 | |
| Type | Seminary |
|---|---|
| Established | 1850 |
| Accreditation | Association of Theological Schools (ATS) and Higher Learning Commission |
| Affiliation | United Church of Christ |
| President | Deborah Krause |
| Dean | Sonja Williams |
Academic staff | 6 |
| Students | 56 |
| Location | , , United States |
| Campus | Suburban |
| Website | www |
Eden Theological Seminary is a Christian seminary based in Webster Groves, Missouri. It is one of the six official seminaries of the United Church of Christ.
The seminary was established in 1850 by German pastors in Marthasville, Missouri. At the time, the goal was to equip pastors to lead and minister to frontier churches. The pastors soon formed the German Evangelical Synod of North America. This, after subsequent mergers, became a part of the UCC.
In 1883, the Seminary moved to what would become Wellston, Missouri and built a campus there. The campus was purchased by Normandy High School in 1923. In 1924, the Seminary moved to its current campus in Webster Groves. The school was augmented in 1934 by a merger with the Central Theological Seminary, an institution of the Reformed Church in the United States in Dayton, Ohio, and the Oakwood Institute of Cincinnati, Ohio. This coincided with the merger of the two denominations into the Evangelical and Reformed Church. Conversations at Eden Theological Seminary, beginning in 1937, led to the 1957 merger of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches to form the United Church of Christ.
| Term | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1941 - 1962 | Frederich Schroeder | |
| 1962 - 1981 | Robert Fauth | |
| 1981 - 1986 | Malcolm Warford | After Eden, Warford served as president of Bangor Theological Seminary from 1987 to 1995. |
| 1986 - 1993 | Eugene S. Wehrli | Namesake for Wehrli Chapel. Was Professor of New Testament from 1960 to 1986. |
| 1993 - 1996 | Charles R. Kniker | Prior to Eden, Kniker was professor of education at Iowa State University for 24 years and at one point was assistant dean of the College of Education. |
| 1997 - 2020 | David Greenhaw | |
| 2020 - Present | Deborah Krause | First woman president of Eden Seminary, Professor of New Testament and former academic dean |
Eden Theological Seminary offers four degree programs: Master of Divinity (M.Div.), Master of Arts in Professional Studies (M.A.P.S), Master of Theological Studies (M.T.S.), and Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.). Eden's campus offers on-campus housing and dormitories to its student body.[1]
In 1968, Eden Theological Seminary built the Luhr Library to house its collections. The next year, it was approached by Webster University. The two schools agreed to put their collections together, and the Luhr building became the library building for both the Seminary and Webster University.
In 2003, the book collections outgrew the capacities of the Luhr building and the books were moved to the newly-constructed Emerson Library at Webster University, where the library remains to this day. The Emerson Library is open to both Eden Seminary and Webster University students, and is a member of the MOBIUS library consortium. Eden Seminary maintains its historically-significant books and religious/theology reference collections in the Luhr Reading Room in the Samuel Press Hall. In 2010, the Luhr building was sold to Webster University, which uses it for its institutional technology department and the chess team.
Notable alumni of Eden include Reinhold Niebuhr, H. Richard Niebuhr, Walter Brueggemann, Catherine Keller and Seth Senyo Agidi.
