Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (PLTS) is a private

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...

seminary in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

. It is affiliated with

California Lutheran University California Lutheran University (CLU, Cal Lutheran, or Cal Lu) is a private university in Thousand Oaks, California. It was founded in 1959 and is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but is nonsectarian. It opened in 1960 ...

and is a member school of the

Graduate Theological Union The Graduate Theological Union (GTU) is a consortium of eight private independent American theological schools and eleven centers and affiliates. Seven of the theological schools are located in Berkeley, California. The GTU was founded in 1962 ...

History

Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary was founded in 1950 and held its first classes in 1952 as a seminary of the

United Lutheran Church in America The United Lutheran Church in America (ULCA) was established in 1918 in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation after negotiations among several American Lutheran national synods resulted in the merger of three German-l ...

, later the

Lutheran Church in America The Lutheran Church in America (LCA) was an American and Canadian Lutheran church body that existed from 1962 to 1987. It was headquartered in New York City and its publishing house was Fortress Press. The LCA's immigrant heritage came mostly fr ...

and

American Lutheran Church The American Lutheran Church (TALC) was a Christian Protestant denomination in the United States and Canada that existed from 1960 to 1987. Its headquarters were in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Upon its formation in 1960, The ALC designated Augsburg ...

and currently the

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant Lutheran church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. , it has approxim ...

(ELCA). As one of seven seminaries training ministers and educators for the ELCA, PLTS was preceded by a school called the Pacific Lutheran Seminary, which was located first in Portland,

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, and then in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, from 1910 to 1934. As of January 1, 2014, PLTS became the seminary of California Lutheran University, a Lutheran university located in

Thousand Oaks, California Thousand Oaks is the second-largest city in Ventura County, California, United States. It is in the northwestern part of Greater Los Angeles, approximately from the city of Los Angeles and from Downtown. It is named after the many oak tr ...

. The mission of PLTS is to equip people to put their faith into action as the church and culture face dramatic change; because people who follow their purpose can transform a community, and the world. PLTS provides theological education for the training of clergy and lay leaders through ordination, non-ordination, and research level degrees and certificates. Learning at PLTS is an immersion experience with a diversity of people and our engaging campus location in Downtown Berkeley provides a plethora of opportunities for engagement with the church and world. The seminary relocated from its hilltop campus to 2000 Center Street in 2017.

Academics

PLTS has 9 faculty members, 2 adjunct faculty members, and 5 emeriti faculty members. The seminary offers the following degrees and certificates: Master of Divinity, Master of Theological Studies, Certificate of Theological Studies, and Certificate of Advanced Theological Studies. In collaboration with the Graduate Theological Union, PLTS offers two degrees: Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy or Theology. The seminary serves all of the ELCA and has specific ties to Regions 1 and 2 and the eleven

synod A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word '' synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin word mean ...

s of the western U.S. PLTS was founded to meet the missional needs of the Lutheran Church in the western United States. PLTS was a founding member of the

. PLTS partners with eleven ELCA synods and with the national units of the ELCA, and several foundations. Together they have worked to develop the Theological Education for Emerging Ministries program. On April 24, 2009, the Board of Directors of PLTS voted unanimously to seek a

Reconciling in Christ ReconcilingWorks, initially named Lutherans Concerned for Gay People and subsequently Lutherans Concerned/North America, is an organization of laypeople, pastors, and congregations primarily from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) ...

(RIC) designation from Lutherans Concerned/North America (LC/NA), the first seminary in the ELCA to do so. Shortly thereafter, LC/NA added a new "Seminaries" category to its list of RIC organizations and made PLTS the first member of that category.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Educational institutions established in 1950 Lutheran seminaries Graduate Theological Union 1950 establishments in California Education in Berkeley, California Lutheran buildings and structures in North America