Drew Theological SchoolLocation: Madison, NJ
Rooted in the Methodist tradition of innovative and bold interpretations of Christian theology and spiritual practices, the Drew University Theological School empowers creative thought and courageous action to advance justice, peace and love of God, neighbor and the earth. The Theological School's mission joins in the work of the University to offer its diverse community of learners a challenging and individualized education shaped by a deep-rooted culture of mentoring, thoughtful engagement with the world beyond its campus, and a steadfast commitment to lifelong cultivation of the whole person. |
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SERVICE-BASED SCHOLARSHIPS
Because Drew is located near Newark, New York City, and Philadelphia urban ministry and service is the focus of several scholarships. The Sampson-McCann scholarship supports master of divinity students who are pursuing social justice in urban areas and churches. Stafford scholarships provide internships for students in urban settings. The David Graybeal Good Community Scholarship aids ministry that improves the quality of life wherever people live and work.
Engagement with the world permeates all degree programs at Drew. And the average Drew student receives more than 70% tuition scholarship.
Drew also offers some financial support and merit awards focused on connecting with communities. The cross-cultural course (required for all Master of Divinity students) ensures that each student will travel with their peers and professors to another part of the world for sustained conversations with church and society leaders in that region. All MDiv students receive financial support to participate in the cross-cultural program, which we have had at Drew for more than 15 years. We have long known that it is crucial for students to have competence and insight into cultural difference and the cross-cultural program fosters this work. The cross-cultural trips also have thematic emphases that emphasize local approaches to community realities. For example, in Turkey students hear about activist approaches to lgbt rights or to environmental degradation due to rapid industrialization. In El Salvador, they live with and learn from communities focusing on education and anti-poverty initiatives. The students receive assistance for more than half of their course costs.
Engagement with the world permeates all degree programs at Drew. And the average Drew student receives more than 70% tuition scholarship.
Drew also offers some financial support and merit awards focused on connecting with communities. The cross-cultural course (required for all Master of Divinity students) ensures that each student will travel with their peers and professors to another part of the world for sustained conversations with church and society leaders in that region. All MDiv students receive financial support to participate in the cross-cultural program, which we have had at Drew for more than 15 years. We have long known that it is crucial for students to have competence and insight into cultural difference and the cross-cultural program fosters this work. The cross-cultural trips also have thematic emphases that emphasize local approaches to community realities. For example, in Turkey students hear about activist approaches to lgbt rights or to environmental degradation due to rapid industrialization. In El Salvador, they live with and learn from communities focusing on education and anti-poverty initiatives. The students receive assistance for more than half of their course costs.
DEGREE PROGRAMS INTEGRATING FAITH & SERVICE
Drew offers the following degree programs:
The Masters of Divinity degree at Drew emphasizes the ability to question structures and traditions to end practices of dehumanization, and the wisdom and skills to mobilize diverse communities for societal transformation framed by the justice and love central to the gospel of Jesus Christ. All MDiv students participate in a cross-cultural travel course in order to gain new perspective on their own contexts and find their visions of their local ministries and spiritual self-understanding stretched and enlivened.
The Masters of Arts degree gives students opportunities to do community-based integrative projects and to concentrate in interdisciplinary areas such as:
The Masters of Arts in Ministry emphasizes community based learning as students complete two semesters of internship in a setting selected to maximize their preparation for United Methodist deacon orders and/or ministries beyond the pulpit or altar.
- Master of Divinity
- Master of Arts in Ministry
- Master of Arts
- Master of Sacred Theology
- Doctor of Ministry
- Doctor of Philosophy
The Masters of Divinity degree at Drew emphasizes the ability to question structures and traditions to end practices of dehumanization, and the wisdom and skills to mobilize diverse communities for societal transformation framed by the justice and love central to the gospel of Jesus Christ. All MDiv students participate in a cross-cultural travel course in order to gain new perspective on their own contexts and find their visions of their local ministries and spiritual self-understanding stretched and enlivened.
The Masters of Arts degree gives students opportunities to do community-based integrative projects and to concentrate in interdisciplinary areas such as:
- Religion and Ecology
- Africana Studies
- Women/Gender/Sexuality Studies
- Arts/Creativity/Imagination
- Social Justice
The Masters of Arts in Ministry emphasizes community based learning as students complete two semesters of internship in a setting selected to maximize their preparation for United Methodist deacon orders and/or ministries beyond the pulpit or altar.
Opportunities to Serve while in Seminary
There are multiple programs within the Theological School that are connected to community-based organizations that are available to students in addition to churches and agencies as noted above. We give Stafford grants to urban communities to be able to offer a stipend to Drew students working in those settings. The PREP program (Partnership in Religious Education in Prisons) makes it possible for Theological School students to study side by side with persons incarcerated in one of two prisons within driving distance of the school. In the cross-cultural program and in many field education sites, students receive a subsidy for their work and study directly from the Theological School that makes it possible for them to have access to this important kind of learning. In the PREP program and the cross-cultural course PhD and Master’s students may serve as Teaching Assistants or as the coordinator of the PREP program receiving a stipend for their work. In these ways students may do the equivalent of part-time work in community-based contexts supported by the Theological School budget.
