Academic freedom is under attack at many seminaries around the country. Fletcher Seminary believe in intellectual inquiry as a means of living out a robust Christian faith. At seminaries and institutions where academic freedom is under attack, students are often indoctrinated with what to think instead of taught how to think. Many of our professors have spent decades serving in institutions where academic freedom is increasingly eroding. Fletcher Seminary will be different.
How to Think – Not What to Think
At Fletcher Seminary we desire to create the kind of environment where students and professors alike are free to explore the deep meaning of Scripture on their own journey of faith. As an ecumenical school, Fletcher acknowledges that there are many valid ways to interpret the Bible, and that followers of Jesus can still learn and serve in relation to one another as diverse members of the Body of Christ.
Those who will be teaching at Fletcher are directly involved in helping form our seminary curriculum, along with ministry practitioners from around the country. This will help root learning and instructional design in the hands of competent faculty and pastoral ministers instead of administrative and denominational bureaucracy.
In order for a multi-denominational school to thrive, people have to be free embrace their own tradition and beliefs while also humbly acknowledging that others are free to read and interpret the Bible for themselves.