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{{short description|American Protestant theological seminary}}

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}}(File:2008-1226-Pasadena-005-FullerTS.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Payton Hall on the Pasadena Campus)Fuller Theological Seminary is an interdenominational Evangelical Christian seminary in Pasadena, California, with regional campuses in the western United States. It is egalitarian in nature.WEB, Women in Ministry {{!, Fuller Seminary |url=https://www.fuller.edu/womeninministry/ |date=5 July 2017}}Fuller has a student body of approximately 2,300 studentsWEB,weblink Fuller Theological Seminary {{!, The Association of Theological Schools|website=www.ats.edu|language=en|access-date=2023-12-01}} from 90 countries and 110 denominations. There are over 41,000 alumni.BOOK,weblink Evangelical America: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Religious Culture, 9781610697743, Timothy, J. Demy PH D., Paul, R. Shockley PH D., 21 September 2017, Abc-Clio, Fuller is broadly evangelical among faculty and student body. Some hold conservative evangelical views such as unlimited inerrancy while others hold liberal evangelical sentiments such as limited inerrancy which views the Bible as true on matters of salvation but contains error in its recording of history and science.BOOK,weblink Vital Issues in the Inerrancy Debate, 9781498237253, David Farnell, F., Geisler, Norman L., Holden, Joseph M., Roach, William C., Fernandes, Phil, 14 January 2016, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

History

Fuller Theological Seminary was founded in 1947 by Charles E. Fuller, a radio evangelist known for his Old Fashioned Revival Hour show, and Harold Ockenga, the pastor of Park Street Church in Boston.Randall Herbert Balmer, Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism: Revised and expanded edition, Baylor University Press, USA, 2004, p. 276 The seminary's founders sought to reform fundamentalism's separatist and sometimes anti-intellectual stance during the 1920s–1940s.BOOK, Marsden, George M., Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism, Grand Rapids, William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1987, 978-0-8028-3642-7,weblink November 30, 2009, Fuller envisaged that the seminary would become "a Caltech of the evangelical world." In the late 1940s, evangelical theologians from Fuller championed the Christian importance of social activism.David R. Swartz, Moral Minority: The Evangelical Left in an Age of Conservatism, University of Pennsylvania Press, USA, 2012, p. 18The earliest faculty held theologically and socially conservative views, though professors with liberal perspectives arrived in the 1960s and 1970s. There were tensions in the late 1950s and early 1960s as some faculty members became uncomfortable with staff and students who did not agree with Biblical inerrancy. This led to people associated with the seminary playing a role in the rise of neo-evangelicalism and progressive theology.George Thomas Kurian, Mark A. Lamport, Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States, Volume 5, Rowman & Littlefield, USA, 2016, p. 929David Hubbard recruited Donald McGavran to be the first dean of the newly created school of world mission in 1965.BOOK,weblink Give the Winds a Mighty Voice: The Story of Charles e. Fuller, 9781498207157, Fuller, Daniel P., 2 January 2015, Wipf and Stock Publishers, McGavran was esteemed as perhaps the world's most prominent and influential missiologist of the 20th century.BOOK,weblink World Christianity, 1970-2000: Toward a New Millennium, 9780878085040, Crawley, Winston, 2001, William Carey Library, McGavran recruited some of the greatest missiologist of the 20th century to serve as faculty of the school of world mission at Fuller Theological Seminary. This included Alan Tippett, Ralph Winter, C. Peter Wagner and many others.BOOK,weblink The Far Side of the Sea: A Study of Church Growth in India, 9781622457519, Hogrefe, James, April 2021, One Mission Society, These faculty would shape world missions for the ensuing decades. Fuller's School of World Mission became the largest missions training institution in the world.BOOK,weblink Introduction to Global Missions, 9781433678981, Pratt, Zane, David Sills, M., Walters, Jeff K., July 2014, B&H Publishing, The school of world mission also has the largest amount of missions faculty of any institution in the world as well as graduating the most missions students of any seminary.BOOK,weblink Dictionary of Mission: Theology, History, Perspectives, 9781597525497, Muller, Karl, Sundermeier, Theo, Bevans, Stephen B., Bliese, Richard H., 30 January 2006, Wipf and Stock Publishers, In 2022, it had 2,370 students enrolled.

