Now More Than Ever

Our CTS Commitments have more urgency today than ever before.

In response to the division in our world and society, Chicago Theological Seminary reaffirms more than 160 years of standing on the side of justice and mercy.

As people of faith, we embrace love instead of hate, community instead of alienation, and respect instead of fear-mongering. We reject words and acts that demonize others.

At this moment in history, our CTS Statement of Commitments guides our work, leadership, and ministry to individuals, religious communities, and society. No matter the challenges brought by forces of division, fear, or hate, CTS will not waver from the commitments we hold dear. Stand with us.

Chicago Theological Seminary Statement of Commitments:

In fulfillment of our Vision and Mission Statements and being led by the mission and ministry of Jesus and the Spirit of God, Chicago Theological Seminary is a community of faculty, staff, students, trustees, alumni/ae, and supporters joined in learning from each other and in commitment to preparing persons who will be leaders of ecclesial and social transformation in anticipation of the divine reign of justice and mercy. To this end, we undertake the following specific commitments:

• We are committed to a curricular structure in all degree programs that encourages academic excellence and free inquiry, that focuses on the issues of transformative leadership, and that fosters cooperation between communities of faith and other community-based organizations to promote the power of life against the forces of death.
• We are committed to confronting the spiritual impoverishment of our time characterized by meaninglessness, lovelessness, and hopelessness with the message of the divine call, love, and promise.
• We are committed to enabling communities of faith to effectively engage in public ministry, articulating the cry of the dispossessed, the transcendent claim of true justice and helping to heal the wounds and divisions that disfigure the social body.
• We are committed, in conscious response to the Holocaust and in recognition of the toll taken by religious divisions in our world, to fostering better understanding and collaboration among religious traditions, paying particular attention to cooperation among Christianity, Judaism, and Islam toward the end of realizing the aims of the prophetic traditions.
• We are committed, in a society riven by racism, to equipping leaders who honor cultural and racial diversity while resolutely combating the forces of division and domination.
• We are committed, in a world in which sexism remains a powerful force, to fostering leadership for gender justice, including developing a more mature masculine spirituality and engaging feminist and womanist spiritualities.
• We are committed, while church and society are threatened by new forces of division under the banner of homophobia, to developing leadership for a more inclusive church and society.
• We are committed, in recognition that the divisions of society are global as well as local and national concerns, to fostering the international collaboration of institutions that have a similar commitment to the transformation of church and society and to the equipping of individuals for this ministry in diverse settings around the world.
• We are committed, in a world stratified by social and economic class, to liberation from want, homelessness, hunger, and disease as companions with the poor, challenging structures and decisions that cause poverty, while fostering the year of God’s favor for all.

In all of these ways, we are committed to embracing not only the rhetoric but the reality of diversity, to celebrating the costs and joys of discipleship, and to boldly accepting the challenges entailed by this Statement of Commitment.