Nearly half of all student enrollment is concentrated in just 7 percent of seminaries, all of which are evangelical Protestant.” For the next 50 years, what does this bode and how will this affect politics? I have not yet been persuaded that we are entering an eschatological Golden Age. Notwithstanding, these numbers predict a more conservative trajectory for the coming century if things continue. 

The future church will change politics more than past politics will change the church.

Yes, we are interested in both and, specifically, in their inter-relationship with each other. Cheering Folly’s Demise seeks to rejoice when folly retreats and cheer when wisdom advances, regardless of partisan or denominational basis.

Fifty years ago, I was applying to seminaries. Over that half-century, the ideological market share has shifted dramatically. Back in the day, the mainline liberal seminaries owned the market. The Methodist and Presbyterian seminaries were the largest by far. The Princetons and Harvards were the most prestigious. Baptist seminaries were not required for all Baptist churches, and the Southern Baptist Convention was just beginning its ascent. Liberty University (now the largest seminary) had not graduated a class of divinity students, and the major non-denominational evangelical seminaries were “sideline.”

What a difference a half century makes.

In the most recent study, the top ten seminaries in terms of enrollment do not include a single “mainline” seminary and tilt decidedly toward the evangelical pole. Of the 245 accredited seminaries, evangelicals now outnumber mainline Protestants 46%-33%. And of that 33% of Protestants, as is well known, females outnumber males two to one—a demographic that will affect future pulpit hires—and key aspects of orthodoxy are more likely to be attacked than defended in mainline classrooms.

Of the ten seminaries with the largest enrollment now, 80% are Baptistic. Of those top ten, Dallas Seminary (technically independent) is congregationalist/baptistic, and the others—except Fuller and Asbury (Methodist)—are strongly affiliated with the Baptist tradition. Asbury is the sole conservative seminary within Methodism, and its enrollment is soaring relative to the other Wesleyan schools.

Counting Dallas, Gateway, and Liberty (with stunning gains in enrollment, much of it however online). 

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