The Rev. Dr. Iain Torrance, a Scotsman who has served as president of the Princeton Theological Seminary for the past nine months, will be officially inaugurated this afternoon. At least 1,500 Seminary faculty, students and alumni are expected to attend the ceremony in the University Chapel, Seminary spokeswoman Barbara Chaapel said.
Elected president in April 2004, Torrance took office on July 1. He said he was interested in instilling the "core intellectual skills" of truth-telling, compassion, sharing, honesty and respect in the Seminary's students.
"One should try to inculcate these skills in students no matter what discipline one is teaching," said Torrance, who is also a professor of patristics, or early Christian doctrine, at the Seminary. "Learning is not just about the transfer of knowledge but about values."
Among those expected at the inauguration and installation are President Tilghman, the moderator of the American Presbyterian Church and the presidents of the Harvard and Yale divinity schools. Representatives from the four ancient universities of Scotland –– St. Andrews, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh –– will be among the 65 institutional delegates attending at the ceremony.
Before assuming the Seminary's presidency, Torrance was a professor of patristics and Christian ethics at Aberdeen University in Scotland. He has traveled to Iraq and Bosnia as a chaplain with the British Army, and serves as a chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II.
Seminary student Will Shirley said he expects Torrance to take an active leadership role but also be open to the involvement of other faculty members.
"He's dedicated to making sure his colleagues are involved in the decision-marking and planning for the Seminary," said Shirley, who works in the Seminary communications office.
He added that Torrance's experiences as a chaplain to British soldiers abroad will give him a unique perspective on the Seminary's global mission. "There are many complicated issues in the world and I think [Torrance] wants students to see all the issues and conflicts out there so they can better minister."
Torrance will use his position to create interfaith dialogue at the Seminary between Christians, Jews and Muslims, Shirley predicted. "He also wants there to be a focus on studying the role of religion in American society and the religious tensions which exist here."
This is not the first time Torrance has lived in Princeton. In the late 1950s, his father held a visiting faculty position at the Seminary and the family lived in Seminary houses. Though Torrance and his wife Morag have set up residence nearby, their grown son and daughter will stay in Scotland to pursue their educations and careers.
Torrance is the Seminary's sixth president. His immediate predecessor was Thomas Gillespie, a New Testament scholar who served as president for more than 20 years.
A Seminary alumnus, Gillespie announced his retirement from the Seminary in May 2003. As president he guided the institution through two successful capital campaigns, preached to the Seminary community each week and taught a class in New Testament exegesis, according to a Seminary statement.
The Presbyterian General Assembly founded the Seminary in 1811 after deciding that the University had become an institution too secular for clergy training. A rotating committee of faculty guided the Seminary until 1902 when former University President Francis Landey Patton took office.
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