Our Mission

Erskine Theological Seminary is an educational institution of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, and the Seminary has been called by God and commissioned by its host to serve not only that denomination, but also the entire Church of Jesus Christ. The mission of Erskine Theological Seminary is to educate persons for service in the Christian Church.

Our Commitments

Erskine Theological Seminary is committed to love and serve God through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. We acknowledge that the Father has given Jesus Christ as head over all things for the Church, and by his grace and Spirit we seek to serve him faithfully by making disciples and equipping saints for the work of ministry, so that the body of Christ may be built up. At Erskine, we seek to serve God as part of the Protestant evangelical tradition, and all faculty members subscribe ex animo to the following definition of an evangelical Christian, adopted by our host denomination, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church:

The word “evangelical” comes from a Greek root meaning “good news,” and it refers to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In a broad sense, evangelicals are people who believe that the Bible is God’s inspired Word and that an individual can become a Christian only by accepting Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. Evangelicals believe:

1. The Bible alone, being God-breathed, is the Word of God Written, infallible in all that it teaches, and inerrant in the original manuscripts.

2. That there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

3. In the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, in his Virgin Birth, in his sinless life, in his miracles, in his vicarious and atoning death through the shed blood, in his bodily resurrection, in his ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in his personal return in power and glory.

4. That for the salvation of lost and sinful man, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.

5. In the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.

6. In the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; that they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.

7. In the spiritual unity of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Erskine Theological Seminary is committed to the truthfulness, authority, and centrality of the Bible. We affirm “the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the written Word of God, the only perfect rule of faith and practice.” (This statement comes from the ARP Form of Government [V.C.1:a (3)]. The ARP Church issued a more extensive statement about Scripture in 1979, which included the following assertions: “The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God without error in all that it teaches” [Minutes of the General Synod, 1979, p. 23]. “We believe that the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to us through the Holy Scripture which is the Word of God written. While we do not have the original autographs as evidence, we believe on faith that God’s Word in its entirety was accurately recorded by the original writers through divine inspiration and reliably transmitted to us” [Minutes of the General Synod, 1979, p. 76].) We seek to be faithful to the Bible by examining the Scriptures in the original languages, interpreting the Biblical texts faithfully, and applying the teachings of Scripture to all aspects of human life and to all people, both inside and outside the Church. The Bible holds the preeminent and central place in all facets of Erskine Seminary’s scholarship, teaching, and worship.

Erskine Theological Seminary is committed to the Reformed Tradition. We believe that the tradition of Biblical interpretation, theology, and Christian practice stemming from the Calvinistic wing of the Protestant Reformation is faithful to Scripture, and that this tradition can speak truthfully and powerfully to the contemporary world. As a part of this commitment, Erskine Seminary seeks to be faithful to the doctrinal standards of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, as set forth in the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms. Two-thirds of all faculty members are required to be members of denominations that subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith or some other Reformed Confession, with the goal being that a majority of faculty members be Associate Reformed Presbyterians.

Erskine Theological Seminary is committed to the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. We believe that faculty members, staff and students from non-Reformed denominations are an important part of our community, and we respect the diversity of denominational distinctives and doctrinal stances as we seek to prepare candidates for ministry. Similarly, we recognize that men and women from a variety of ethnic, economic, geographical, and cultural backgrounds have important contributions to make to the task of theological education. We are convinced that the varied perspectives represented in the Erskine community help enable all of us to see more clearly the multi-faceted diamond which is the universal Church. At the same time, we affirm that our common ground is more fundamental than our differences, and we seek to explore that common ground by providing a core curriculum to all students, a curriculum that includes the traditional emphases on the Bible, theology, Church history, and ministerial functions.

Erskine Theological Seminary is committed to the needs and spiritual growth of its students. We seek to create an educational climate that brings about growth in Christian character and fosters the spiritual formation of students, faculty, and staff. We believe that collegiality is an important mark of such a climate, and we seek to foster close relationships within the community by restricting classes to small enrollment, by ensuring easy student access to faculty, and by worshiping together regularly. Moreover, we recognize that there are many students for whom traditional theological education would not be a viable option, and we seek to meet the needs of these students by providing a program of distributive education that includes courses taught both at off-campus sites and through distance education.

