 1941.

III. Europe:  Both Anabaptists-Mennonites and Baptists originated in Radical Reformations in Europe, Anabaptists in the 16th C. and Baptists nearly a century later–growing primarily from Puritan-Separatist roots in Britain, but in contact/dialogue with Dutch Mennonites. (The General Baptists originated in 1609-11 in contact with Waterlander Mennonites in Amsterdam. The Particular or Calvinistic Baptists, eventually to become the major Baptist stream, originated in 1638-1642 in contact with Collegiant Mennonites in Leiden, also in the Netherlands. Menno Simons’ Foundation of Christian Doctrine influenced the distinctively-baptist sections of the First London Confession (1644) and the Second London Confession (1689), which were primarily Calvinist confessions modeled on the True Confession of Congregationalists and the Westminster Confession of Presbyterians respectively.) But violent persecution and then less-severe discrimination kept both Mennonites and Baptists from attending the great European universities until late in the 19th C. and they often struggled to fund their own educational institutions.  Now, many of these theological colleges and seminaries, especially in the U.K., are connected to universities.  The general pattern of theological education is different than in the U.S., where an undergraduate degree is expected prior to attending seminary. In Europe, one often (usually) attends a church-related theological seminary or college if one is seeking ordination and ministry and may or may not also pursue a university-related baccalaureate.  Advanced theological degrees usually require a university B.A. as a pre-requisite and are almost always granted by universities–which may or may not have connections with denominational schools. Because the approach to higher education in Europe usually requires far more self-direction on the part of students than in the U.S., it is usually possible for ministerial students to read for a university-related baccalaureate degree while simultaneously studying in a nearby theological college for ministerial certification and ordination.  Thus, in Europe (and in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and, to a slightly lesser extent, in Canada), the terms “Bible College,” “theological college,” and “seminary” can be used almost interchangeably and “Bible College” does not have the anti-intellectual overtones that it often does in the U.S.–where Bible colleges were founded by conservatives who were afraid of the secularizing ideas of universities and of the perceived liberal theologies of many seminaries.

        A. Mennonites –Although many of the first generation of Anabaptists in the 1500s were humanist scholars or theologians (many were academically trained Catholic priests prior to conversion), both conviction and persecution soon turned the movement into an almost exclusively lay-centered movement.  The intensity of persecution has meant that most Mennonites and Brethren in Europe have had lay pastors or were supplied from North America. Only a very few managed to study in the universities of Europe as mutual suspicion between Anabaptists and both Protestant and Catholic faculties continued well into the 20th C. The major exception to this was in the Netherlands. Initially persecuted there, too, by the 17th C. Dutch religious toleration was sufficient that Dutch Mennonites (known as Doopsgezinde or “baptism-minded ones”) established a seminary or “Kweekschool” in the 1750s. In 1811, Dutch Mennonites formed a denomination, Algemene Doopsgezinde Societat in order to support the seminary. 

Ausbildungs- und Tagungszentrum Bienenberg (ATB), Liestal, Switzerland.  Founded in 1950 as the European Mennonite Bible School in Basel by the Mennonite churches of France, Switzerland, and Germany and supported by the Mennonite Central Committee in the U.S. and Canada.  Bought the Leistal location in 1957 and has grown steadily, having now about 100 students every year. It is now both an academic theological seminary and a retreat and conference center. Courses are offered in both German and French. Strong emphasis on peace studies is placed throughout the theological curricula and ATB is part of the Church and Peace network in Europe.  Graduate programs are validated by the University of Wales and there is a strong partnership with the Oxford Centre of Mission Studies.  French language courses are in cooperation with the Faculte de Theologie Evangelique de Vaux-sur-Seine (Paris).   Both as part of the formal seminary programs and as part of the retreat center programs, “Anabaptist tours” are regularly organized to key sites in Basel, Jura, Emmental, Zurich, and Alsace.

Doopsgezind Seminarium, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.  Since 2003, the seminary has been associated with the strongly-Reformed theological department of the Free University of Amsterdam (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam).

        B. Baptists–As of 2005, the European Baptist Federation listed 25 member schools (and 2 associate members) in the Consortium of European Baptist Theological Schools (CEBTS). I list them below in alphabetical order.

