About Hartford Seminary

Hartford Seminary's influence reaches far beyond the walls of churches, mosques and synagogues. Its work strengthens the moral character of society. By developing the leadership capacities of religious leaders and the wider public, the Seminary directly affects the cities, towns and rural areas where these leaders live. Armed with renewed vigor and dedication to their work, Hartford Seminary students and program participants return to their communities with a new wholeness, a new sense of the possibility of a humane world, and the practical skills to bring about that vision. Hartford Seminary nurtures and matures individual spiritual growth.

Beyond the individual, Hartford Seminary also strengthens religious communities through its programs of research and education. By studying and sharing information, it enables local faith communities to remain strong.

The library and bookstore of Hartford Seminary are widely known for their depth and breadth of content. The library, whose reading room and stacks occupy the lower floors of the Seminary's main building, contains more than 83,000 volumes and 312 periodicals. Computers provide on-line access to an international database of more than several million titles.

Hartford Seminary's bookstore features, along with textbooks required for all Seminary courses and programs, an array of religious and secular titles that would appeal to and provide variety to students and the public, educators, congregations, and others concerned with religious, spiritual, and social issues. The Bookstore also carries greeting cards, children's books, selections of CD's and gift items.

Academically, Hartford Seminary is centered around its three academic centers: The Center for Faith in Practice, Hartford Institute for Religion Research, and The Duncan Black Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. Follow the links to learn more about each center.

More than ever, Hartford Seminary is reaching out to local communities of faith, as well. The Black Ministries Program, founded in 1982, is a national model for leadership development in the urban church. Responding to a growing population in the greater Hartford area, in 1994 the Seminary launched a similar program -- Programa de Ministerios Hispanos. This certificate program, offered in Spanish, strengthens leaders in the region's Hispanic churches.

Recognizing all that is offered by those frequently marginalized, in 1995 the Seminary launched the Women's Leadership Institute: A Program in Applied Spirituality, WLI is a certificate program based on feminist values and designed to prepare leaders for the world of the 21st century.

Read A History of Hartford Seminary's Muslim Mission by Alexis Rankin Popik for the Hog River Journal, Summer 2005.