Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School is a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

It is affiliated with the

American Baptist Churches USA The American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) is a mainline/evangelical Baptist Christian denomination within the United States. The denomination maintains headquarters in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The organization is usually considered mainli ...

History

1820s-1960: Early history

Four

institutions merged over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries to form Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (CRCDS) as it exists today. Its earliest roots are in the

Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution Colgate University is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York. The college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York and operated un ...

(later Colgate Theological Seminary), which began in

Hamilton, New York Hamilton is a town in Madison County, New York, United States. The population was 6,690 at the 2010 census. The town is named after American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. The Town of Hamilton contains a village also named Hamilton, the s ...

in the early 1820s under the auspices of the New York Baptist Union for Ministerial Education. Soap and candle magnate

William Colgate William Colgate (January 25, 1783 – March 25, 1857) was an English-American soap industrialist who founded in 1806 what became the Colgate-Palmolive company. Early life William Colgate was born in Hollingbourne, Kent, England, on January 25, ...

, a devout Baptist, was an influential trustee in the Union for Ministerial Education and took an active role in financing and championing Hamilton Institution. Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution later evolved in part into

Colgate University Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York. The college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York and operated under that name until 1823, when it was renamed Hamilton Theologi ...

. The present-day seminary's second heritage institution, the Rochester Theological Seminary, was formed in 1850 at the founding of the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...

by a group from Colgate Theological Seminary who sought a more urban educational setting. Women were accepted, enrolled, and graduated as regular students beginning in 1920. The remainder of the Hamilton seminary had moved to Rochester by 1928, when the two seminaries merged to become Colgate Rochester Divinity School and moved to the 1100 South Goodman Street campus in Rochester.

1960s: Time of turbulence

In 1961, the school was joined by its third legacy institution, the

Baptist Missionary Training School Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

, a women's school in

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

founded by the Women's Baptist Home Mission Society. Persuaded by student advocacy and protest throughout 1968 and 1969—namely by the school's Black Student Caucus—Colgate Rochester Divinity School hired more African-American professors to join the school's overwhelmingly white faculty, increased course offerings in African-American religious and cultural studies, and formally established the

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

Program of Black Church Studies in 1969. It was one of the first such programs instituted at a predominantly white seminary or divinity school in the U.S.

1970-present: Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School

The last significant institutional merger took place in 1970, when

Crozer Theological Seminary The Crozer Theological Seminary was a Baptist seminary located in Upland, Pennsylvania. Martin Luther King Jr. was a student at Crozer Theological Seminary from 1948 to 1951, and graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree. In 1970, the semina ...

moved from

Upland, Pennsylvania Upland is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Upland is governed by an elected seven-member borough council. The population was 3,239 at the 2010 census, up from 2,974 at the 2000 census. Geography Upland is located in so ...

to merge with Colgate Rochester Divinity School, and form Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, NY. The Divinity School shared its South Goodman Street facilities with several organizations over the years. St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry, a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

theological school, occupied the South Goodman Street campus from 1981 until 2003, when it relocated to another site in the area. The

American Baptist Historical Society The American Baptist Historical Society (ABHS) is the oldest Baptist historical society in the United States. History The American Baptist Historical Society was created in 1853 at the instigation of John Mason Peck. In 1862, it was chartered under ...

, serving the

, also occupied the South Goodman Street campus in varying capacity from 1955 to 2008, when the Society's offices and archival collections were relocated to

Mercer University Mercer University is a private research university with its main campus in Macon, Georgia. Founded in 1833 as Mercer Institute and gaining university status in 1837, it is the oldest private university in the state and enrolls more than 9,000 ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. After selling its historic 90-year-old campus next to Highland Park in 2016, Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School moved 2.2 miles north in 2019 to Village Gate Square in Rochester's Neighborhood of the Arts, near the

George Eastman Museum The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as ''George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film'', the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in ...

and Memorial Art Gallery.

Academics

Graduates programs include: *

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

(M.A.) *

Master of Divinity For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and divi ...

(M.Div.) *

Doctor of Ministry The Doctor of Ministry (abbreviated DMin or D.Min.) is a professional doctorate, often including a research component, that may be earned by a minister of religion while concurrently engaged in some form of ministry. It is categorized as an advanced ...

(D.Min.)

Affiliations

Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School is

accredited Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

by the

Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada The Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS) is an organization of seminaries and other graduate schools of theology. ATS has its headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. History It was founded in 1918. The associ ...

(ATS). It is affiliated with the

. American Baptist Home Mission Societies
Seminaries
abhms.org, USA, retrieved April 25, 2020

Notable people

Notable alumni

* James E. Cheek (1932-2010), former president of

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...

Isabel Crawford Isabel Alice Hartley Crawford (May 26, 1865 – November 18, 1961) was a Baptist missionary who worked with the Kiowa people in the Oklahoma Territory. Crawford, who had lost most of her hearing due to an illness, communicated with the Kiowa us ...

(1865-1961), Baptist missionary who worked with the

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and eve ...

Oklahoma Territory The Territory of Oklahoma was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was joined with the Indian Territory under a new constitution and admitted to the Union as th ...

using

Plains Indian Sign Language Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL), also known as Hand Talk, Plains Sign Talk, and First Nation Sign Language, is a trade language, formerly trade pidgin, that was once the lingua franca across what is now central Canada, the central and west ...

