Advanced Institute for Research on Religion and Culture (ARRC) is a federated faculty established in 2016, which comprises four institutions, namely, *

Andhra Christian Theological College Andhra Christian Theological College (ACTC) is a seminary in Telangana which was founded in 1964. It is affiliated with India's first university, the Senate of Serampore College (University) (a university under section 2(f) of the University G ...

,''CSI Life'', Volume XIV, Issue 10, October 2016, p.3

/ref> * Calvin Institute of Theology, * Henry Martyn Institute and, * Mennonite Brethren Centenary Bible College - all based in the twin cities of

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

and

Secunderabad Secunderabad, also spelled as Sikandarabad (, ), is a twin cities, twin city of Hyderabad and one of the six zones of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Telangana. It ...

offering post graduate level

Master of Theology Master of Theology ( la, Theologiae Magister, abbreviated MTh, ThM, or MTheol) is a post-graduate degree offered by universities, divinity schools, and seminaries. It can serve as a transition degree for entrance into a PhD program or as a stand ...

courses with specializations in

Sacred scripture Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual prac ...

and

Religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

. The ARRC is affiliated

Senate of Serampore College (University) The Senate of Serampore College (University) is located in Serampore in West Bengal, India. Serampore was granted the status of university in 1829, making it India's first institution to have the status of a university.Government of India, Mini ...

, ''List of Affiliated Colleges''.

/ref> to the nation's first University, the

'' ''with degree-granting authority validated by a University charter, Danish charter and ratified by the

Government of West Bengal The Government of West Bengal also known as the West Bengal Government, is the subnational government of the Indian state of West Bengal , created by the National Constitution as the state's legislative, executive and judicial authority. The ...

History

Theological colleges

The first theological colleges established in

and

is the Mennonite Brethren Centenary Bible College founded in 1920 in

Shamshabad Shamshabad is a city in the Indian state of Telangana. It is located in Shamshabad mandal of Rajendranagar revenue division. The international airport of Hyderabad is located here. History In former times the area was known as Sedanti village, ...

locality. The rest of the seminaries were founded elsewhere and relocated later to the twin cities. St. John's Regional Seminary was founded in 1926 and relocated in 1965. Though the

was founded in 1964 in

Rajahmundry Rajahmundry, officially known as Rajamahendravaram, is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and District headquarters of East Godavari district. It is the sixth most populated city in the state. During British rule, the District of Rajah ...

, it moved to

only in 1973. The Calvin Institute of Theology is a recent addition which was established in 2009 and relocated later. As for the Henry Martyn Institute, it was only an institution offering post graduate diploma courses under its seal, which also relocated to

in 1972.

Scholars

Of these theological colleges, the St. John's Regional Seminary and the

had faculty with highest academic qualifications having been educated at famed portals of learning in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

Universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Serampore Serampore (also called ''Serampur'', ''Srirampur'', ''Srirampore'', ''Shreerampur'', ''Shreerampore'', ''Shrirampur'' or ''Shrirampore'') is a city of Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarter of the Srirampor ...

Papal Seminary Papal Seminary, Pune, India, is a Catholic educational institute whose primary function is training priests. Currently, it caters to the formation of about 180 Seminarians from most of the dioceses of India. It trains students from all three ri ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, Lancaster, McCormick,

Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy *Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' *Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York **North Syracuse, New York *Syracuse, Indiana * Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, Miss ...

Eastern Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

, PIB Rome, Gregorian,

Urban Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

and other distinguished schools of theological education.

Efforts to initiate postgraduate level courses

However, though the faculty were qualified enough, the institutions where they taught were eligible to only offer graduate level courses. Efforts were made by successive faculty of the

beginning during the tenure of the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

Scholar,

The Rev. The Reverend is an honorific style most often placed before the names of Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and church traditions. ''The Reverend'' is correctly ...

S. Joseph coinciding with the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of the College in 1989 to start postgraduate level courses. After nearly a decade and half, efforts were renewed by the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

Scholar Trio, beginning with

N. V. Luther Paul, D. Th. (''

'') (2006-2010) followed by

Ch. Vasantha Rao, Dr. Theol. (''

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

'') (2010-2014) and

T. Matthews Emmanuel, D. Th. (''

'') (2014-2017).

Creation of special purpose entity

Meanwhile, with the addition of Calvin Institute of Theology that was established in 2009, efforts fructified, but this time in confederation with other institutions, the postgraduate courses were finally initiated with the creation of the

Special-purpose entity A special-purpose entity (SPE; or, in Europe and India, special-purpose vehicle/SPV; or, in some cases in each EU jurisdiction, FVC, financial vehicle corporation) is a legal entity (usually a limited company of some type or, sometimes, a limited ...

consisting of

, the

Henry Martyn Institute Journal of the Henry Martyn Institute is a biannual scholarly journal published by Henry Martyn Institute, Hyderabad, India on disciplines encompassing religion, culture and interfaith relations and could be found in nearly 100 libraries worldwide. ...

, and the

Calvin Institute of Theology Calvin may refer to: Names * Calvin (given name) ** Particularly Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States * Calvin (surname) ** Particularly John Calvin, theologian Places In the United States * Calvin, Arkansas, a hamlet * Calvin ...

during the tenures of

T. Matthews Emmanuel, D. Th. (''

''),

Packiam T. Samuel, Ph. D., (''

Oxford Brookes Oxford Brookes University (formerly known as Oxford Polytechnic) is a public university in Oxford, England. It is a new university, having received university status through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. The university was named ...

'') and

Gopalswamy Jacob, Ph. D., (''

Apeldoorn Apeldoorn (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland in the centre of the Netherlands. It is located about 60 km east of Utrecht, 60 km west of Enschede, 25 km north of Arnhem and 35 km south of Zwolle. The ...

'') respectively, together forming the Advanced Institute for Research on Religion and Culture (ARRC) in 2016 for which the

granted affiliation beginning with the academic year 2016.

Academics

As per the affiliation norms of the

, the federated faculty is authorized to offer courses in

in three disciplines, namely, the

, the

and

Religions Religion is usually defined as a social-cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, tran ...

(

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

and

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

).'' NCCI Review'', Volume CXXXVI, Number 10, November 2016, p.7

/ref>

Faculty

The faculty in the three specializations offered by the ARRC include,

References

{{authority control Christian seminaries and theological colleges in India Universities and colleges in Hyderabad, India Educational institutions established in 2016 Reformed church seminaries and theological colleges Universities and colleges affiliated with the Church of South India 2016 establishments in Telangana Seminaries and theological colleges affiliated to the Senate of Serampore College (University)