by Mark S. Anderson ’16 and Anne Urinoski ’16
Having just moved to New York City, neither of us was sure of what to expect from our new lives at General Theological Seminary. Moreover, we had not seen the intricacies of how our courses would fit together.
However, immediately after Orientation, we began a course entitled “Introduction to Theological Education.” The faculty designed this class to demonstrate how the various theological disciplines cohesively fit together.
After beginning the semester with a discussion of our new life together in the seminary community, each interconnected unit of the course was taught by a different member of the faculty, who introduced us to his or her specialty and discussed how their disciplines fit together and informed one another. For example, we discussed how Liturgics examines the ways that a group relates to God and Ascetical Theology examines how an individual relates to God.
More broadly, however, this course helped us create a more unified understanding of our entire experience at General thus far. For instance, as we spent time in this class discussing ways to read the psalms during Morning Prayer and ruminate on them over the course of the day, we were considering how to integrate our chapel and academic experiences.
By the conclusion of the semester, this course had helped us begin to develop a sense of how the various components of the GTS curriculum would fit together to prepare us for ministry.
This article originally appeared in GTS News Quarterly, Summer 2014, The Way of Wisdom issue. To read all articles from General Seminary about The Way of Wisdom, go to www.gts.edu/wisdom.