Presidents

Fuller has had six presidents over its over 70-year history. The founding president, Harold Ockenga, remained in Boston and served as president in absentia from 1947 to 1954. He described his role to Charles Fuller as recruiting faculty and setting the curriculum, which did not require his active presence in Pasadena.BOOK, Awakening the evangelical mind : an intellectual history of the neo-evangelical movement, Strachan, Owen., 9780310520795, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 907181035, 2015, His successor and protege Edward John Carnell, a Baptist theologian and apologist, took over the post in 1954 but resigned in 1959 under failing health. Ockenga resumed his in absentia leadership until 35-year-old David Allen Hubbard, a Baptist Old Testament scholar and member of Fuller's third entering class, became Fuller's third president in 1963.JOURNAL, 2017, COLLECTION 0150: David Allan Hubbard: Presidential Papers, 1947–1996,weblink Fuller Seminary Archives and Special Collections, Hubbard served for 30 years and led the seminary through both substantial growth and significant controversy.Hubbard was succeeded by Reformed philosopher and theologian Richard Mouw, who served as president of Fuller from 1993 to 2013. In 2006, a Los Angeles Times article labeled him as "one of the nation's leading evangelicals".NEWS,weblink Aiming to Clarify the Meaning of a Loaded Word, Kang, K. Connie, December 2, 2006, Los Angeles Times, November 20, 2009, In July 2013, Mark Labberton became the Clifford L. Penner Presidential Chair of Fuller. Labberton, a Presbyterian (USA) pastor, had previously served Fuller as director of the Lloyd John Ogilvie Institute of Preaching since 2009. He retains his position as Lloyd John Ogilvie Associate Professor of Preaching alongside the presidency.WEB, Mark Labberton Faculty Profile,weblink Fuller Theological Seminary, July 9, 2013, Mouw remained at Fuller as Professor of Faith and Public Life until 2020.WEB, Richard J. Mouw Faculty Profile,weblink Fuller Theological Seminary, July 9, 2013,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20131127024059weblink">weblink November 27, 2013, dead, mdy-all, WEB, Kucinski, Matt, June 4, 2020, Richard Mouw comes home to Calvin,weblink 2021-04-06, Calvin University, en, In October 2021, Labberton announced his retirement.WEB, NEWSWIRE), Fuller Seminary (GLOBE, Fuller Seminary Begins Presidential Transition,weblink 2021-10-23, The Bakersfield Californian, en, WEB, Fuller Seminary Begins Presidential Transition,weblink 2021-10-23, finance.yahoo.com, en-US, David Goatley became the sixth president in January 2023.WEB,weblink Fuller Seminary Names David Emmanuel Goatley as Sixth President | Fuller Seminary, 12 September 2022, He is the first African American to occupy the role. David is a missions executive and former administrative executive at Duke University.

Academics

Fuller is accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Fuller's student body of 2,897 includes students from 90 countries and 110 denominational backgrounds.WEB,weblink Fuller Theological Seminary, About Fuller, August 18, 2015, Fuller Theological Seminary is organized into schools of theology, psychology, and intercultural studies. The seminary emphasizes integration between the three schools and many students take courses in more than one school. The seminary offers 18 degree programs, including seven master's degrees and 11 advanced degrees.WEB,weblink Fuller Theological Seminary, Facts and Figures :: Fuller, August 18, 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140614205817weblink">weblink June 14, 2014, dead, mdy-all,