Erskine Theological Seminary is committed to its role as a resource for the whole Christian Church. We seek to minister to the broader Church by providing a program of continuing education (conferences, seminars, and special lectures) addressing the needs of both clergy and laity in the Church. Our faculty and staff members seek to be engaged fully in the Church’s life and activities through teaching and serving ministries in their own and other churches, denominations, and missions agencies. Our faculty members also seek to advance the Gospel by contributing at a scholarly level to the Church’s discussions about theology, history, culture, and ministry.

Our History

The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States came into existence in November 1782, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Associate Reformed Synod of the South, today called the General Synod, was organized in 1803. One of the most serious problems confronting the Church in the early period of its history was to secure ministers to serve its scattered congregations and carry on missionary work in the rapidly-growing population. Since the Church had a deep heritage in Scotland, with a long emphasis on an educated clergy, the need for a theological seminary was keenly felt. The first attempt to fill this need was made in 1822 when the Synod appointed two pastors to provide theological training for young ministerial candidates. The Seminary had no buildings, no books, and no money. When one professor died in 1829 and the other left in 1831 to accept work in Pennsylvania, the Synod began plans for an institution to provide scholastic and theological training of ministerial candidates.

In 1836, the Synod opened an academy in Due West, South Carolina and the following year added a professor of divinity and incorporated the institution under the name of “Clark and Erskine Seminary.” The addition of the professor of divinity in 1837 was the beginning of Erskine Theological Seminary.

In 1839, Clark and Erskine Seminary was reorganized, and the faculty was enlarged to establish the first four-year denominational college in South Carolina. The name of the institution was shortened to “Erskine College” about 1843, and in the following years the Seminary functioned as an adjunct of Erskine College.

In 1858, the Seminary became a separate institution, but continued to operate under the same Board of Trustees as Erskine College. During the Civil War, the student enrollment was greatly reduced in both the College and Seminary, resulting in the sharing of teachers between the two faculties. In 1926, the College and Seminary again combined resources, and the Seminary became the professional school of Erskine College, an arrangement that continues to exist.

Our Community Life

Erskine Theological Seminary is not a local church, and as such, it does not assume direct responsibility for the spiritual nurture and discipline of believers. Rather, all members of the seminary community (students, faculty members, and staff members) are expected to be active participants in the life of their respective local churches and/or denominations and to submit themselves to those churches/denominations, under the ultimate authority of Christ and the Scriptures. At the same time, however, Erskine is a community of believers who come together regularly for worship, fellowship, service, and the spiritual and academic preparation of ministers of the gospel. Therefore, Erskine expects all members of the community to conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ (Phil. 1:27), and to live lives worthy of the calling they have received (Eph. 4:1). The Christian life cannot be reduced to a handful of rules, for Christian maturity involves growing in knowledge of and adherence to the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:28). Members of the Erskine community are expected to rely upon the Holy Spirit in cultivating the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16), and to be growing in the characteristics which Paul prescribes for Christian leaders in 1 Timothy 3. Nevertheless, certain aspects of Christian life deserve special mention in this statement, since these are some of the areas where the gospel differs radically from the values of our society, and thus they are among the ways in which believers are called to be distinct from the world. We expect all members of our community to share the following convictions and to uphold the following standards of Christian community life:

I. We believe that the ultimate goal of human life, and thus especially of Christian life, is the glory of God (Rom. 11:36, 1 Cor. 10:31). We believe that God has created all human beings in His image and likeness (Gen. 1:26-7), and thus that all people are of value and significance. We believe further that all Christians are fellow members of the body of Christ (Rom. 12:5), and thus are of special value to God. In light of these truths, we believe that Christian life is characterized by humility with respect to both God (because God is the ultimate end of Christian life) and other believers (because they are sharers in the grace of life which God has given us).

