Claremont School of TheologyLocation: Claremont, California
Distance/Online Learning: Located in Claremont, California, Claremont School of Theology is United Methodist in origin and affiliation; and ecumenical and interreligious in spirit. Students are nurtured by Scripture, tradition, experience, and reason and are prepared for lives of ministry, leadership, and service. Graduates are prepared to become agents of transformation and healing in churches, local communities, schools, non-profit institutions, and the world at large. |
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SERVICE-BASED SCHOLARSHIPS
The Trustees’ Scholarship Award Program – Claremont School of Theology established the Trustees’ Scholarship Award Program to provide financial scholarship support to masters-level students who both demonstrate academic excellence and share in CST’s vision to “create a difference for the world we live in.” A rigorous application process takes many factors into consideration, including past service work and future vocational goals. Recipients of the Trustee’s Award receive full tuition, fees, and housing on campus.
CST also offers additional merit-based scholarships beyond the Trustee’s Scholarship Award Program to qualified applicants. Since service and justice work are at the core of CST’s mission and vision, these qualities are considered when making all scholarship decisions.
CST also offers additional merit-based scholarships beyond the Trustee’s Scholarship Award Program to qualified applicants. Since service and justice work are at the core of CST’s mission and vision, these qualities are considered when making all scholarship decisions.
DEGREE PROGRAMS INTEGRATING FAITH & SERVICE
Master of Divinity – Interfaith Chaplaincy
The Interfaith Chaplaincy track within the M.Div. degree is designed to meet the needs of those who wish to become scholar-practitioners in chaplaincy, educated according to the highest standards and eligible to seek professional certification by the Association of Professional Chaplains and other such agencies.
Given the frequency with which today’s chaplains are required to engage religious diversity interpersonally and programmatically, it is the purpose of this program to offer an education with two intertwining aspects: a lively and maturing engagement with one’s own tradition and a well-informed and caringly-embodied knowledge of religious diversity and interfaith encounter.
Master of Arts in Ministry, Leadership and Service
(Offered in both on-campus and hybrid modes.) The M.A. in Ministry, Leadership and Service is a 48-unit professional degree that prepares students for leadership in a variety of ministry contexts. This degree is designed for those persons seeking ordination in a Christian denomination that does not require the Master of Divinity degree, or for laity who seek to serve their community in a variety of ways. The degree has one required course each semester that helps students articulate and integrate the intersections between one’s personal spiritual journey, theological education, and the various contexts in which ministry takes place. Students will then choose amongst distribution electives to best custom-design their program for their future ministry goals.
The Interfaith Chaplaincy track within the M.Div. degree is designed to meet the needs of those who wish to become scholar-practitioners in chaplaincy, educated according to the highest standards and eligible to seek professional certification by the Association of Professional Chaplains and other such agencies.
Given the frequency with which today’s chaplains are required to engage religious diversity interpersonally and programmatically, it is the purpose of this program to offer an education with two intertwining aspects: a lively and maturing engagement with one’s own tradition and a well-informed and caringly-embodied knowledge of religious diversity and interfaith encounter.
Master of Arts in Ministry, Leadership and Service
(Offered in both on-campus and hybrid modes.) The M.A. in Ministry, Leadership and Service is a 48-unit professional degree that prepares students for leadership in a variety of ministry contexts. This degree is designed for those persons seeking ordination in a Christian denomination that does not require the Master of Divinity degree, or for laity who seek to serve their community in a variety of ways. The degree has one required course each semester that helps students articulate and integrate the intersections between one’s personal spiritual journey, theological education, and the various contexts in which ministry takes place. Students will then choose amongst distribution electives to best custom-design their program for their future ministry goals.
Diversity at CST
Claremont School of Theology, along with its students, staff and faculty, regularly engage with issues of diversity. Within our curriculum, issues of diversity are addressed in the classroom and through our interreligious educational focus issues of diversity are explored within degree programs. Through co-curricular activities and events, our students explore what it means to be a community where diversity and difference are deeply valued and shaped by the intersections of our multicultural and interreligious identity as an institution. The following organizations and initiatives represent some of the ways our community engages diversity:
- Hispanic Theological Initiative (HTI) Fellowship program for PhD Students
- Asociacion para la Educacion Teologica Hispana (AETH) - CST faculty participation in annual gathering
- Forum for Theological Exploration (FTE) - PhD students named as fellows; PhD students, dean and faculty participation in annual Christian Leadership Forum
- Wabash Center grant – Teaching
- FTE grant - Exploration of Divinity at CST with faculty of color and students of color
ENGAGEMENT ON CAMPUS
Students engage the world both within and outside the classroom at CST. Students are encouraged to cross disciplines, departments, traditions and other barriers that sometimes separate, to collaborate in asking the important questions of our time.
CST has over a dozen active student organizations that work to build community at CST as well as to actively respond to the issues our campus, local and global community face. Student groups on campus host speakers and presentations, the Office of Student and Community Life and the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion host regular conversations where we discuss important topics related to diversity and inclusion, and the school brings speakers to convocation, commencement and conferences throughout the year who engage the question of how to be faithful. CST is one of the first theological schools to participate in the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge.
CST is a Christian seminary with ties to the United Methodist Church, as well as official partnerships with Bayan Claremont, an Islamic Graduate School housed on our campus; the Academy of Jewish Religion/CA, a transdenominational school; and the University of the West, a school informed by Buddhist wisdom and values. Additionally, our ecumenical affiliations include the Disciples Seminary Foundation, which serves students in the Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ denominations; the Episcopal Theological School at Claremont – Bloy House, which offers a joint M.Div. degree with CST for students pursuing ordination in the Episcopal Church; and St. Athanasius and St. Cyril Coptic Orthodox Theological School (ACTS).