Campuses

Fuller closed Fuller Northwest (Seattle), Fuller Bay Area (Menlo Park), and Fuller Orange County (Irvine). It also reduced degree programs offered in Fuller Colorado (Colorado Springs) and Fuller Arizona (Phoenix).NEWS,weblink Fuller Theological Seminary closes some campuses, 2018-05-25, en, These closures and reductions took place before the 2019–20 academic year.In May 2009, Fuller opened its {{convert|47000|sqft|m2|adj=on}} David Allan Hubbard Library that incorporated the former McAlister Library building at its main campus in Pasadena, California for a total of {{convert|90000|sqft|m2|adj=on}}.NEWS,weblink Fuller Theological Seminary celebrates new library, Williams, Janette, Los Angeles Daily News, May 18, 2009, August 31, 2018, live,weblink August 31, 2018, In 2018, Fuller briefly planned to sell its main campus in Pasadena and move to Pomona.NEWS,weblink Fuller Theological Seminary leaving Pasadena and putting campus up for sale, Los Angeles Times, Roger, Vincent, May 23, 2018, 25 May 2018, In October 2019 the board of directors voted to cancel the move and remain in Pasadena, citing dramatically escalated costs of construction in Southern California and differences with the City of Pasadena, which affected the sale and sale price of the seminary's Pasadena campus.WEB,weblink The Future of Fuller Seminary {{!, Fuller Seminary|date=2019-06-01|language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-14}}WEB,weblink Fuller Seminary Won't Leave Pasadena After All, Fowler, Megan, News & Reporting, en, 2020-01-14, Fuller currently has campuses in Pasadena, California, Phoenix, Arizona, and Houston, Texas. The Phoenix and Houston campuses are called Fuller Arizona and Fuller Texas, respectively.

Social issues

While Fuller has established policies, the seminary is open to difference in opinion among students and faculty.WEB,weblink Institutional Commitments, fuller.edu, April 27, 2016, The seminary's former president, Mark Labberton, marched in favor of comprehensive immigration reform and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants in 2013.WEB,weblink Fuller Seminary students, staff march on Pasadena City Hall for immigration reform, 18 November 2013, pasadenastarnews.com, April 27, 2016, Others have expressed support in the Fuller forum for the Black Lives Matter movement as raising awareness for civil rights.WEB,weblink A conversation on why Black Lives Matter to White churches, 30 March 2016, Fuller Studio, April 27, 2016, In 2015, some faculty at the seminary called on Christians to openly discuss, with respect, issues related to race, gender, sexual orientation, refugees, and immigrants.WEB,weblink Conversations the Church needs to have in 2015, fuller.edu, April 27, 2016, The student club OneTable is the first LGBTQ group organized within an evangelical seminary.WEB,weblink LGBT group finds acceptance at evangelical college, USA TODAY, April 27, 2016, In 2021, three LGBTQ former Fuller students joined the class-action lawsuit Elizabeth Hunter et al. vs. U.S. Department of Education, arguing that religious exemptions that allow religious institutions of higher education to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity violate the Constitution.WEB, Foley, Ryan, March 31, 2021, LBGT Christian college students sue to block Title IX religious exemptions,weblink 2021-04-06, www.christianpost.com, en, According to Fuller's Community Standards, the seminary does not discriminate on the basis of gender identity and "Fuller Theological Seminary also does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. The seminary does lawfully discriminate on the basis of sexual conduct that violates its biblically based Community Standard Statement on Sexual Standards ... The seminary believes premarital, extramarital, and homosexual forms of explicit sexual conduct to be inconsistent with the teaching of Scripture."WEB, 2017-10-17, Policy Against Unlawful Discrimination {{!, Fuller Seminary|url=https://www.fuller.edu/about/mission-and-values/community-standards7/|access-date=2021-10-23|language=en-US}}

Awards and prizes

Fuller annually awards the David Allan Hubbard Achievement Award to a graduating student from each of Seminary's three schools, in recognition of outstanding work completed while at Fuller. The award was instituted in honor of David Allan Hubbard, an Old Testament scholar, and the third President of Fuller Theological Seminary.WEB,weblink Obituary: David Allan Hubbard, Saxon, Wolfgang, June 16, 1996, New York Times, Each recipient is chosen by the faculty of their respective school.WEB,weblink Article: Three Accomplished Graduates Given Prestigious Hubbard Achievement Award, July 6, 2017,

See also

• List of Fuller Theological Seminary people

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

• {{official websiteweblink}}

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