Warm greetings from Seminary of the Southwest!
For the last fifteen years, I have had the honor and joy to serve this institution, first as professor then as dean. What I have learned is that Southwest is an extraordinary community of vision, mission, passion, and care. The seminary was founded in 1952 to serve the church and the world by harnessing the rich resources and expansive vision of the American Southwest while modeling transformative dialogue between Christian faith and culture. In the spirit of this legacy, we seek to foster an ethos of creative engagement with the needs and aspirations of the world around us.
Our core values include hospitality, conversation, mutuality, and respect. These are not just words on our website; they are guides for our life together. As part of our embodiment of these core values at this particular cultural moment, we have committed ourselves to the task of building beloved community—making space for belonging among faculty, staff, and students who represent diverse identities of race, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender, and who bring different beliefs and viewpoints. We are a community that values hard conversations, generous listening, and truth telling. This is hard work and we don’t always get it right, but we are committed to this task because we believe the reign of God becomes visible when we have the patience to seek truth and live peaceably with one another.
We do this work of learning and formation in the midst of one of the most interesting cities I know. Austin is the capital of a large, diverse, and complicated state, and, as such, it is rich with opportunities to engage the arts, the intellect, and the body politic. In recent months I have found myself watching a favorite band at the outdoor stage of Stubb’s Bar-B-Q, rallying on behalf of our transgender siblings at the state capitol, and perusing ancient biblical manuscripts at the University of Texas. The seminary’s setting keeps before us the challenge of bringing gospel and culture into conversation.
I invite you to get to know us better. Explore our website, visit our campus, talk to our faculty. Consider the ways you might connect with our mission of forming students for vocations of ministry, service, and healing.
Peace,
Scott Bader-Saye, Ph.D.
Dean and President
Professor of Christian Ethics and Moral Theology
Dean Bader-Saye’s bio here.
