RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Theological Seminaries
Through two fellowships the seminary offers to the best student in each class the opportunity of two years of graduate study under the direction of the faculty in this country or abroad. In addition, the seminary offers the degree of D.D. to advanced students.
From the first the students have been active workers in the churches, Sunday-schools, and other religious and philanthropic institutions of the city and its vicinity. The supervision of these activities has recently been entrusted to the Department of Christian Work, through which students are assigned to different fields and counseled as to the best methods of dealing with the problems they present. In this connection attention may be called to the Union Settlement in East 104th Street, founded in 1895 by a group of Union Seminary alumni. While not officially connected with the seminary, the settlement is an expression of its social spirit. The seminary's director of Christian work is at the same time head worker of the settlement, and many of the students are engaged in its activities. The practical interest of the seminary appears further in its provision for university extension. The Department of Religious Education, recently organized under the leadership of Professor Coe, offers especial facilities for the training of lay workers. The foundation lectureships of the seminary are open to the general public, and many of the courses deal with topics of popular religious interest. A Sunday service is maintained in the chapel for the residents of the neighborhood, and the Union School of Religion provides a model Sunday-school for their children. In addition, attention should be called to the various conferences organized by the seminary from time to time, such as the Conference on an Efficient Ministry, held in 1908 for the pastors of the neighboring churches; the Conference on the Training for the Ministry, conducted by the students of the seminary in cooperation with the students of Hartford and Yale seminaries; and the Quiet Day for social workers. Specially noticeable has been the strong missionary interest among the students. From the first a large number of its graduates have found their way to the foreign field, and the number of foreign missionaries now on the seminary roll amounts to 251. This missionary interest was greatly stimulated by the two visits of the late President Charles Cuthbert Hall to the East as Barrows Lecturer. Provision has recently been made by a friend of the seminary for a similar lectureship, to be filled in 1911-12 by Prof. George William Knox (q.v.). William Adams Brown.
Bibliography: G. L. Prentiss, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York: Historical and Biographical Sketches of its First Fifty Years, New York, 1889; idem. Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York: Its Design and another Decade of its History, Asbury Park, N. J., 1899; General Catalogue of the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (four editions; 1876, compiled by E. F. Hatfield, 1886, 1898, 1908, compiled by G. R. Gillett); The Seminary: Its Spirit and Aims (addresses by Dr. Thomas C. Hall, Dr. Francis Brown, Rev. Henry Sloane Coffin, President Charles Cuthbert Hall), New York, 1907.
11. Western: This seminary was founded at Allegheny (now part of Pittsburg), Pa., in 1827, after the General Assembly had determined in 1825,
when the need for such an institution for the West had been felt for several years, to establish a training-school for Presbyterian ministers. The first instructors were Rev. Joseph Stockton and Rev, Elisha P. Swift, and among the distinguished members of its faculty have been Luther Halsey, John W. Nevin (q.v.), Alexander T. McGill, Melanchthon W Jacobus (q.v.), William S. Plumer (q.v.), William M. Paxton, A. A. Hodge (q.v.), S. J. Wilson, S. H. Kellogg, B. B. Warfield (q.v.), David Gregg (q.v.), and M. B. Riddle (q.v.). The spirit and policy of the seminary are admirably expressed in the fundamental principle which was incorporated by its founders in the " plan " : " That learning without religion in ministers of the Gospel will prove injurious to the Church, and religion without learning will leave the ministry exposed to the impositions of designing men, and insufficient in a high degree for the great purposes of the Gospel ministry." In accordance with this, a combination of learning and piety, of erudition and earnestness, of intellectual discipline and practical efficiency, is the standard which has been set up, while the institution has always been distinguished for its strong missionary spirit. While the seminary is a Presbyterian institution, it is not sectarian; students of all denominations are cordially welcomed and are entitled to scholarship aid; and representatives from bodies other than the Presbyterian Church are always found among the students. Recently the curriculum was thoroughly revised to meet modern demands, by the introduction of the elective system and by laying greater emphasis on sociological studies. The regular course extends over three years, a fourth year of study entitling a student to the degree of B.D. In 1902 a special department was organized for the training of ministers for the immigrant peoples among whom the Presbyterian Church labors, and extension courses of lectures are conducted by the faculty in the churches of Pittsburg and vicinity.
The total number of matriculants is 2,126, of whom 117 have been foreign missionaries, and the average number of students for the last five years has been eighty, the enrolment for 1911 being seventy-nine. The faculty consists of seven professors and four instructors, all of whom, with the exception of the instructors in music and elocution, must be ministers of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. On induction into office the professors are required to subscribe to the Westminster Catechisms and Confession.
The government of the seminary is vested in a board of directors and a board of trustees; the former consisting of forty members (twenty-eight ministers and twelve ruling elders), one-fourth of whom are chosen annually. The board of directors have power to elect, suspend, and remove professors, such election and removal being subject to the veto of the General Assembly. They superintend the curriculum, inspect the fidelity of the professors, and watch over the conduct of the students. The board of trustees, incorporated by the legislature of the state of Pennsylvania on Mar. 29, 1844, consists of twenty-one members, " nine of whom shall at all times be laymen citizens of the State of Pcr.nsyl-
Theological Seminaries