Our Theological Identity

Our mission is to train people to be competent in the study of text, soul, and culture in order to serve God and neighbor through transforming relationships.

In an abiding belief—based on the witness of Scripture—that all people are image bearers of God, The Seattle School affirms the Belovedness of all people, including differences in ability, race, age, ethnicity, economic status, creed, gender identity, and sexual orientation. The Seattle School chooses an intentional posture of dialogue and engagement, with a desire to be a context that bridges differing traditions, perspectives, and cultures toward the possibility of encountering the generous hospitality for all people found in the reign of God. In a divided and broken world, we seek to train people to be agents of hope and healing for individuals and communities. We are a community seeking to recognize, reflect, and engage the dignity, agency, and mutuality of all people, especially those who have been marginalized.

Founded in 1997, The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology stands in continuity with the historic, ecumenical Christian faith—rooted in the Church’s orthodox confession and centered in the living person of Jesus Christ.

We understand theology not as the mastery of certainty, but as a faithful participation in mystery that is God. In a culture driven by control, speed, and performance, we seek to embrace paradox without collapse, to remain open to wonder, and to trust that the real is encountered in a relationship rather than possessed.

Through the disciplined study of theology, psychology, and culture, we cultivate rigorous inquiry, hospitable discourse, and courageous imagination. Like the synagogues of ancient Israel, we gather around Scripture to wrestle, listen, question, and be questioned—seeking wisdom for faithful presence within our particular time and place.

We believe that deep listening is a form of love. Rest is resistance to anxiety’s tyranny. Play, joy, and art are acts of prophetic hope. In attending to the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit, we learn to inhabit our bodies, our cultures, and our communities with gentleness and courage unto God’s dream of flourishing for all.

We are a community of conviction, conversation, and action—formed by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and committed to collaborative learning, shared mission, and common life. In a fragmented world, we practice differentiated harmony, trusting that the triune God holds together what we cannot.

We confess the Christian theological orthodoxy of the Nicene Creed. By this we confess:

 

1. – We are Trinitarian Followers of Jesus
   We believe in one God—Creator of heaven and earth—revealed as the Triune life of God: Source of all, who is for us; Word made flesh in Jesus Christ, who is with us; and the Holy Spirit, who unites us in a never-ending dance of love. Every person bears the imago Dei and is therefore endowed with inherent dignity. To be human is not merely to exist materially, but to live as embodied image-bearers invited into communion with God, one another, and creation.
2. – We Follow the Way, Truth, & Life of Jesus Christ
   We confess Jesus Christ as God incarnate, fully divine and fully human. In Jesus’ life, teaching, scandalous execution on the cross, resurrection, and ascension God decisively reveals both the character of divine love and the hope for humanity. In a world marked by rupture, injustice, sin, and alienation, Jesus Christ embodies self-giving love that confronts domination and restores dignity. Through Jesus Christ God reconciles humanity and all creation, inaugurating a renewed community shaped by grace, justice, and hope. We affirm that all healing is rooted in Jesus, and that no theological belief, ministry technique, or therapeutic model is itself salvific. Christ alone is Lord of the Church, which lives as Christ’s embodied witness in time and place.   

– We are Drawn into Love & Justice by the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit makes Christ known and forms individuals and communities as agents of renewal and reconciliation. By the Spirit’s presence, we are drawn into love and justice, community and mission—empowered to resist systems that harm and divide, and invited to participate in God’s ongoing work of restoration in the world. Our commitment to integrate theology, psychology, and culture flows from the Spirit’s reconciling work of joining what has been separated. And so we seek to form leaders and counselors who pray and labor for shalom in every sphere of life—home and marketplace, arts and church, neighborhood and public square—participating in the Spirit’s redemptive work for the flourishing of persons, communities, and the earth.

With gratitude, we confess that the Scriptures—the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament—are the Word of God. Inspired by the Holy Spirit and written by faithful yet human witnesses in particular times and places, these sacred texts bear trustworthy witness to the living God. We receive them within the communion of the Church, standing in continuity with the great cloud of witnesses who have listened for and to the God to whom the Scriptures point. We affirm the Scriptures as authoritative for faith and life, and as the normative guide for forming our imagination for God’s reign on earth as it is in heaven. In attending to the scriptures, we seek not control but discipleship—being drawn more deeply into the life of the Triune God revealed in Jesus Christ, and formed by the Spirit in community to bear faithful witness in our world.

These texts are woven into the theological and ethical DNA of The Seattle School, narrating and animating our mission of integrating text, soul, and culture in relationships marked by the possibility of mutual transformation.

Matthew 22:37-40 . “Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Psalm 19:1-4a . “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims God’s handiwork.  Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.  There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard, yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.”

Colossians 1:15-17 . “Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation: for in Christ all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rules or powers—all things have been created through Christ and for Christ.  Christ is before all things and in Christ all things hold together.”

Acts 17:23-25, 27 . “For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.  The God who created the world and everything in it, this God who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands… For in God we live and move and have our being.”Micah 6:8 . “The LORD has told you what is good, and this is what the LORD requires of you: to live justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

WE believe in one God,

the Father, the Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all that is, seen and unseen.

 

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,

the only Son of God,

eternally begotten of the Father,

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made,

of one being with the Father.

Through Christ all things were made.

 

For us and for our salvation

Christ came down from heaven:

by the power of the Holy Spirit

Christ became incarnate from the virgin Mary,

and was made human.

 

For our sake, Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate;

Jesus suffered death and was buried.

On the third day, Jesus rose again

in accordance with the scriptures;

Jesus Christ ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

 

Christ will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,

and God’s kin-dom will have no end.

 

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father and the Son.

With the Father and the Son, the Spirit is worshiped and glorified.

The Holy Spirit has spoken through the prophets.

 

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. 

We look for the resurrection of the dead,

and the life of the world to come.  

Amen.

We are a diverse community of faculty, staff, students, and alumni from many Christian traditions, alongside those who approach faith with curiosity, doubt, or distance. Our unity is not uniformity but a shared orientation: we are rooted in the revelatory and redemptive centrality of Jesus Christ. Guided by the biblical vision of all things being made new, we cultivate thoughtful discourse, shared discernment, and collaborative mission.

We stand in continuity with the great cloud of witnesses across history and around the globe who have sought to follow Jesus’ Way of radical love while resisting the coercive powers of empire, seen and unseen. Fidelity to Christ invites holy imagination, courageous discernment, and embodied presence—faith lived in real neighborhoods, complex cultures, and particular bodies amid actual systems of power. Through the disciplined integration of theology, psychology, and culture, we form leaders marked by deep listening, courageous presence, and wise accompaniment—leaders who embody nonviolent, reconciling love and participate in God’s renewing work.

[toggle-title]Our Institutional Learning Outcomes [/toggle-title]

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The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology’s “Faith & Practice in the Jesus Way,” expressed through these seven theological & ethical commitments give form and substance to our Institutional Learning Outcomes.  Upon program completion, a learner at The Seattle School will be a(n)… 

Embodied Listener	Meaning Maker	Community Healer
Thoughtfully engages context and culture with a listening posture	Applies scholarship-informed learning toward the good of human flourishing in a complex world	Serves God and neighbor through transforming relationships
Demonstrates growth toward healthier self-awareness	Engages individual and collective stories with credibility & care	Pursues personal healing in service of collective wholeness
Cultivates healing relationships marked by observation, openness, and curiosity	Grows in theological awareness of God’s work in the world	Responsibly stewards common resources
Attends to felt experience in the body and its impact	Analyzes assumptions, asks generative questions, and critiques to create	Cultivates more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable spaces and systems