ENGAGEMENT ON CAMPUS
There is no majority group among the Drew students or faculty. Diversity is not a slogan. Students, faculty, and staff pray, eat, learn, sing, and travel together. They disagree, misunderstand, and struggle together. What binds them in shared purpose is the commitment to making the love and justice of God known in ways that empower individuals and communities.
Learning and engagement go beyond the classroom in many ways.
Craig Chapel is the spiritual center of the Theo community (http://www.drew.edu/theological/extraordinary-community/).
The Theological School community garden (located on-campus) gets students outside in a space dedicated to gardening and developing a connection to the earth. From the farm-to-table process, to eco-theology, to environmental justice movements, students deepen the theory by living the practice. Harvests are delivered to a local interfaith food pantry as well as cooked up in Food and Religion class.
Students and professors travel every semester to Northern State Correctional Facility in Newark or Edna Mahan Women’s Correctional Facility in Clinton to hold class as part of the Partnership for Religion and Education in Prison program (PREP). Theo students and incarcerated men and women study theology, biblical studies, ethics, creative writing, psychology, and history together as co-learners.
Student caucuses rooted in particular identities or movements for justice provide community leadership and focused programming for the whole community:
At Drew, students can contribute to making the institution a better place. Both the Community Garden and the PREP program were started by Drew students during and just after their programs.
Brian Tipton (T’@@, @@), who first put a shovel into a corner of the campus, still works with the garden and is now a PhD student at Drew studying ecological approaches to biblical interpretation.
As prison courses continue to be touted as among the most transformative learning at Drew, Margaret Quern Atkins (T’07) has gone on to establish NJ-Step, a statewide effort to provide college-level courses to incarcerated people in New Jersey.
Learning and engagement go beyond the classroom in many ways.
Craig Chapel is the spiritual center of the Theo community (http://www.drew.edu/theological/extraordinary-community/).
The Theological School community garden (located on-campus) gets students outside in a space dedicated to gardening and developing a connection to the earth. From the farm-to-table process, to eco-theology, to environmental justice movements, students deepen the theory by living the practice. Harvests are delivered to a local interfaith food pantry as well as cooked up in Food and Religion class.
Students and professors travel every semester to Northern State Correctional Facility in Newark or Edna Mahan Women’s Correctional Facility in Clinton to hold class as part of the Partnership for Religion and Education in Prison program (PREP). Theo students and incarcerated men and women study theology, biblical studies, ethics, creative writing, psychology, and history together as co-learners.
Student caucuses rooted in particular identities or movements for justice provide community leadership and focused programming for the whole community:
- Black Ministerial Caucus
- TERRA--Transforming Environmental and Religious Resources in Action
- Spectrum--the LGBTQAI graduate and undergraduate student organization)
- Korean Caucus
- Somos--the Hispanic and Latino/a Caucus
At Drew, students can contribute to making the institution a better place. Both the Community Garden and the PREP program were started by Drew students during and just after their programs.
Brian Tipton (T’@@, @@), who first put a shovel into a corner of the campus, still works with the garden and is now a PhD student at Drew studying ecological approaches to biblical interpretation.
As prison courses continue to be touted as among the most transformative learning at Drew, Margaret Quern Atkins (T’07) has gone on to establish NJ-Step, a statewide effort to provide college-level courses to incarcerated people in New Jersey.
FIELD EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES
All Master of Divinity degree and Master of Arts in Ministry degree students are required to do field education during their programs for two sequential semesters. Most typically these placements are in churches or non-profit agencies. While the skill sets students develop in these settings are different to a certain extent, they all relate to the central purpose of contextual education, namely, to help students appreciate, understand and work effectively within a specific context. It is in these contexts that students are drawn into engaging various communities of accountability. In one placement, a Drew student brought his own experiences as a citizen of the Congo into conversation with the efforts of the global UMC and was able to contribute significantly to a nuancing of the program. To quote his field education evaluation: “(the student) has left a legacy of which we will always be thankful. He has given us a new lens in which to view who we are at the United Methodist Global AIDS Fund/UMCOR (United Methodist Commission on Relief)...(he has helped us) critically shift the strategy at UMCOR Health in the funding of future grants.”
All students in these degrees are required to be in a community setting for 12-15 hours a week and to engage in reflection about the setting and their ministry/work in a seminar that meets weekly on campus. Structures of accountability within the congregation or non-profit agency insure that students take responsibility for their learning; have multiple conversation partners from within the setting that they meet with regularly; and receive feedback through a twice yearly evaluation process. The highly individualized placement process in the supervised ministry program insures that students can explore the type of setting most closely aligned with their vocational goals.
