About Greystone

There are many fine Christian organizations, study centers, and academic institutions doing excellent work. But recent developments in administration, economics, and pedagogy have affected how much a single organization can do. Many have noted that educational standards have also slipped, not only in the widely recognized area of biblical language study but also in the overall expectations of serious biblical, theological, historical, and ethical study that serves the Church well. Proper theological thinking about the subject matter of the Christian faith has also thinned, having been co-opted in recent decades by peripheral disciplines and foreign questions which have inadvertently and subtly reshaped the task of Christian dogmatics and Scripture study.

Greystone is committed to recovering and advancing truly "theological theology" as supportive of and extending from solid ministerial training and Christian formation.

To that end, Greystone encourages seminaries and divinity schools to continue to focus their critically important energies on the training of pastors and church officers through the M.Div. and similar programs. Greystone does not seek to duplicate or rival the good work being done by such institutions. Greystone Theological Institute is a network of scholars, ministers, and Christian friends that hosts theological edification modules and events. The Institute is a fellowship and is not a school and does not grant degrees, degree programs, or credit.

Of course, most seminaries also have a vision for advancing the Reformed theological tradition beyond first-level ministerial training. They also desire to serve the rapidly growing Reformed churches of second- and third-world regions who desperately need highly qualified seminary teachers and theologians, but wrestle with well-founded concerns regarding typically disembodied and impersonal distance education models that uncritically embrace every new technology.

This is a gap Greystone has been formed to help fill.

Greystone has listened closely to our many friends in other institutions and organizations, and our mission has been shaped by those conversations. Greystone exists to fill the gaps in ministerial and advanced Reformed theological training, in the United States and internationally, and also to cultivate and privilege in-person, regional theological communities where conversation and feasting yield fresh ministerial and neighborly faithfulness.

Therefore, Greystone deliberately does not seek to duplicate what any other institution is doing very well, but instead endeavors to complement the offerings of others, to raise the bar on theological formation and research training, and to partner with organizations and initiatives that desire to find a new way to achieve their goals in a challenging economic context.

Greystone has been formed to advance confessional Reformed catholicity (on which, see below) through rigorous scholarly training, focused student and clergy mentorship, and collaborative research at an advanced level. Believing the cooperation and the joining of resources is key to the advance of the Reformed theological tradition in our day, Greystone is a fellowship-oriented and collaborative effort in edification and training in ministry and scholarship. With a focus on service in the region of western Pennsylvania, Greystone also operates at select satellite sites in the United States and internationally through a combination of regular intensive on-site and online courses and events. In short, Greystone seeks to enrich the mission of the Church in the tradition of confessional Reformed catholicity, foster theological collaboration, and share resources in order to advance learning; to strengthen teaching, learning and research; and to maximize the stewardship of scholarly resources for Church and academy. *Greystone Theological Institute is a network of scholars, ministers, and Christian friends that hosts theological edification modules and events. The Institute is a fellowship and is not a school and does not grant degrees, degree programs, or credit.

Greystone serves in two general areas: theological fellowship and theological edification. We teach MA and MDiv level courses as part of a strategic collaboration with Westminster Theological Seminary. This collaboration makes it possible to complete the WTS accredited MA or MDiv programs at Greystone Learning Communities. To foster theological fellowship among area clergy, students, and other thoughtful Christians, Greystone also holds a wide range of lecture and seminar events, a Greystone Reading Room book and discussion series, study days and weekends, conferences, and symposia. To advance theological understanding, Greystone publishes occasional short studies; teaches regular advanced modules; and organizes research, teaching, and training through a dedicated Center: the Lydia Center for Women and Families. Through both theological fellowship and structured modules with research training, Greystone seeks to advance the Reformed theological tradition by taking full advantage of developments in scholarship with a persistent vision for what is good for the work of the Church throughout the world.

No. Greystone focuses teaching and research training at various physical sites in the United States and internationally. Greystone does offer extensive online content through its online platform, Greystone Connect, but ordinarily in "blended" ways that maintain Greystone's commitment to community and in-person edification. Our creative hybrid of the "flipped" approach with physical sites and personal mentorship is the result of collaboration with our technology and ethics specialists. The result is a distinctive model that is fairly unique in theological edification for its combination of the strengths of traditional, pre- and early modern pedagogical commitments with new and emerging technologies in an increasingly digital and borderless world.

