1933–1969; Bachelor of Divinity introduced in 1946 · event
Goshen Biblical Seminary and graduate ministry training
Goshen’s Bible department developed graduate ministerial study before joining a shared Mennonite seminary campus at Elkhart.
Also searchable as: Goshen College Biblical Seminary · Goshen Biblical Seminary · GBS · Bachelor of Divinity
Goshen Biblical Seminary grew from the Bible teaching of Elkhart Institute and Goshen College. Its earlier two-year Bible course was supplemented in 1933 by a Bachelor of Theology curriculum. In 1944 the school received a separate organization within the college, with Harold S. Bender as dean. The year 1946 marked both the adoption of the Biblical Seminary name and the introduction of the Bachelor of Divinity, requiring three years of Bible and theology after four years of liberal-arts study.
The training served congregations through pastors, missionaries, teachers, and other church workers. Bender’s contemporary account describes a concern for faithful service and scholarship grounded in the Mennonite church’s inherited faith and life. Goshen entered the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries partnership in 1958 and transferred its seminary to the common Elkhart campus in 1969. The chart’s 1946 B.D. annotation thus identifies a particular curricular milestone within a longer educational history.
Sources for this history: [1] [2]