Arab Baptist Theological Seminary, Beirut, Lebanon, founded in 1960. The Middle East is not part of Europe, but European Baptists have been the strongest partners of Baptists in the Middle East. ABTS gained fame (or, at least, notoriety) in the summer of 2006 during Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon because the seminary was caught in the middle and became a refuge for victims of the war. Also, Dr. Martin Accad, a professor of ABTS, had been lecturing in the U.S. at the outbreak of the war and was unable to return–and used his time “stuck” in the U.S. to write numerous articles complaining of the uncritical support for Israel on the part of so many U.S. Christians! Hopefully, Dr. Accad’s writing opened some eyes to the complex and tangled history of the Middle East that is too easily ignored by U.S. Christians in the grip of the heresy known as “Christian Zionism.”  ABTS contains an Institute of Middle East Studies that is highly acclaimed.  Pastors and professors should consider this an ideal place for sabbatical studies.

Baptista Teologiai Academia, Budapest, Hungary.

Baptist Theological College, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania. (Associate member of CEBTS).

Bristol Baptist College, Bristol, England.  Founded in 1679, this is the oldest Baptist-related institution of higher education in the world, growing out of a fund for ministerial education set up by the famous Broadmead Baptist Congregation.  Today, it is a member of the Bristol Federation for Theological Education (together with Trinity College [evangelical Anglican] and Wesley College [Methodist]) and a member college of the University of Bristol. It sponsors the Thomas Helwys Centre for the Study of Religious Freedom.

Bucharest Baptist Theological Seminary, Bucharest, Romania.

Hungarian Baptist Theological Seminary in Romana, Cluj.

International Baptist Theological Seminary, Prague, Czech Republic.  Originally-founded in Ruschlikon, Switzerland following WWII when most European Baptist unions/conventions had been impoverished by the war. It was founded and funded by Southern Baptists (with smaller financial support from American Baptists, Canadian Baptists, and British Baptists) for European Baptists.  At Ruschlikon, near Zurich, the seminary enjoyed an excellent academic reputation and many of its students and faculty pursued advanced degrees through the University of Zurich.  In 1989, as part of the takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention by fundamentalists, the SBC withdrew all funding from the school since it could not force fundamentalist indoctrination on the school. The European Baptist Federation took over the school. Both for financial reasons (the property in Zurich had become extremely expensive to maintain) and to be more centrally located for European Baptists in a post-Berlin Wall world, the school was moved to Prague in 1994.  With an international faculty, IBTS offers various various Masters degrees and Doctoral degrees certified by the University of Wales. Most courses are in English.  IBTS has also begun to develop a relationship with the theological faculty of the nearby Charles University in Prague, the oldest university in Europe.

Minsk Theological Seminary, Minsk, Belarus.

Moscow Baptist Seminary, Moscow, Russia (founded after the fall of the USSR, it also sponsors much theological education by extension).

Northern Baptist College, Manchester, England.  This is an amalgamation of Rawdon Baptist College (founded in 1859 in West Yorkshire, growing out of Horton Academy, founded in 1809) and Manchester College (founded in 1866 as one of the founding colleges of the theological faculty of Manchester University), which merged to become Northern in 1963. Now, it is part of the ecumenical Partnership for Theological Education, Manchester, a consortium of theological colleges. Northern’s emphasis today is in contextual and applied theology. In addition to ministerial certification, Northern offers through the Partnership both a B.A. and an M.A. in Contextual Theology and, through the University of Manchester, a Ph.D. in Applied Theology.

Odessa Theological Seminary, Odessa, Ukraine.

Orebro Theological Seminary, Orebro, Sweden.

Regent’s Park College, Oxford University, Oxford, England. (Associate member of CEBTS).  Founded in 1810 as the Baptist Academical Institution at Stepney (a suburb of London), but growing out of efforts of the London Baptist Education Society since 1752.  In 1841, it established an affiliation with London University and as a charter member of University College. 1856, moved to Regent’s Park in London. In 1927, moved to Oxfordshire and began a strong affiliation with Britain’s oldest university (and one of the oldest universities in Europe). In 1957 Regent’s Park College became a Permanent Private Hall of Oxford University. Today Regent’s Park is both a residential college for those pursuing undergraduate degrees at the university and a ministerial college for Baptists and others. All faculty are Baptists and members of the university theological faculty. The College hosts a Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture and a Centre for Baptist History and Heritage.  It also hosts the Angus Library with over 70,000 printed materials and primary sources related to Baptist history.