CST has over a dozen active student organizations that work to build community at CST as well as to actively respond to the issues our campus, local and global community face. Student groups on campus host speakers and presentations, the Office of Student and Community Life and the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion host regular conversations where we discuss important topics related to diversity and inclusion, and the school brings speakers to convocation, commencement and conferences throughout the year who engage the question of how to be faithful. CST is one of the first theological schools to participate in the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge.
CST is a Christian seminary with ties to the United Methodist Church, as well as official partnerships with Bayan Claremont, an Islamic Graduate School housed on our campus; the Academy of Jewish Religion/CA, a transdenominational school; and the University of the West, a school informed by Buddhist wisdom and values. Additionally, our ecumenical affiliations include the Disciples Seminary Foundation, which serves students in the Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ denominations; the Episcopal Theological School at Claremont – Bloy House, which offers a joint M.Div. degree with CST for students pursuing ordination in the Episcopal Church; and St. Athanasius and St. Cyril Coptic Orthodox Theological School (ACTS).
FIELD EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES
CST students work with our Director of Field Education to get connected with placements that match their passions and areas of interest. Some of the organizations that our students have worked at in the past two years include:
- Aspire Ministries (Pasadena, CA) and Urban Mission (Pomona, CA) – churches that connect to needs of Latino communities
- CLUE-LA (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice) - a community organizing and advocacy organization
- USC Office of Religious Life - Interns participated in outreach programs to youth in the surrounding neighborhoods
- Home and Help - Ministry and advocacy for homeless people, Burlingame, CA
- Foundation of Hope - Prison ministry, Pittsburgh
- North Urban Human Services Alliance, King County, WA
- Individual student internship project - Health Ministry, Diabetes prevention in African-American communities, Los Angeles
ISSUE INTEGRATED ACADEMIC COURSES
Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization - Increasing evidence shows that humans and other species face a global climate catastrophe. This class focuses on alternatives to humanity’s current head-long rush toward destruction. We will study local efforts and link with other Ecological Civilization classes across the U.S. and Asia to learn about global theories and local initiatives in their regions. Religions and interreligious partnerships can play important motivating roles. Knowledge of the data and of alternative social and economic systems is also indispensable
Interreligious Justice Movements - This course will examine a wide range or progressive interreligious justice movements that are presently active in the U.S. We will pay particular attention to how these movements construct the necessary religious scaffolding to support their activism, exploring their use of various global liberative traditions, while also looking at their adaptations of various organizing methodologies to fit the particular social contexts in which they are doing their work. Students will be encouraged to undertake research on new emerging movements using the course’s broad framework.
Immigration as a Human Rights - Crisis This course will examine immigration within the context of globalization, which has created unprecedented migratory movements around the world. However, while capital can flow freely, people are bound by national boundaries that result in many becoming permanent noncitizens in the countries in which they reside. This leaves them vulnerable to multiple forms of exploitation that are in violation of international human rights.
Interreligious Justice Movements - This course will examine a wide range or progressive interreligious justice movements that are presently active in the U.S. We will pay particular attention to how these movements construct the necessary religious scaffolding to support their activism, exploring their use of various global liberative traditions, while also looking at their adaptations of various organizing methodologies to fit the particular social contexts in which they are doing their work. Students will be encouraged to undertake research on new emerging movements using the course’s broad framework.
Immigration as a Human Rights - Crisis This course will examine immigration within the context of globalization, which has created unprecedented migratory movements around the world. However, while capital can flow freely, people are bound by national boundaries that result in many becoming permanent noncitizens in the countries in which they reside. This leaves them vulnerable to multiple forms of exploitation that are in violation of international human rights.
ALUMNI PROFILES
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Mir Ali ’15
A military man, A Muslim. And now, a chaplain. Mir Ali had always been fascinated with learning about other faiths. While serving in the United States Air Force, he decided to become a military chaplain. When searching for M.Div. programs, he was attracted to CST’s Interfaith Chaplaincy M.Div. In the Interfaith Chaplaincy program, Mir says, “I became a better listener, a better chaplain, and most importantly an ambassador of interfaith work comprehensively.” He balanced academics with real-world experience, completing his first unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), a requirement of the Interfaith Chaplaincy program, while he was also working in the military on active duty status. Now a graduate, Mir is serving as a military chaplain in the United States Air Force Reserves as well as doing a hospital chaplain residency. He plans to serve as a chaplain the United States Armed Forces. The Interfaith Chaplaincy M.Div, he says is unique, “because it’s designed for not only chaplain, ministers, and pastors – but also for people who are interested in making social, national, and global changes.” |
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Abigail Barash ’15
Abbie Barash has had a long interest in interfaith activism. Originally an M.A. student, Abbie found herself drawn to the Interfaith Chaplaincy program. “I liked that it was hands-on and practical,” she says. Her experience with CPE was educational and affirmed her calling to chaplaincy. “Journeying with people while they’re in those situations. Not covering up those emotions. Exploring what it means to be alive and mortal - that’s what happens in those conversations,” she explains. Abbie’s time at CST was also formative for her Jewish faith, allowing her to ask questions and engage with others of different faiths. Such questioning, Abbie says, allowed her to embrace her own Judaism – “a religion that’s about questioning and quarreling and doubt.” At CST, Abbie realized that “having room to question allows you to learn about your own self and your tradition.” Freshly graduated from CST Abbie is continuing down the path of chaplaincy, completing a year-long hospital chaplain residency. She hopes to become a board-certified chaplain and to explore different chaplaincy contexts. Down the road, she’s interested in combining her passion for spiritual care with other passions – such as those for outdoors and for yoga- to engage in chaplaincy in non-traditional realms. |
Life in Claremont
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