The Institute is free from control by any particular denomination and is governed by a Board of Directors who are members in good and regular standing in various confessional Reformed congregations or communions. Greystone warmly welcomes students from many denominational affiliations and none, but it exists principally to assist churches and seminaries or divinity schools to prepare students for scholarly or ministerial service within confessional Reformed churches. Our constituency and network of friends and students includes especially confessional presbyterians and “continental” Reformed, Reformed Anglicans, and confessional Reformed Baptists. Members of the Board, faculty, and administration are individually under the jurisdiction of the various church courts of the communions to which they belong.

By Reformed Catholicity we refer to the classical mode of theological investigation and thinking that best reflects both the depth and breadth of traditional and faithful Reformed Christianity, a mode which is vital to the Church's continuing witness to Christ in the world. As an expression of the catholicity that was--and still is--at work in the confessions of the Reformed churches, Reformed catholicity not only critically retrieves the riches of the patristic and medieval (as well as Reformation and post-Reformation) Christian tradition, but recovers the classic and theologically fruitful commitment of the Church to Holy Scripture as no ordinary word but as the Church's canonical, authoritative, "norming norm," to the end of greater faithfulness in the Church's witness to Christ in a rapidly changing world. At the heart of true catholicity is Christ himself, confessed and proclaimed by his Church, at work by Word and Spirit in the world. Receptively humble before the Christ of Holy Scripture, charitably learning from biblically faithful teachers across the tradition, and joyfully hopeful in the relentless quest for greater light and understanding, Greystone seeks to model and to commend confessional Reformed catholicity as a mode for fruitful theological labor.

No. Greystone Theological Institute is a network of scholars, ministers, and Christian friends that hosts theological edification modules and events. The Institute is a fellowship and is not a school and does not grant degrees, degree programs, or credit.

In partnership with Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, MI (PRTS), Greystone is pleased to host the Greystone Theological Research Center at our primary site in Coraopolis/Pittsburgh, PA. The Center's activities revolve around an extraordinary collection of research databases accessible to our students and faculty through this strategically valuable collaboration. These databases include vast collections of primary texts from throughout the history of the Church, as well as academic journals and publication series in many fields of importance to scholarship. Greystone runs regular events, leads reading seminars, and guides research connected to these texts with a view to recovering long overlooked theological treasures, renewing classic reading and thinking practices, and advancing Reformed theological scholarship. Greystone members working at Greystone Coraopolis may access the Center's resources, and all patrons and members of the Greystone community may participate in the calendar of events.

Assuming the foundation of a theologically and academically solid Reformed "first Master's" (ordinarily the M.A., M.Div., or a similar degree), Greystone builds toward true theological excellence. To that end, Greystone is committed to enlisting the top scholars in the world in their disciplines for Greystone modules and events. Regardless of their personal church affiliation, all fellows and lecturers who teach Greystone modules must sign a Statement of Confessional Adherence pledging not to teach or insinuate, in their module, anything in contradiction to what is held in common by the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms, the Three Forms of Unity, and the Anglican Formularies.

Greystone needs regular prayer by God's people, regular financial partners who believe in the importance of advanced and rigorous theological training in the mode of Reformed catholicity, creative volunteers who would like to join the many other volunteers who make Greystone work, and more physical space for students and fellows who study, converse, feast, and pray together. It is our prayer and desire that we will be able one day to secure a suitable and more permanent physical space in which our commitments to community, fellowship, and study may find fuller expression for the good of those around us.

Greystone Theological Institute is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit charitable organization. Contributions to Greystone are deductible to the full limits allowed by law. Greystone's organizational and financial reports are accessible from our Guidestar profile.

For traditional quarter/semester-length or independent-study modules:

• Within two weeks, an 80% refund is granted

• Within four weeks, a 60% refund is granted

• Within six weeks, a 50% refund is granted

• After six weeks, no refund is granted.

For modular or intensive modules:

• Within 3–4 weeks prior to the first day, an 80% refund is granted

• Within 2–3 weeks prior to the first day, a 60% refund is granted

• Within 1–2 weeks prior to the first day, a 50% refund is granted

• Within 0–1 week prior to the first day, no refund is granted.

Notification of a dropped or withdrawn module should be provided by submitting a written statement to this effect (email is fine) to the Institute registrar.

Concentration Codes:

HS Holy Scripture

CT Christian Tradition

CD Christian Dogmatics

PS Pre-Seminary (non-credit)

RT Research Training (non-credit)