Central School of Religion

This has been one that has always baffled me as I have never been able to get a straight answer. Here though, I beleive some updated info from the Tyndale College site:


Tyndale College has entered into an agreement whereby the College can prepare Candidates for the diplomas and degrees of the Central School of Religion, London. Founded and chartered in 1896, the Central School of Religion has been the diploma and degree source for a number of well known Australian residential Bible Colleges. For many years it was under the leadership of highly regarded Australian Presbyterian evangelist and scholar Dr Harold Whitney.

Bears Guide (current ed p.309) provides some info, with a Mark Gretason being the Dean, but any further information would be greatly appreciated. Any e-mails, URL's etc?

Cheers,

George

 

Found the info, staright from the horses mouth

Found a short history of CSR at http://www.shef.ac.uk/~ptpdlp/newsletter/issue46.html, written by Gretason himself. Fascinating background, and would help to update Bears Guide.


III. 'CENTRAL SCHOOL OF RELIGION: A SHORT HISTORY' BY MARK GRETASON

What constitutes a school?
Not ancient halls and ivy-mantled towers,
Where dull traditions rule
With heavy hand youth's lightly springing powers;
Not spacious pleasure courts,
And lofty temples of athletic fame,
Where devotees of sports
Mistake a pastime for life's highest aim;
Not fashion, nor renown
Of wealthy patronage and rich estate;
No, none of these can crown
A school with light and make it truly great.
But masters, strong and wise,
Who teach because they love the teacher's task,
And find their richest prize
In eyes that open and in minds that ask.
(Henry Van Dyke)

This poem has prefaced most prospectuses of CSR and its predecessor, Central University. What is now CSR was founded and chartered in Indiana in 1896.

CSR is one of the oldest institutions exclusively concerned with distance education in the world today, and one of the first truly Anglo-American theological seminaries. It is the successor of a correspondence institute called Central University. In 1947 the name was changed to Central School of Religion to take advantage of the First Amendment which guarantees religious
freedom from state control.

Older members of the Philosophical Society of England will be interested to know that leading lights Dr Rupert Judge, Dr John Gurney-Smith, the Revd Dr Paul Faunch and the Revd John (Jack) Styles were members or officers of the school. Other members of both organisations have included the late Bishop Cyril Milner FPhS, the Revd Donald Thomson and Canon Mark Gretason APhS.

For some years, courses in philosophy were offered by I Cleon Forbes, MA (Oklahoma) for, whilst the range of courses offered had already tended towards broadly theological courses the remit always allowed related studies. Today, the School is organised into two Faculties of Theology and Church Music
respectively. The School awards the diplomas of ATh, LTh, ThSoc, and the degrees of BTh, BD, MA, MTh, and ThD (the latter conferred from Indiana) and awards in Church Music. Those who wish to support the work of the School may become subscribing members and the School also appoints Associates and Fellows.

Although Christian in its character, CSR has never been exclusively associated with any particular denomination. The School simply states that it bears witness to the unique inspiration of Holy Scripture. It thus seeks to stand apart from a confessional approach. The current President is Dr Walton Empey,
lately Anglican Archbishop of Dublin. His predecessor, Dr Harold Whitney, who had written at some length against the outlook of Barth, was a presbyterian minister and former theological college principal. Links are maintained with a number of institutions and the Honorary Chaplain undertook PhD studies at the university of Brighton in collaboration with the School.

In many ways the two organisations have had parallel experiences. Both have been ahead of their time, occasionally denigrated, essentially as amateur, subject to the tensions that change brings, which, in the case of the study of philosophy have caused forward-thinking folk to undertake the use of a newer
form of communication via the internet, with all the opportunity for dialogue this allows; yet, the same search for truth over credentials, for openness, a spirit of free enquiry, free from closed questions and unquestioned methodology makes both institutions of a mind common with that of the poet. Perhaps
worthwhile schools of every kind must more and more learn to be free of state interference and the ethical and moral decay which comes from spin, acting free of 'political' constraints, basing themselves if not always upon what is, however provisionally, deemed to be of intrinsic merit, at least upon what is
practicable.

Free to think, free to learn, free to grow, free to be fully human - surely the future lies, as it so often does, at the margins of experience.

---

The writer is grateful to John Kersey for information supplied in the writing of this article.

For details of CSR please write to:

Canon M Gretason
49, Upper Tooting Park
London SW17 7SN
United Kingdom

[Editor's Note on abbreviations:

APhS: Associate of the Philosophical Society of England FPhS: Fellow of the Philosophical Society of England]

(c) Mark Gretason 2002

E-mail: [email protected]

**********************************
The following URL's make interesting reading too:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,5842585%255E23004,00.html
http://www.spabc.com.au/colleges/salvation_army_college_of_further_education.htm
http://www.music-services.demon.co.uk/
http://www.erskine.edu/news/promo.2.12.01.html
http://www.nettienet.net/kingdom.htm
http://home.iprimus.com.au/nwallis/
http://dublin.anglican.org/archbishop/archbishop/empey/empey-walton.html
http://www.aicm.edu.au/staff.htm
http://www.zeuter.com/~accc/sermons/alf-req.htm

Cheers,

George

 

After I got a V*E*R*Y angry letter from Gretason, 5 or 6 years ago, demanding changes in the write-up, I entered into communication with the regulators in Indiana. They seemed first incredulous, then angry that CSR was still claiming to be an Indiana-approved or sanctioned institution, apparently ignoring various demands to cease and desist. I passed some of this on to Gretason, who did not respond.

I note the name Rupert Judge. He was, I believe, one of the founders of what is now the Greenwich School of Theology (at one time affiliated with Greenwich University, but now with the venerable Potchefstroom University in South Africa). The people of Greenwich did not have very kind things to say about CSR.