During the course of the day students gather to discuss different topics from the classes they are taking together. This is a great time to exchange ideas and to stimulate new thoughts.
About Us
Overview
Message from the Dean
Thank you for visiting our website. The Academy of the New Church Theological School was founded in 1877 with the express purpose of training ministers for the General Church of the New Jerusalem. It continues in this work today and, while drawing strongly on its historical foundations, is exploring ways to meet the spiritual needs of modern society. In the 1995 the Theological School added a second degree program, the Master of Arts in Religious Studies, open to any lay person who wishes to study the teachings of the New Church at a higher academic level than was then possible. This degree does not look towards ordination but to the impact of New Church teachings on a range of other disciplines, education and history being the most popular.
The descriptions of the two programs below shows the difference between them, and why one degree, the Master of Arts in Religious Studies, is part of the ongoing academic development of the New Church, while the other, the Master of Divinity, really a professional degree leading to ordination.
The Masters of Divinity Degree
And I will give you pastors according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. (Jeremiah 3:15)
If a priest is in the good of the priesthood, which is to care for the salvation of souls, to teach the way to heaven, and to lead those whom he teaches, then to the extent that he is in this good love, he acquires the truths which he may teach, and by means of which he may lead. (Doctrine of Life 39)
In the Psalms we read that “unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it” (127:1). The Lord builds His church, but He does so through human cooperation, and the Academy of the New Church Theological School seeks to be part of this relationship by offering two programs, one to train ministers, the other to develop thoughtful laity.
The ministry stands at the heart of every church; the minister’s job is to teach his flock the truths of the Word as he understands them, and, to the best of his ability, to lead people to live lives of goodness. To do this, he needs to be skilled in two broad and closely related areas: he must have a sound knowledge of the Lord’s teachings in order to know what to teach, and secondly, he needs to have insight into human nature and life issues to know how to lead people to the Lord. Knowledge is only effective when it is skillfully conveyed to those who need it. Effective pastors preach great sermons and give excellent classes that meet the needs of their congregations. In less formal settings, they listen to people and focus the Word onto their particular needs. In every setting, they strive to bring the Lord to people and people to the Lord.
The goal of the Master of Divinity program prepare excellent pastors. To further this end, the Academy of the New Church and General Church of the New Jerusalem have jointly undertaken to support initiatives that will enhance the training and experience of the applicants for the ministry, making it even more possible to achieve the goal of consistently graduating excellent pastors.
Master of Arts in Religious Studies
"Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD. (Isa 1:18)
People ought to become imbued with sciences and knowledges, because through them they learn how to think; afterwards how to understand what is true and good, and at length how to be wise; that is how to live according to what is true and good. (NJHD 51. See Arcana Coelestia nos. 129, 1450, 1451, 1453, 1548, 1802.
Systematic study of the Doctrine of the New Church is by no means restricted to ministers or those training for the ministry. The Doctrine frequently describes the process in which people’s minds are opened by study, especially when someone studies for the sake of a goal.
The Heavenly Doctrine sheds light on a vast array of human thought and experience, ranging across many fields of study. The New Church has hardly begun to explore these fields and enter the dialogue with modern science and academic scholarship, but in the areas that have been studied, although only briefly so far, students find an amazing correlation between recent findings and the teachings of the Doctrine. One example of this is brain science and gender differences, another is the rapid change in western society in the last two hundred and fifty years, and the connection with the giving of the Doctrine at the time of the Last Judgment.
The Masters of Arts in Religious Studies is the idea place to study these, and other, areas. By offering advanced doctrinal studies and the opportunity of connecting the doctrine with other areas of interest, graduates of this program have begun to open doors that had previously been closed to religion.
The Master of Arts in Religious Studies offers lay graduates the opportunity to study the Heavenly Doctrine at a post-graduate level. In the past, many students have integrated their doctrinal studies with additional reading in their own field of interest to create a dynamic interchange between religious and secular thought.
Please explore this website for a program suited to your needs, and do not hesitate to contact us if you think that one of the degrees is right for you.
Sincerely,
Andrew M.T. Dibb
Dean
Mission Statement
The purpose of the Theological School is to support the Lord's presence among people by preparing men for the priesthood of the New Church. The primary focus of this school is on training men to serve as pastors in the General Church of the New Jerusalem. This school will also help provide for the continuing development of priests, and for graduate-level instruction of lay people in New Church doctrine.
Affiliations / Distinctions
The Theological School is a part of the Academy of the New Church, which was incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on November 3, 1877. The Academy serves the purposes set forth in Article II of its charter: "propagating the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem and establishing the New Church signified in the Apocalypse by the New Jerusalem, promoting education in all its various forms, educating young men for the Ministry, publishing books, pamphlets, and other printed matter, and establishing a Library. "On January 1, 1879, the charter was amended to authorize the Academy to confer degrees and grant diplomas as do other colleges and universities.
In addition to the Theological School, the Academy is comprised of a college, a secondary school for girls, and a secondary school for boys.
The Theological School and the College have been accredited by the Middle States Association since 1952. This accreditation was reaffirmed most recently in 2003.