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There is something about the launch of a new academic year that feels like the start of a new journey.
It is kind of like a new car smell. Recently purchased books with crisp pages. There are new names that will soon become familiar faces. And across campus there is that unmistakable sense of anticipation and anxiety that always accompanies the launch of a new school year. We are excited about what’s possible, even as we are uncertain about what lies ahead.
Nevertheless, learning communities like this one teach us that we should always keep moving. Why? Because we are formed along the way!
This is what the Gospels teach us. Consider the ways Jesus often forms his disciples while they are in motion. Jesus walks alongside of them, asks questions, and listens. In the process, the disciples misunderstand his teachings, debate with one another, encounter those with different views, and witness miracles that they cannot readily explain.
Yet, along the way, they are transformed.
That vision of formation matters deeply to us here at Princeton Seminary. Theological education is more than the accumulation of knowledge or completion of degree requirements. We are formed in community, alongside one another. We learn in classrooms, chapels, and through learning cohorts. We are formed in hallways, over shared meals and in faculty offices. Through friendships and disagreements, we learn how to think, believe, lead, and serve God and one another.
This year, that community continues to grow. We are delighted to welcome three new colleagues to the Princeton Seminary faculty:
Research interests include the Gospel of John, the Book of Revelation, gender, authorship theory, corporeality and the New Testament, and reception of the New Testament.
Research interests include systematic and queer theology, pneumatology, theological anthropology, autonomy, and human agency.
Research interests include holistic preacher formation, African American preaching traditions, Christian spirituality, Howard Thurman, and the history of preaching.
Our community is also formed by the people and ideas we bring together throughout the year. Lectures, conversations, worship, performances, and gatherings invite scholars, faith leaders, artists, and public voices to engage our community on campus, at the Farminary, and beyond. I am particularly excited to welcome to campus the inaugural Polaris Young Adult Faith & Flourishing Conference. This two-day event will bring together leading experts and emerging scholars to explore the intersections of Christian faith, health, and human flourishing.
Throughout the year, I invite you to join us to listen, question, encounter new perspectives, and take part in the conversations shaping our life together.
This year also marks the beginning of a new chapter for Alexander Hall, the Seminary’s oldest building and, for generations, a place where our intellectual and spiritual life has taken shape. Since its cornerstone was laid in 1815, students have studied, preached, lived, and wrestled with questions of faith and calling within its walls. Renovations beginning this year will renew that historic role for generations to come.
The renovated building will once again bring faculty, students, and intellectual life together at the heart of campus while creating a more welcoming entrance to Princeton Seminary. It will make room for the encounters that have always mattered here: a first sermon preached, a difficult text considered with a professor, a question pursued further, a sense of calling deepened. Even as we renew a historic place, we are creating space for new generations to learn, grow, and discern their own sense of calling.
May this be a year in which we walk together, learn together, and allow God to continue forming us along the way.
One Luv,
Jonathan Lee WaltonPresident
“The love of God and the love of humanity are one love”—Benjamin Elijah Mays
I am always delighted to share a few books and articles that I’ve read recently and found thought-provoking.
