Centers and Programs

Please click on the links to find out more about our Centers and Programs.

Anna Howard Shaw Center

The Anna Howard Shaw Center at Boston University School of Theology promotes structures and practices that empower women and honor diversity. The Center is named after the Reverend Doctor Anna Howard Shaw, a Methodist minister, medical doctor, and suffragist. Ten years after
its founding in 1978, the Shaw Center was designated as the women’s center for the Northeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church.

Center for Practical Theology

The Center for Practical Theology seeks to provide a bridge between the scholarly resources, questions, and insights of a university-based theological seminary and the wisdom, questions, and traditions of communities of faith. In doing so, the Center provides an infrastructure for sustaining, deepening, and expanding important relationships and connections between Boston University School of Theology and local congregations, denominational offices, and religious centers so that they may be more integrally incorporated into student learning and faculty teaching and research. The Center was created in January 2005 with generous funding from the Lilly Endowment, Inc.

Activities of the Center for Practical Theology

The Center:

  • is co-directed by Prof. Claire Wolfteich and Prof. Bryan Stone
  • has a board of directors composed of faculty persons and church leaders
  • has its offices in Room 111
  • supports the PhD degree program in practical theology at STH
  • offers fellowships to pastors teaching courses at STH and honoraria to support the integration of pastoral leaders into academic instruction on an occasional basis (as presenters, guest lecturers, and preachers)
  • provides a program of incentive grants for faculty interested in creating new courses and revising existing courses in dialogue with local congregations and pastoral partners
  • provides funding for faculty research projects with a practical theological orientation
  • provides funding for increased library holdings in the area of practical theology
  • seeks to formalize a network of congregational and pastoral partners that will be resources for the entire STH community
  • hosts community lunches and practical theology forums that gather students, pastoral leaders, and faculty across the disciplines for discussion of significant research, dialogue about critical issues facing the church, theological reflection, and shared spiritual practice.

Major projects of the Center for Practical Theology

  1. The Congregational Research and Development (CRD) project, directed by Prof. Bryan Stone, brings together researchers, scholars, students, pastors and other congregational leaders to build connections, conduct research, provide training, mobilize resources, and serve as a hands-on catalyst for new church development and congregational renewal while, at the same time, better contextualizing our school’s ministerial education within the lived reality of congregations.
  2. The Spiritual Formation and Church Life (SFCL) project, directed by Prof. Claire Wolfteich and coordinated by Susan Forshey, makes connections in creative ways with congregations, retreat centers, centers for spiritual direction, and denominational offices to strengthen spiritual formation within churches and seminaries. The project conducts research on spiritual practices, models of spiritual formation and renewal, spirituality and public pastoral leadership, and diverse traditions of Christian spirituality. Through this work, the project seeks to develop practical theologians-spiritual guides who are equipped to form and nurture Christians, who are learned in the historical traditions of Christian spirituality, who have a keen understanding of contemporary spiritual questions and quests, who can engage in serious theological reflection on spiritual practice, and who can creatively design programs of spiritual renewal for people in particular social contexts. The SFCL project collaborates with partners in order to improve the spiritual formation of ministry students through a range of creative new initiatives:
    1. Experimental new courses in practical theology and spirituality integrate renewal, times of sabbatical, theological study, and community building.
    2. The SFCL project seeks to enhance spiritual renewal opportunities for students in the form of (a) Reading Retreats, (b) mini-workshops on spiritual practices, (c) an annual fall retreat for entering M.Div. and MTS students, (d) an annual event for third-year Master of Divinity students that focuses on the transition to ministry, and (e) subsidies for individual student retreats to provide time apart for prayer, renewal, and reflection.
    3. Because communities are so important to sustaining pastoral leaders, the SFCL project encourages the development of spiritual companioning groups for third-year Master of Divinity students and recent alumni. Such groups provide ongoing support and community as students prepare to move into ministry and as they begin diverse ministries post-graduation.
    4. The SFCL project works with other seminaries, congregations, and centers for spiritual direction to establish supervised field education opportunities for students in these spiritual ministries so that students will be enabled to participate in training programs in spiritual formation and spiritual direction.
    5. The project engages in research and dialogue about the different models of spiritual formation and spiritual guidance in the various mainline Protestant, Evangelical, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox traditions. Project participants consult with communities of faith to jointly identify critical spiritual questions and issues that must be addressed and then design research and colloquia that explore these questions and issues.
  3. The Sustaining Urban Pastoral Excellence builds off of a project originally carried out by the Center with 96 urban pastors from around the nation during 2002-2007 and attempts to imbed key elements from that program in the M.Div. curriculum and into the way that curriculum is linked to alumni, local urban congregations, and their pastors. The SUPE program focuses on the development of ongoing peer learning communities, nurturing practices of Sabbath keeping, contextualizing theological education in the realities of urban congregations, and attending to spiritual formation and renewal throughout the entire MDiv experience.

