-The Vine and Branches

-Newsletter of: Abiding Word Ministries
(a nonprofit organization/AWM exists to promote revival and reformation in the churches)
-Editor: David R. Barnhart
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Newsletter / Winter 2011

-EXTREME DIVERSITY IN METHODIST
SEMINARY IS SHOCKING -

The liberation of American seminaries is an old story. The inauguration of the world's first interreligious university is not. The Claremont School of Theology, a Methodist-affiliated institution, is collaborating with the Academy for Jewish Religion in California and the Islamic Center of Southern California to produce Claremont Lincoln University, an ambitious endeavor to train religious leaders for a multi-religious world. The member institutions of the consortium will still ordain the pastors, priests, rabbis, and imams, but the university will offer a concentration on interreligious studies as well as masters and doctoral degrees.

As Philip Clayton, provost of the new university, explained, "We are in the midst of the biggest change in American religiosity since the founding of this country. Interreligious tensions are many and strong. So we can remain "ensconced" in the old forms of academia and ecclesia, or we can become "change agents" to "educate the next generation leaders for an emerging church."

The school is plunging forward with plans to add programs for Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Baha'i. While many Methodists favor interfaith reconcilation, they worry about the execution. Does it communicate charity to place a cross and a minaret and a Buddhist pagoda at the center of the campus, or does it amount to compromising core beliefs? (World Magazine 11/19/11) ~~