Scottish Baptist College, Paisley, Scotland.  Founded in Glasgow in 1894. Beginning in the 1950s, many students began earning B.D.s at the University of London through extension.  In the 1990s, the College finally was able to offer its own B.D., validated by the University of Paisley.  This reflects not only a maturing of Scottish Baptist life, long beset by internal conflicts and schisms, but a strengthened collaborative relationship with Paisley University.

Seminario Teologico Bautista Espanol, Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain. 

South Wales Baptist College, Cardiff, Cymru. Founded in 1807 and jointly run by the Baptist Union of Wales and the Baptist Union of Great Britain. It has a very strong collaborative relationship with the University of Wales, Cardiff, and several of the College faculty are also theological faculty at the University.  The College has a student exchange program with both McAfee School of Theology (Atlanta, GA) and Campbell University Divinity School (Buis Creek, NC) in the U.S.

Spurgeon’s College, London, England.  Begun as “The Pastor’s College” (and later, “The Pastors’ College”) in 1856 by the remarkable 19th C. British Baptist pastor-theologian, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, when he was only 22 years old.  Spurgeon himself was self-educated, but well-educated, having taught himself several ancient and modern languages and reading widely in the Church Fathers, the Reformers, and English Puritanism.  Out of the “Downgrade Controversy,” between theological conservatives and liberals in the Baptist Union, Spurgeon left the Union and took the college separate, too. Spurgeon gave the school a separatist fundamentalist stamp. But, in 1939, the College reaffiliated with the Baptist Union of Great Britain, though remaining decidedly conservative and evangelical.  When N.T. scholar (and Spurgeon’s alumnus) George R. Beasley-Murray (1916-2000) became Principal, he moved the college firmly into the British Baptist mainstream, but continuing an evangelical ethos.  Now, the largest theological college of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Spurgeon’s offers a B.D., several M.Th. degrees (Applied Theology, Biblical Studies, Christian Doctrine, Preaching, and Radical Free Church Movements), D.Min, M.Phil., & Ph.D. degrees, validated by the University of Wales, Lampeter.  There are also a long-term collaborative relationships with the University of London and the London School of Theology (formerly London Bible College), an evangelical, interdenominational seminary founded during WWII.

Stockholm School of Theology, Stockholm, Sweden.

Tartu Baptist Seminary, Tartu, Estonia.

The Baptist Theological Institute, Sofia, Bulgaria.

The Baptist Theological Seminary, Bosch en Duin, Netherlands.

The Baptist Theological Seminary, Radosc, Warsaw, Poland.

The Baptist Theological Seminary, Stabekk, Oslo, Norway. Skaninavisk Akademi for Ledelse og Teologi [SALT].

The Bible Institute of the Baptist Church in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Sarajevo, Bosnia.

The Non-Residential Bible School of the Baptist Union of Lithuania.  In 2005, the Lithuanian Baptists formalized a relationship between their Bible School and the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague.

Theological Seminary of Armenia, Ashtarak, Armenia.  Baptists, along with other Free Church believers, have endured many hardships and much persecution in Armenia.  They were only permitted to raise funds for a theological seminary after the fall of Communism and did not graduate its first theological students until 2001. The seminary broke ground on its own facilities in 2000.

Theologisches Seminar des Bundes Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden in Deutschland, Estal, Germany.  After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the seminary in Buckow and the one in Hamburg, each ministering to a formerly divided Germany, merged in new quaters in Estal.  German Baptists have merged with the Brethren churches and are officially called the Evangelical Free Churches of Germany, but they remain part of the Baptist World Alliance and the European Baptist Federation.

Other theological institutions with Baptist connections include:

 Irish Baptist College, Moira, Northern Ireland.  Official seminary of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland.  Offers certificates, diplomas, B.D., B.Th., M.Th., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees (validated by Queen’s University, Belfast) and an M.A. in Applied Theology (validated by the University of Wales, Lampeter).

Matija Vlačić Ilirik Theological Seminary, Zagreb, Croatia.  Founded by the Croatian Lutheran Church and the Baptist Union of Croatia in 1976 to promote the heritage of the Protestant Reformation. The seminary is named after Croatia’s most famous Protestant theologian and prepares ordinands for ministry as well as educating laity in Reformation theology.  Special emphases include ecumenism, human rights, and peacemaking.

Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia. Founded in 1993 after the fall of Communism.  Currently has 9 faculty members and 40 students and runs two undergraduate colleges, one in Tbilisi and one in Kutaisi. 

  C.  Waldensians –Founded in the 1170s by Pietro Valdes, the Waldensians are the oldest Protestant denomination in the world, pre-dating Luther and Calvin by centuries, but identifying quickly with the Reformers and sharing the Anabaptist emphasis on peacemaking.  Although found in small groups throughout the world, persecution has kept their numbers strong, even in Italy where they were founded.  They united with the Methodists in Italy in the 1950s and operate one seminary, Facolta’ Valdese di Teologica, Rome, Italy which is recognized by the Italian government for university and graduate/post-graduate theological education.  Because all Protestants in Italy are such a small minority, others like Italian Baptists and Italian Mennonites usually attend the FVT.   These Free Church folk are currently renewing the struggle in Italy for the disestablishment of Roman Catholicism as a state church, so that church-state separation and religious liberty will be enjoyed by all Italians.  They led Italians to abolish the death penalty BEFORE the Vatican decided that was a good idea and have pushed Italy to take strong steps to lead for world peace–although recent conservative governments have pushed Italy to align more with the war policies of U.S. president G.W. Bush.

III. Asia

     A. Mennonites

Japan Mennonite Brethren Evangelical Biblical Seminary, Ikeda City, Osaka, Japan.

     B. Baptists

Asia Baptist Graduate Theological Seminary–a consortium of Asian Baptist seminaries who work together to further theological education in the region.  The current president, Dr. Lillian Lim of Singapore, is the first woman president (and a friend of mine). The following institutions compose ABGTS:

Baptist Theological Seminary of Indonesia, Semarang, Indonesia.

Baptist Theological Seminary of Singapore.

Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary, New Territories, Hong Kong.

Japan Baptist Theological Seminary, Yokohama, Japan.

Korea Baptist Theological University/Seminary, Daejong, South Korea.

Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary, Baguio City, Philippines.

Seinan Gakuin University, Department of Theology, Fukuoka, Japan.

Taiwan Baptist Theological Seminary, Tapei, Taiwan.

Thailand Baptist Theological Seminary, Bangkok, Thailand.

_______

       A.1 Australia–As with Canada, the Baptist Union of Australia is a federation of state unions, each semi-autonomous and each with its own theological college. Education is much like the British pattern, but with a rockier history because of the peculiar history (secular and mission history) of Australia. Because some of the early British colonization was with released prisoners, secularization became rapid and strong in Australia–and, yet the Anglican Church has a semi-establishment status.  Baptists arrived in Australia in the 19th C. and became quickly involved in the controversies back in Britain, including the Downgrade controversy. So Australian Baptists have both craved and been suspicious of an educated ministry and this has spilled over into their treatment of the theological colleges. 

Baptist Theological College of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia.  Founded in 1963 as the seminary of the Baptist Union of Western Australia. 

Burleigh College, Unley, South Australia. The theological college of South Australia, founded in 1952. Prepares for ordination, but offers major degrees through the consortium known as the Australia College of Theology (ACT).

Malyon College: The Queensland Baptist College of Ministires, Gaythorne, Queensland, AU.  Founded in 1904.

Morling College, Eastwood, New South Wales, AU.  Theological College of the Baptist Churches of New South Wales & Australian Capital Territory.   Contains a Center for Christian Ethics and a Center for Evangelism and Global Mission.  Runs Morling Press.  Established in 1916 as the Baptist Theological College of New South Wales.

Whitley College, Melbourne, Victoria, AU.  Whitley College is both a residential college of the University of Melbourne and the Baptist Theological College of Victoria.  As the latter, it is a recognized teaching institution of the Melbourne College of Divinity, a consortium of denominational theological colleges which function as part of the University of Melbourne.  Founded in 1891, Whitley is the oldest and most prestigious of the Australian Baptist theological colleges.

A.2. New Zealand

Carey Baptist College, Auckland, NZ is the sole theological college of the Baptist Churches of New Zealand (formerly known as the Baptist Union of New Zealand).   Within the College is a School of Applied Theology and Mission for those planning to go directly into ministry and not planning further education and the R.J. Thompson School of Theological Studies, where students can work for graduate and post-graduate degrees.  The Thompson Centre is part of the Tyndale-Carey Graduate School and a part of the Auckland School of Theology.