OUR CULTURE & LIVING OUR VALUES
At CST, our community values are rooted in our commitment to progressive, diverse, scholastically excellent, justice-driven, invitational, human-centered, praxis-oriented, innovative, responsive, and transformational approaches to theological education. We strive to embody these values in all that we do, both inside and outside of the classroom.
Below are some of the ways in which our community voices have expressed our shared core values:
“I am proud of the bold and progressive politics of CST. We are an international and religiously diverse community with a mix of both "classical" and "cutting edge" academic courses.”
CST’s core value finds its roots in our willingness to grow with the world around us, striving to build up leaders equipped to meet the spiritual needs of the future. The Activating Change Project itself is a deep expression of the high value we place on being change leaders.
“I had a class with students from different backgrounds including Asian, American, African, male, female, transgender, straight and gay, all within one classroom which was amazing.”
Increasingly, CST classrooms and meeting spaces are intersectionality active, providing people from wide ranges of backgrounds the opportunity to engage with each other in exciting and profound ways.
“A CST theological education requires critical thinking within a broad context that engages current events and relates them to history, biblical writings and other texts, and diverse academic sources. This is a vital skill in the world where engagement is so often limited to a tweet and where relational dialogue is attention-seeking, rather than studied.”
Among our recent efforts: hiring dynamic faculty from a range of backgrounds who bring new perspectives and challenges to online, in-person and hybrid classrooms in innovative ways; and performing equity, diversity and inclusion audits of all our syllabi to ensure students learn from scholars of many perspectives.
“I’m learning truth from the voice of the oppressed. This is powerful, connected with grace. I’m proud to be at a seminary that teaches justice and compassion.”
An example: “The anti-Black racism conversations we have had throughout the academic year of 2020-2021 were fundamental in shaping my imagination of what an institution can do. The Activating Change grant, and its subsequent outputs, such as the EDJI scorecard are direct results of that initiative's impact. We walk our talk.”
“We are all welcomed irrespective of class, sex, gender, race, religion, ethnicity, or any other differences. I can convey this same mutual respect to others.”
The CST community strives continually to learn from and extend welcome to people of whatever backgrounds: “The welcome I've received as a trans person - it hasn't been entirely seamless, but folks have been gracious even when they're confused. We’re ready to learn from each other.”
“I work with and have amazing students and co-workers. The CST community is genuinely made up of wonderful individuals.”
The compassionate faculty and the diversity among the students create a thriving, relational model of community centered in love, possibility, and ministry for such a time as this!
“My CST education has provided me with practical skills that have enabled me to lead in worship, program development, and community building. My focus will be on engaging my communities through compassion practices, post-colonial spiritual care, and writing/publishing from a progressive Christian POV.”
A growing edge: Students often have the opportunity to design class projects that not only illustrate what they are learning in the classroom, but that they can use in their leadership and ministry contexts.
“Theological education, in my view, should be a laboratory for inventing new ways of being and acting in the world. It is the greenhouse that can grow and pollinate values that turn into actions to bring healing, compassion, justice, belonging to this world.”
An example: CST’s Spirit Lab is a re-imagining of the weekly chapel experience, becoming a community-building and praxis-oriented transformational project.
“As religion becomes more and more conservative and unfriendly towards the ‘other’ Claremont offers a breath of fresh air for those that understand that religion should be progressive and inclusive. Claremont's theological education allows the development of leaders that realize this and can hopefully redirect the course that ‘mainstream’ Christianity is following right now.”
An example: The Queer Cafe, established out of a class as a short-term group that provided support and education for members of CST’s LGBTQ+ community and allies, met short-term goals for community development and learning, while laying groundwork for meeting future needs among Queer folks as they emerge.
“I want to give what was given to me while here at CST--affirmation, space to create, awareness of my doctrinal limitations, permission to collaborate. All of these things are elements that will move theology forward to be more inclusive, create less suffering in the world, and honor the pluralistic realities we all live in.”
An example: the Center for Engaged Compassion, founded by faculty members Frank Rogers and Andrew Dreitcer, focuses on healing and reconciliation using real-world techniques rooted in ancient wisdom traditions.
