Princeton Theological Seminary

Can't it just be a miracle?

Where does man stop questioning and let faith take over?

What did the wall of Jericho look like?

These questions may seem inappropriate in the average University classroom, where separation between church and state is held sacred. However, students wrestle with these and similar inquiries at a typical Friday morning precept at the Princeton Theological Seminary, which has united the spheres of scholarship and Christian faith for nearly 200 years.

For many, the seminary is a rest stop on the long road to the ministry, mission work, or other church vocation. For others, it is a retreat from the hustle and bustle of secular professional lives. While motivated by different forces and striving toward different goals, students engage in some of the most vibrant precept and dinner discussions around.

The Princeton Theological Seminary was founded in 1812 as the first Presbyterian seminary in the United States. Fearing that it had grown overly secular, the University, then The College of New Jersey, decided to help create a sufficiently spiritual atmosphere for the aspiring ministers in its midst. The only professor at PTS when it first opened was the Rev. Archibald Alexander — the same Alexander family two generations later became the namesake of the University's Alexander Hall.

Ever since its founding, the Seminary has flourished as a bastion of Christian study just footsteps away from one of the foremost academic institutes in the world.

Though Presbyterians still account for a large portion of the student body, PTS has long since abandoned its exclusive affiliation with the church. Representatives from nearly all Christian denominations now come to the seminary, usually spiritually and financially supported by their respective churches.

Nor does PTS cater exclusively to students planning to enter the ministry. It offers three master's programs and two doctoral programs for advanced theological and philosophical study.

Regardless of their particular course of study, seminary students all have something in common: lots of reading. A typical weekday at Small World Coffee will find a group of seminarians in back buried in Augustine's Confessions or Ecclesiastical Greek texts.

Garrett Bugg, a first-year Master of Divinity Program student from North Carolina, said over a cup of Small World brew that he had been struck upon arrival at the seminary by the masses of reading students in lieu of the volleyball games and Frisbee that he remembered as an undergrad at North Carolina State University.

Bugg, a 22-year-old hoping to become a Presbyterian preacher, said many upperclassmen have warned him that the formidable workload drives most seminary students to nearly abandon their faith after a year or two of study. After only a couple of months, Bugg admits that that he is beginning to see how life at the seminary can be overwhelming.

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The most popular course of study is the "mDiv" program, which prepares students for ordination, graduate study, mission work or other religious vocations. Of the school's 746 students, 461 are in the mDiv program, and more than half of these come from a Presbyterian background. Requirements are flexible and take about three years to complete.

Bugg's courses are fairly representative of a first year mDiv: Intro to the Old Testament, Church History from Pentecost to Present and Greek. Most aspiring clerics study either Greek or Hebrew, depending on what their own denomination suggests. Intro to the Old Testament is taken by most first-year students.

He and the other members of the Small World circle agreed that the work was challenging, but the resources offered by Princeton Theological Seminary made the effort worthwhile. "Coming here kept a lot of academic doors open for me," said Jeremy Wallace, an mDiv Southern Baptist from Tennessee. Wallace is still unsure whether he will pursue a career in teaching or preaching, but said that he chose PTS over Southern Seminary because of the strong reputation that PTS's faculty has worldwide.

"There are just so many resources here, both live and in print," said Chris Atwood, an aspiring teacher from Seattle.

PTS also has a Master of the Arts program, which instructs students pursuing careers in Christian education or youth ministry. Upon completion of their studies, which generally takes two years, graduates are capable of teaching the Christian religion in either Christian or secular settings, according to the PTS website.

Students seeking the most rigorous and in-depth ministry preparation available at PTS can earn their Master's of Theology. Often candidates for the Master's of Theology have completed mDiv and wish to expand their knowledge. Requirements are rigorous, though most serious students can complete them in a year.

With the large amount of reading students are assigned each week, active social lives are imperative, the men agreed.

Students at the seminary generally will not be found drinking heavily or dancing to DJ Bob on a Saturday night. Most bear in mind that when they go out for a good time they will be spiritual leaders of sorts one day, said Bugg.

"You don't want to go so wild and crazy that no one wants to hire you as a pastor one day," he said.

Close proximity to New York City factors heavily in many students' decision to go to PTS, Atwood pointed out. There, students can go to concerts, plays or simply a restaurant for a change of scenery.

Some seminary students have organized rock bands that play local venues. Theories of Racquetball and Unsent Letters are two seminary bands that have earned a small following in the area.

Seminary students also occasionally organize "communion suppers." Groups of 10-to-15 students come together for a multi-course dinner after receiving communion and discuss the "gifts" they just received as well as common challenges they encounter as theological students.

Finding a group of friends is essential to dealing with the challenging studies at PTS, Bugg said.

"I think it's up to students to get a good group of friends that they can talk to," he said.

Some students say that their favorite aspect of life at PTS is the diversity of life experiences, races and ages represented in the student body.

Diversity is definitely apparent in a precept setting, where students in their 20s with dyed hair and faded teeshirts can be found next to graying middle-aged professionals in button-downs and khakis. In a precept of just 12 Intro to the Old Testament students, even the Bible cover of each student was unique.

One woman in the class, who asked to remain anonymous, said that she had been surprised by how many "second career" students she had encountered in her few months at the seminary. As a 44-year-old former investment banker and mother, she said she has met many students who, like herself, are studying either in preparation for another career or in the interim of a career change.

In the traditionally secular business world, she said most people considered faith and business mutually exclusive. For her, however, study at the seminary had been a lifelong dream that she felt would enhance her professional life. Many business people could benefit from the backbone of faith that one acquires at PTS, she said.

The seminary also enjoys an ostensible racial diversity. The Association of Black seminarians and the Korean Association of Princeton Theological Seminary are just two student organizations that have stemmed from the racial heterogeneity of PTS's student body.

PTS is also home to a large community of international faculty and students. Sarah Zhang, a Ph.D. candidate from China who currently leads a precept for Intro to the Old Testament said that students she has met from Africa, Europe and Asia all brought different perspectives to classroom and social settings. Zhang said she looks forward to dinner conversations with other internationals who provide her with "a good taste for the history of scholarship."

PTS's diversity, however, does not span into the religious realm. While students come from a large range of denominations, all seminary students are Christian, and classes are taught assuming interest in and acceptance of the ministry of Christ. Princeton's seminary is one of the few in the country that has clung to its Christian roots. Other comparable institutes of higher religious education, such as Yale Divinity School, have become centers of general spiritual studies.

Though life at the seminary is decidedly more spiritual than life at the University, students at both institutions share some common ground. Seminary students can and often do take advantage of University course offerings. Students on both campuses also spend considerable amounts of time with a book in one hand, and a cup of coffee in the other — and wouldn't have it any other way.

"I think we all come here because we're nerds," Wallace chuckled.