Graduate Theological Union founded
On September 24, 1962, Articles of Incorporation were signed by representatives of Berkeley Baptist Divinity School (now Berkeley School of Theology), Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, and San Francisco Theological Seminary in order to offer a cooperative graduate program leading to a Th.D. degree. Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary was […]
Sherman E. Johnson, Dean, 1962-1963
Sherman E. Johnson (1908-1993) was selected as the first dean of GTU while also serving as the dean at Church Divinity School of the Pacific (1951-1972). He had played a key role in the initial interseminary discussions leading to the formation of the GTU and is credited with suggesting the name Graduate Theological Union.
Three new member schools join the GTU consortium
Pacific School of Religion, which had already been in the collaborative discussions, joins the GTU along with Starr King School for the Ministry (then Thomas Starr King School for Religious Leadership), and the consortium’s first Catholic institution, the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology (then College of St. Albert the Great).
Time features GTU in “Seminaries: Joining the Theologians for Thrift & Tolerance”
Two years after its founding, GTU appears in the Religion section of the November 6 issue of Time.
Coordination of library services established
The GTU Library Committee, created in 1963, establishes the Bibliographical Center in the following year. The Center was not a library, but performed specific functions for the libraries of the member schools. Operating from the basement of the building at 2465 LeConte (purchased from SFTS and BDS), the Center created a union catalog, assembled a reference collection, and […]
Jesuit School of Theology joins consortium
Founded as Alma College in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1934, the school opened as a theologate for Jesuits of the Oregon and California Provinces, becoming a pontifical faculty in 1945. In 1958, the theologate affiliated with Santa Clara University (SCU) as its School of Theology. In the midst of Vatican II (1964), the faculty […]
Franciscan School of Theology joins consortium
In 1854, Mission Santa Barbara was chartered as an apostolic college and continued in that capacity until 1885. From 1869 to 1877, the school also functioned as a college for laymen. In 1896, it began as a four-year high school seminary program. The high school and college departments became separate institutions in 1901 and 1929. […]
Center for Judaic Studies founded
The Center for Judaic Studies (later the Center for Jewish Studies and now the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies) was GTU’s first specialized institute. Professor and Rabbi David Winston was appointed to head the Center, becoming the third faculty appointment to be supported by GTU funding. While not a rabbinical school, the Center […]
Common Library opens at CDSP
GTU’s Common Library opens in Church Divinity School of the Pacific’s basement. Initially, the library combined books and journals from some member schools in a single location. Unfortunately, different cataloging systems were used by the different seminaries, creating a cataloger’s challenge. Ultimately, all books were catalogued under the Library of Congress classification, used by nearly all […]