To prepare students for this challenge, the Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Ministry programs require students to complete two semesters of apprenticed or mentored ministry (also called Supervised Ministry) in a placement setting that resonates with their calling. The Office of Vocation and Formation works with students and mentors to anchor each placement in theological, vocational, and spiritual reflection and growth.
Placement settings beyond the parish include prison re-entry programs, urban gardening projects, after school programs, hospital chaplaincy, campus ministry, interfaith projects such as a food pantry, and the United Nations.
All students in these degrees are required to be in a community setting for 12-15 hours a week and to engage in reflection about the setting and their ministry/work in a seminar that meets weekly on campus. Structures of accountability within the congregation or non-profit agency insure that students take responsibility for their learning; have multiple conversation partners from within the setting that they meet with regularly; and receive feedback through a twice yearly evaluation process. The highly individualized placement process in the supervised ministry program insures that students can explore the type of setting most closely aligned with their vocational goals.
To prepare students for this challenge, the Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Ministry programs require students to complete two semesters of apprenticed or mentored ministry (also called Supervised Ministry) in a placement setting that resonates with their calling. The Office of Vocation and Formation works with students and mentors to anchor each placement in theological, vocational, and spiritual reflection and growth.
Placement settings beyond the parish include prison re-entry programs, urban gardening projects, after school programs, hospital chaplaincy, campus ministry, interfaith projects such as a food pantry, and the United Nations.
ISSUE-INTEGRATED ACADEMIC COURSES
Mass Incarceration, Economic Justice, and Religious Activism
This course aims at a critical analysis of mass incarceration principally in, but not limited to, the United States. Topics include: criminalization of urban youth, parenting from prison, immigration and incarceration, prison health care, community re-entry, privatization of prisons, and capital punishment. It will also examine the role of religious activism and ministry in support for inmates and their families and as resistance to the prison-industrial complex.
Christianity and Ecology
Examines a range of Christian responses to ecological concerns. Surveys some of the historical, philosophical, socio-political, theological, and environmental issues and influences that shape the current planetary context and looks at an array of contemporary global religious eco-justice voices and emerging eco-theologies.
Ethics and Technology
This course will focus on the intersection of ethical theory and digital technology use, design, and hardware. Examples of issues for consideration include identity formation, privacy, click-tivism, archiving (including big data), algorithms, and access along with ethical questions related to forgiveness, authenticity, diversity, sharing/collectivism, and ecological degradation. Throughout the course, students build a “Domain of One’s Own” (personalized webpage) in an effort to experience, debate, and eventually concretize ethical choices related to digital presence.
Saints, Sages, and Democratic Subjects
This course examines the formation of democratic subjects alongside the formation of Christian subjects (saints) on the one hand and that of Confucian subjects (sages) on the other. The ultimate aim of the course is to answer the question: How might the respective notions of the saint and the sage, when politically inflected, enable us to envision forms of democracy different from and better than the prevailing liberal one?
The Kin-dom of God and Social Change
Is the “Kingdom of God” good for human society? This interdisciplinary course explores the career of the “Kingdom of God”, a concept or vision central to the preaching, teaching and action of the movement centered around Jesus. We will examine this concept in the Bible, in the context of historical and contemporary religious and political thought and arts, and in the self-understanding and practice of communities working for social change.
This course aims at a critical analysis of mass incarceration principally in, but not limited to, the United States. Topics include: criminalization of urban youth, parenting from prison, immigration and incarceration, prison health care, community re-entry, privatization of prisons, and capital punishment. It will also examine the role of religious activism and ministry in support for inmates and their families and as resistance to the prison-industrial complex.
Christianity and Ecology
Examines a range of Christian responses to ecological concerns. Surveys some of the historical, philosophical, socio-political, theological, and environmental issues and influences that shape the current planetary context and looks at an array of contemporary global religious eco-justice voices and emerging eco-theologies.
Ethics and Technology
This course will focus on the intersection of ethical theory and digital technology use, design, and hardware. Examples of issues for consideration include identity formation, privacy, click-tivism, archiving (including big data), algorithms, and access along with ethical questions related to forgiveness, authenticity, diversity, sharing/collectivism, and ecological degradation. Throughout the course, students build a “Domain of One’s Own” (personalized webpage) in an effort to experience, debate, and eventually concretize ethical choices related to digital presence.
Saints, Sages, and Democratic Subjects
This course examines the formation of democratic subjects alongside the formation of Christian subjects (saints) on the one hand and that of Confucian subjects (sages) on the other. The ultimate aim of the course is to answer the question: How might the respective notions of the saint and the sage, when politically inflected, enable us to envision forms of democracy different from and better than the prevailing liberal one?
The Kin-dom of God and Social Change
Is the “Kingdom of God” good for human society? This interdisciplinary course explores the career of the “Kingdom of God”, a concept or vision central to the preaching, teaching and action of the movement centered around Jesus. We will examine this concept in the Bible, in the context of historical and contemporary religious and political thought and arts, and in the self-understanding and practice of communities working for social change.
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