A SYMPOSIUM ON KEITH WATKINS: "CHRISTIANTHEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, INDIANAPOLIS: A HISTORY OF EDUCATION FOR MINISTRY"

As the school was being established, Disciples were dividing over the issue of whether Disciples who opposed open membership should continue to "cooperate" in missionary organizations with Disciples who favored open membership or support only organizations "independent" of the "cooperative" program of the Disciples of Christ. The leaders of the new school, though opposed to open membership, were determined to avoid division of the movement. They were also committed to a graduate level preparation for ministry, as opposed to the Bible College model favored by many of the Independents. In addition, like many of the advocates of open membership, they valued the church's involvement in society. This placed the new school squarely in the middle of the emerging Cooperative/Independent division just as the middle was beginning to disappear. The selection of Orman Shelton in 1944 to follow Frederick Kershner as dean was the result of a conscious effort to align the school with the Cooperative wing of the movement at a time when many perceived it as favoring the Independents. In time, leaders of the school, including Sweeney's daughter, Elsie Irwin Sweeney, whom Watkins identifies as the "spiritual leader" of her generation of the family, came to favor open membership. The school separated from Butler University in 1958, and included in the charter of Christian Theological Seminary was the stipulation that no one could serve as trustee unless a member of the Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ). In its context, that was an ecumenical provision, not a parochial one.

Not surprisingly, the seminary increasingly participated in the ecumenical movement. Watkins describes this participation in some detail, noting the contributions of deans, presidents, and faculty. He also notes contributions of leading trustee and grandson of Z. T. Sweeney, J. Irwin Miller, who was the first layperson to be elected President of the National Council of Churches. By the 1960s, commitment to the ecumenical movement, coupled with a desire for support from the larger community, resulted in a change in the by-laws, which allowed for the election of trustees who were not Disciples. In 1986, the bylaws were amended to allow for a member of a church other than the Disciples to serve as President of the seminary.

The seminary's identification with the more liberal or ecumenical Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) rather than the more conservative Christian Churches and Churches of Christ was reflected in the academic freedom accorded to faculty and in the seminary's responses to the civil rights and women's movements. African Americans have been admitted to the school from its beginning. In the 1960s, faculty and students participated in civil rights activities. During this time, concerted efforts were made to recruit African American students and faculty, and the first African American was appointed to the regular faculty in 1971. Women had also been enrolled in the seminary from the start, but primarily in preparation for non-ordained ministries. By 1970, fifteen women were enrolled in the ordination track Master of Divinity.