Non-Western Seminary Reccomendations

Some of our students plan to go on to do graduate studies in a seminary once they are done at PIBC. Occasionally they ask for recommendations. Of course, I easily recommend the schools that I attended and which have been important in my life -- Fuller and North Park. (And we're eventually planning to add an MDiv program to PIBC or to partner with another seminary which would be willing to offer their classes through us on our Guam campus.*)

Increasingly, though, I'm inclined to suggest to students -- particularly those planning to serve in an island context -- that it might be beneficial to investigate some of the schools in a non-western setting. After all, our students have already been exposed to teachers from the US and Germany. And try as we might, unlike most of our students, we're still very Western in our thinking and orientation.

I'm certainly not an expert on theological education outside the traditional Western setting but the following schools have at various times been recommended to me. Do any of you have suggestions of other seminaries which should be added to my list? Leave a comment and tell me me why you think they'd be worth directing our students toward. Our students speak English (as a second, third, or fourth language) so wherever we send them should probably have an English program.

Here is my current list:

Lutheran Theological Seminary in Hong Kong -- Don't let the name fool you. Yes, they are definitely Lutheran but most of their students are not.

Asian Theological Seminary in Manila -- solid program, mixture of faculty from the Asian and Western contexts.

Asia Pacific Theological Seminary in Baguio City, Philippines -- Hey, anytime you get Pentecostals passionate about offering graduate-level education you're on to something special.

East Asia School of Theology in Singapore -- established by Campus Crusade for Christ

Trinity Theological College in Singapore -- lots of Methodists and Presbyterians on the faculty and Singapore IS a great place

South African Theological Seminary -- trying hard to reach the developing world through a distance education format

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*We had a partnership with Hawai'i Theological Seminary that looked very promising but they've merged with California Graduate School of Theology and are having some rough times with accreditation issues -- issues which they'll eventually solve but for now they can't really help us.