A. Therefore, we expect members of the Erskine community to be growing in Christian humility as they grow in awareness of the vastness of God’s majesty and grace, and of their own unworthiness before God. We expect such humility to manifest itself in a spirit of openness to areas where God wants to teach, reprove, or transform, both in individual and in corporate life.

B. We expect this humility to manifest itself in relationships with other members of the community. We expect community members to respect and value those people with whom they come into contact on campus. They refuse to use other people simply as means to their own ends. They are willing to recognize the presence of Christ with and in other believers. They attempt to encourage, love, and console others as needed. They respect those with whom they disagree, and they treat others charitably and fairly in the midst of theological debate/discussion.

C. We expect members of the community to conduct themselves with integrity and respect for the persons, the property, and the work of others. Community members speak the truth to one another in love, refrain from the theft or misuse of others’ property, and conduct their academic work honestly, without cheating or plagiarizing. (Cheating and plagiarizing are defined in the discussion of the Honor Code in this Catalog and in the Student Handbook. Standards of integrity for faculty members in their conduct toward students and in their own academic research are enumerated throughout the Faculty Manual).

II. We believe that the Church universal is the body of Christ, which includes people of both sexes and all races, economic classes, and ethnic groups (Gal. 3:28). We believe further that Christians are called to celebrate the universality and unity of Christ’s body in their relationships with one another (Eph. 4:2-6).

A. Therefore, we expect community members to be active in seeking reconciliation and unity among races, classes, and sexes, both in the Church and in the broader society.

B. We expect members of the community to be willing to value and learn from the positive contributions which Christians of other groups can make to the universal body of Christ. This involves a respect for the insights and customs of other cultures and a desire to bring all cultures (one’s own and others’) under the judgment of Scripture.

C. We expect community members to abstain from discrimination, deliberate divisiveness, malicious humor, and gossip.

III. We believe that God created humanity male and female and that appropriate sexual expression is a gift from God. We believe further that God has ordained monogamous, heterosexual marriage (a lifelong commitment of a man and a woman to each other) as the only proper context in which intimate sexual expression is to take place. We believe that sexual purity involves more than simply abstinence from physical acts, that it is also a matter of honoring God through one’s thoughts and desires (Matt. 5:27-30). We also believe that relationships between men and women (both between spouses and outside of marriage) are grounded in a respect for other people and a willingness to put others first.

A. Therefore, we expect all members of the community to abstain from all intimate sexual expression either prior to or outside of monogamous, heterosexual marriage.

B. We expect all community members to treat members of the opposite sex with respect, to abstain from sexual harassment and sexual exploitation in any form.

C. We expect all members of the Erskine community to abstain from the use of pornographic material and to exercise discretion in choosing forms of entertainment which can easily incite lust.

IV. We believe that Christians are called to be filled with and controlled by the Spirit and to avoid enslavement to physical masters such as food and alcohol (1 Cor. 6:12-13, Eph. 5:18).
Therefore, we expect members of the Erskine community to avoid enslavement to physical substances which God has given by using them in moderation. Among other things, this involves refraining from the illegal (non-medical) use of drugs and moderation in (or abstinence from) the use of alcohol. (All members of the Erskine Seminary community are reminded that Erskine College is a dry campus and are asked to respect the College’s position by not consuming any alcohol on campus.)

Erskine Seminary expects high standards of honesty and integrity in all areas of seminary life. The Seminary urges its members to exercise humility, forbearance, and, if necessary, loving confrontation in upholding these convictions and expectations. The Seminary encourages individuals always to follow the principles outlined in Matthew 18:15-22. Faculty or students who feel that these standards have not been maintained may deal with these situations first through personal counsel and then, if those measures are not sufficient, through the procedures outlined in the Grievance Procedure. Standards of conduct are also addressed in the Student Handbook’s discussion of the Honor Code. The Seminary reserves the right to request at any time the withdrawal of one whose conduct is detrimental to his or her health or whose conduct is not satisfactory to its officials.

Our Accreditation

The Commission on Colleges of the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)
1866 Southern Lane
Decatur, GA 30033-4097
404.679.4501

The Association of Theological Schools
in the United States and Canada (ATS)
10 Summit Park Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15275-1103
412.788.6505