; graduated from Baptist Missionary Training School in Chicago *

Edwin T. Dahlberg Edwin T. Dahlberg (27 December 1892 – September 1986) was an American Baptist church leader. He was known for his strong efforts to promote social justice and peacemaking. Biography The Reverend Edwin T. Dahlberg was President of American Baptist ...

(1892-1986),

American Baptist Church The American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) is a mainline/evangelical Baptist Christian denomination within the United States. The denomination maintains headquarters in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The organization is usually considered mainl ...

leader, pacifist, and Colgate trustee *

Frederick German Detweiler Frederick German Detweiler (1881–1960) was an American sociologist and expert on race relations, best known for his 1922 book ''The Negro Press in the United States'', published by University of Chicago Press. At the time of his death he was Prof ...

(1881-1960), American sociologist * James Alexander Forbes, Jr. (1935-), Senior Minister Emeritus of the

Riverside Church Riverside Church is an interdenominational church in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on the block bounded by Riverside Drive, Claremont Avenue, 120th Street and 122nd Street near Columbia University's Mornings ...

in New York City. * William Hamilton (1924-2012), leading theologian in the Death of God movement. *

Cecil Hobbs Cecil Hobbs (April 22, 1907 – December 8, 1991) was an American scholar of Southeast Asian history, best known for being the head of the Southern Asia Section of the Orientalia (now Asian) Division of the Library of Congress. He was regarde ...

(1907-1991), historian specializing in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

, charter member of the

Association for Asian Studies The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) is a scholarly, non-political and non-profit professional association focusing on Asia and the study of Asia. It is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. The Association provides members with an Annua ...

, and

United Methodist The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelic ...

pastor *

(1929-1968), minister, activist, prominent leader in the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

; attended

in Upland, Pennsylvania before its merger with Colgate Divinity School in 1970 * Samuel B. McKinney (1926-2018), Baptist pastor and civil rights leader *

Joanna P. Moore Joanna Patterson Moore (September 26, 1832 – April 15, 1916) was an American Baptist missionary. She was the first white woman missionary appointed by the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society, and worked predominantly among black commun ...

(1832-1916), Baptist missionary to freed African Americans in the

Reconstruction era The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

; graduated from Baptist Missionary Training School in Chicago *

Lorraine K. Potter Lorraine Kay Potter (née Fallon; 1946) is a former Chief of Chaplains of the United States Air Force and was the first female chaplain in the United States Air Force. Biography A native of Warwick, Rhode Island, Potter is an ordained Baptist mi ...

, Chief of Chaplains of the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

Howard Thurman Howard Washington Thurman (November 18, 1899 – April 10, 1981) was an American author, philosopher, theologian, mystic, educator, and civil rights leader. As a prominent religious figure, he played a leading role in many social justice movements ...

, author, civil rights leader, Dean of Chapel for Howard University and

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

Henry Clay Vedder Henry Clay Vedder (February 26, 1853 – October 13, 1935) was an American Baptist church historian, seminary professor, editor and theologian. Vedder authored numerous articles and twenty-seven books on church history and theology. Early life a ...

, Professor of church history at

and author of twenty-seven books *

Wyatt Tee Walker Wyatt Tee Walker (August 16, 1928 – January 23, 2018) was an African-American pastor, national civil rights leader, theologian, and cultural historian. He was a chief of staff for Martin Luther King Jr., and in 1958 became an early board membe ...

, Co-founder of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) (1957), Executive Dir. SCLC (1960–1964); Senior Pastor, Canaan Baptist Church in Harlem (1967–2004) * Frederick B. Williams, Canon and Rector of Church of the Intercession, Harlem (1972–2005); Founder of Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement

Notable faculty

Conrad Henry Moehlman Conrad Henry Moehlman (May 26, 1879 – September 19, 1961) was an American professor of church history at Colgate Rochester Divinity School, where he was emeritus professor. A Baptist and known as Liberal Christianity, theologically liberal, he w ...

(1879–1961), church historian *

Gayraud Wilmore Gayraud Stephen Wilmore Jr. (December 20, 1921 – April 18, 2020) was an American writer, historian, ethicist, educator, and theologian, known for his role in the Civil Rights Movement and his scholarship related to the history of the African-Amer ...

(1921-2020), ethicist, historian, theologian, and civil rights leader known for scholarly contributions in the history of African American church and religious experience and

black theology Black theology, or black liberation theology, refers to a theological perspective which originated among African-American seminarians and scholars, and in some black churches in the United States and later in other parts of the world. It context ...

Notable alumni/faculty

Notable individuals who both graduated from and served on the faculty of the school: *

Walter Rauschenbusch Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) was an American theologian and Baptist pastor who taught at the Rochester Theological Seminary. Rauschenbusch was a key figure in the Social Gospel and single tax movements that flourished in the United States d ...

(1861–1918), Baptist pastor and theologian integral to the

Social Gospel The Social Gospel is a social movement within Protestantism that aims to apply Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as economic inequality, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, unclean envir ...

movement *

Leonard Sweet Leonard I. Sweet is an American theologian, semiotician, church historian, pastor, and author. Sweet currently serves as the E. Stanley Jones Professor Emeritus at Drew Theological School at Drew University, in Madison, New Jersey; Charles Wes ...

(1961-), author, preacher, scholar

References

External links

* * {{authority control Seminaries and theological colleges in New York (state) Educational institutions established in 1850 Educational institutions established in 1970 Baptist Christianity in New York (state) Universities and colleges in Monroe County, New York Seminaries and theological colleges affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA