Calvin Seminary News

The Compelling Preaching Initiative

News Release from the Center for Excellence in Preaching at Calvin Theological Seminary The Compelling Preaching Initiative   Calvin Theological Seminary’s The Center for Excellence in Preaching (CEP) has received…

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Calvin Theological Seminary Announces Canadian Tuition Parity

GRAND RAPIDS, MI, December 2022 — Through a strategic collaboration in donor support, Calvin Theological Seminary (CTS) is announcing Canadian parity for tuition, as the seminary is now accepting CAD…

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Idema Food Pantry and Clothing Closet

Every Monday and Wednesday following lunch, you can find a buzz of activity in the basement of Calvin Seminary. This is where the Idema Food Pantry and Clothing Closet is…

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Calvin Seminary Remembers Peter Sturrus

A family man, business leader, philanthropist, and friend of Calvin Theological Seminary, Peter Sturrus left a legacy on campus for generations of students. Among their history of faithful giving, Peter…

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Calvin Prison Initiative Seen As National Model For Prison Education

Written by Matt Kucinski Associate Director of Public Relations, Calvin University “Welcome to Room 19. This is the room we began in.” Todd Cioffi, director of the Calvin Prison Initiative…

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A Commencement to Remember: Calvin Prison Initiative Hosts In-Person Graduation

On May 9, 2022, Calvin Prison Initiative students participated in an extraordinary commencement ceremony at the Richard J. Handlon Correctional Facility. After two years of deferred graduations due to Covid-19,…

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Welcome Dr. Yudha Thianto

Grand Rapids, MI (May 2022) — Calvin Theological Seminary (CTS) welcomes Dr. Yudha Thianto, set to join the seminary faculty in fall of 2022 as a professor of History of…

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Welcome Dr. Cunha

Grand Rapids, MI (April 2022) — Calvin Theological Seminary (CTS) welcomes Dr. Wilson de Angelo Cunha, set to join the seminary faculty in fall of 2022 to serve as a…

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Congressional Representatives Connect with the Calvin Prison Initiative

In March 2022, U.S. Representatives Peter Meijer and John Moolenaar got an insider’s view of the Calvin Prison Initiative. The congressmen traveled to Richard J. Handlon Correctional Facility in Ionia,…

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Jeff Weima on The Sermons to the Seven Churches of Revelation from Vibrant Congregations

Jeff Weima recently spoke about his book The Sermons to the Seven Churches of Revelation for a Church Now Conversation from Vibrant Congregations. Watch Now

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Cory Willson Featured on “In All Things” Podcast

From the “In All Things” podcast from the Andreas Center at Dordt University: On this episode of the podcast, we are joined by a guest host, Jeremy Perigo, and together…

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News

Chaplains in Chapel

On U.S. Veterans Day, November 11, 2009, CTS encouraged veterans on the faculty and in the student body to attend chapel in uniform. Morning worship that day was led by chaplains, some of whom are CTS alumni.

 

Korean Alumni Welcome President Plantinga

In November 2009 CTS President Neal Plantinga spent a week in Seoul, South Korea where he lectured on Calvin and

a Reformed worldview at Hanyoung Theological University and Seminary—an institution in transition from being Pentecostal to being Presbyterian. He was accompanied by Pastor Christian Oh, Plantinga’s former student and a former trustee of the seminary, who served as his translator.

At Sarang (“Love”) Community Church he met with the group of Korean CTS alumni pictured here. Sarang Community Church, a congregation of four thousand worshipers, was founded in 1978 by Calvin alumnus John Oak, and is currently led by another CTS graduate, Senior Pastor Jung-Hyun Oh. Plantinga also preached in two Presbyterian churches and in the Yoido Full Gospel Church—which, with its 500,000 members, is the biggest congregation in the world.

 

Ph.D. Program has Global Impact in 2009

CTS has offered a Ph.D. degree for the past 17 years, and the 33 graduates of that program have made strategic contributions to teaching and scholarship throughout the world. 2009 was a banner year for Ph.D. students making substantive contributions in scholarship during their program at CTS.

No American seminary or Ph.D. pro- gram had as much representation as CTS at the international congress held at the University of Geneva this past May in honor of John Calvin’s 500th birthday. Professor Richard Muller gave a plenary address, and alumni Randy Blacketer and Yudha Thianto and current Ph.D. students Ted Van Raalte and Heber Campos delivered papers.

Campos stayed in Geneva where he and CTS student Dariusz Brycko both delivered papers at the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference in early June. Brycko went on to offer a paper in Poland, a result of which was the visit of a Polish scholar to CTS in November to give a paper at the Meeter Center and begin organizing an international colloquium on the Polish Reformation

Also in May, CTS students Jordan Ballor and Nathan Jacobs delivered papers at a conference in Bretten, Germany, on

“Reformierte Philosophie in der frühen Neuzeit”, where most of the other participants were European professors. The CTS contingent was very well received and the papers will be published. Ballor and Todd Rester are planning to participate in a conference in Venice on electronic Internet research and present on the new Post-Reformation Digital Library resource they developed. Jacobs has also published several articles and co-authored a book on Immanuel Kant.

In June, Muller presented at a Calvin conference in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, at which student Albert Gootjes also offered a paper which will be published. In addition to working on his dissertation, Gootjes has published an article in a French scholarly journal and has trans- lated two scholarly books from Dutch into English. Also that month, recent graduate Keith Stanglin gave an outstanding presentation at an international Arminius conference in the Netherlands, and was interviewed for Dutch TV.

How does CTS’s Ph.D. program accomplish all of this? Financial support is available from the Dodds Fund to send students to conferences, and students are prepared through unique courses specifically designed to teach them how to produce a convincingly argued, professional-level essay, and ultimately a monograph. The result has been very good preparation for academic conferences.

Also, CTS’s Ph.D. program has cultivated a high level of professionalism in research, as evidenced by the research guide project developed in the program, which focuses on rare texts available in online libraries. Check out the Post-Reformation Digital Library at http://libguides.calvin.edu/prdl.