Project on African American Religious Research and Education (PAARRE)

Begun in 2003 and directed by the Rev. Imani-Sheila Newsome-Camara, Assistant Professor of Church History and Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at Boston University School of Theology, this project seeks to fill an important gap in research and theological reflection on African American religious practice, and to build stronger connections between the seminary and leading African American religious scholars and leaders. The project envisions a range of future initiatives, including a study of the Black Church in New England, fellowships for “Early Career Scholars” specializing in Black Church studies, and the creation of Life Long Learning Alternatives for local and national African American scholars, ministers, and laity. Workshops and seminars address topics such as: the nature of cross-cultural appointment in mainline churches with particular attention to African Americans, Africans of the Diaspora, and Koreans; and spiritual life and clergy wellbeing in the African American church.

Center for Global Christianity and Mission

The Center for Global Christianity and Mission at the Boston University School of Theology was established in 2002 to explore the most important development in Christianity during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries: the shift of Christianity’s demographic center to the southern hemisphere and parts of Asia. The total number of Christians worldwide continues to grow, even as the European and North American component of the world church has shrunk to less than one-third of the total.

Religion and Conflict Transformation Prorgam

Room B-17
617-358-5729
website
Program Administrator: Shandi Mawokomatanda

The program was first established in 2004 with generous funding from the Luce Foundation. This program prepares religious leaders to become a resource for peace in a multi-cultural, multi-faith world. It is aimed at training ministers and other religious leaders in the theology, theory, and practice of faith-based conflict transformation in the church and in the world. At the heart of this program is putting the ministry of reconciliation back at the center of the church’s mission and the training of religious leaders for that mission. The program emphasizes the following focal areas: conflict studies, trauma healing, restorative justice, human security, and spiritual formation of peace builders. The program is offered to students enrolled in degree programs, as well as to students in non-degree students, ministers and other professionals in the field seeking to advance their education and receive training and certification in the area of religion and conflict transformation. The RCT program welcomes all religious leaders, including:

  • Pastors and local religious leaders
  • Prison chaplains
  • Military chaplains
  • Missionaries
  • Non-governmental organization professionals
  • Facilitators of conflict transformation

The Certificate

All enrolled students will receive the Certificate in RCT. There are two ways to earn a certificate:

  1. Supplement an existing program for degree candidates in the Boston Theological Institute schools.
  2. Register for continuing education programs in the BTI schools. Registrants may be, for example, social workers and lawyers, teachers and missionaries, pastors or priests, military and prison chaplains, or others. Masters’ students at Boston University School of Theology have an option of enrolling in the Concentration offered through the school.

The Concentration

Students enrolled in the Boston University School of Theology masters programs (MDiv, MTS and STM) may enroll in the RCT Concentration. Concentration students will receive the Certificate in RCT and a transcript noting a concentration in RCT studies. Requirements for the concentration are the same as the general certificate program (see below).

The Program in Conflict Transformation at the Boston University School of Theology is directed by two highly accomplished adjunct faculty members, with deep and wide experience in the theory and practice of conflict transformation and peace-building in religious contexts: