When Reformed Presbyterians prepared to begin the work of training their ministers in the church’s new seminary in May 1809, no students appeared. The Presbytery decided to open the doors again a year later, and in May 1810 five prospective students presented themselves for examination and course assignment.

Over the span of many decades, annual enrollment hovered between five and ten students. Though the “peripatetic seminary” changed location many times, and at times students had to rely on private tutelage, it never lost sight of its purpose—to thoroughly equip men to pastor Reformed Presbyterian congregations. The high standards of preparation were worthy of the call to proclaim the excellencies of God’s majesty and care for the spiritual needs of His people.

From the seminary’s inception, the curriculum was designed to train ministers in scriptural doctrine as well as pastoral practice. Systematic theology and Hebrew formed the core of study; biblical exegesis, homiletics, church history, and civil government were also studied.

The course work was rigorous. Until 1872, Francis Turretin’s Institutio Theologiae Elencticae was the text for systematics, with its more than 2,000 quarto pages in Latin being first lectured, then recited—twice (Greek and Latin were prerequisite to seminary admission). “Every student writes out an epitome, which he is permitted to use in the first recitation. In the second recitation, he is expected to answer all questions without his notes.”

But this involved far more than mere memorization. There was discussion and further inquiry about the subject matter by the professor, training the students to meditate on and thus deeply plant within their hearts the truths learned so that they might be aptly applied. Toward the end of the seminary’s first century, Turretin in Latin gave way to Charles Hodge’s three volumes of systematic theology.

The early professorship of J.R. Willson emphasized the imperative of Hebrew. One of his students described the professor’s efforts and their fruit in his life: “The Doctor was an uncompromising foe of all human inventions and innovations in sacred things. The points [in Hebrew] as all scholars know are of human device, invented several centuries after the Hebrew ceased to be a living language, and the doctor, in common with many distinguished predecessors, contended [that it should be learned without the points]. The Hebrew text being divinely inspired and therefore complete in itself contains its own grammar…which cannot conflict with rational interpretation.”

In the 19th Century, RPTS exams were continuous, with the intention of not only ensuring diligent study but also long-term retention. Student rehearsal of the previous session was required in every lecture class, and thorough exams were conducted by the Board of Superintendents (also referred to as the Board of Inspectors) at the close of every academic year.

The year-end exams were formidable: in the early years, it meant a 10-day trial before the Board; toward the end of the 19th Century, that length had been reduced. Still, they were exacting, with oral (and later written) examinations in each subject as well as the preaching of a sermon.

So thorough was the ongoing evaluation of student progress that formal course grades were not necessary and were not given even into the mid-20th Century. Dr. R.J.G. McKnight once noted on the gradeless system: “[Students’] notebooks are the best evidence of their interest in the work…submitted in lieu of examination papers.…A willing, courteous, and intelligent student deserved an “A” rating.…The present student body is of such quality, and I submit an “A” rating for all of them in all subjects.” Not until 1953, at the prompting of the Midwest Presbytery, did grades become a fact of life at the seminary.

For many years, students boarded in the homes of ministers and church members. The demands of their studies and practical ministry left little time for socializing. One student recorded: “We studied until late at night, and then at the clatter of our alarm clock we rose at five in the morning, resumed our studies until daylight and then went out to take our morning walk of nearly a mile and back. We walked as fast as we could.…We were now ready for family prayers and breakfast and more study.” At the same time, deep fellowship developed and continued among the students, as they encouraged one another in the joy of serving the Lord. To provide students with travel time to return from a usual preaching engagement on the Lord’s Day, there were no classes on Monday mornings.

After the seminary moved into the former Horne estate in 1924 (where it still resides on Pittsburgh’s East End), students were able to live within the seminary confines. When the nation experienced the Great Depression, it became necessary to release the seminary cook. However, food provision was made for the young prophets, and a faculty report states that, for about $3 per week per student, all needs were met, concluding: “This may sound like the financial report of an Orphans’ Home, but the meals were delicious and abundant. No one but Elijah could have managed better.”

That the number of students enrolled in the seminary was always small was, of course, consistent with its purpose of training pastors for a small denomination. In 1898, the records show peak enrollment at 28, then returning generally to the usual 5 to 10 after that. It was not until after the seminary received a charter from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the 1960s and approval to grant the master of divinity (M.Div.) degree in the 1970s that the number of students increased substantially and the seminary expanded its services.

But numbers had nothing to do with the quality of devotion to God, as well as to one another. When monetary awards for academic achievement were to be distributed at the close of the year, the idea was dismissed at the students’ request; they refused to compete against each other.

The matter of racial difference was also addressed differently in the RPCNA than in other quarters. The church was second only to the Quakers in taking and persevering in a stand against slavery throughout the years. Long before the Civil War ended slavery in the mid-1800s, Charles Williams, the son of a freed man and member of the Coldenham RPC in New York, became a student at the seminary under the tutelage of his former pastor, Dr. Willson. It is recorded that Mr. Williams was well liked by his fellow students and a favorite of his professor.

Later that same century, Solomon Kingston, a former slave from Selma, Ala., where the church had established a post-war mission, graduated from the seminary. He became the pastor of the Selma congregation, and was affectionately referred to by other African-American ministers in the area as the “learned pastor.”

In the late 1930s, another son of the Selma congregation, Claude Brown, entered the seminary to prepare for the ministry. Dr. Brown would later play an influential role in the civil rights movement as it centered in Selma.

As our Reformed Presbyterian fathers stood firm for the freedom and education of African-Americans, so it has pleased the Lord to give to RPTS the highest percentage of African-American students among Reformed seminaries today.

The Reformed Presbyterian belief, set forth by John Knox, that women as well as men should be afforded an excellent education, has been evident in the seminary’s history. In 1895, Synod declared: “Our Theological Seminary is open to all pious and well-educated young women of the church who desire to hear the lectures of the professors and study theology and receive special training for mission and evangelistic work.” In 1958, further opportunity for women to study at the seminary was presented with the one-year missionary certificate program. As degrees other than the M.Div. for pastors have been offered, such as the Servant of the Church certificate and the Master of Theology degree, many women have earned non-pastoral degrees.

From its humble beginnings, the seminary has persevered in holding fast the faith for which the Scottish Covenanter fathers gave their lives. In fulfilling the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations, the precious seed of the gospel was planted among freed African-Americans, Native Americans and Jewish people in this country, as well as overseas in Syria, Cyprus, China, Japan, and Africa. In the course of time, representatives from these and other nations have come to the seminary to increase their knowledge of the Lord. In this vein, a surprising 70 percent of RPCNA pastors today come from non-RP backgrounds. Often they become convicted of the denomination’s distinctives while studying at RPTS.

Others have come as well. At the turn of the 20th Century, Moses Greenberg, a convert from Judaism, came to study under Reformed Presbyterian pastors. Bassam Madany, who grew up in the RP Syrian mission and has had a lifelong ministry to the Islamic world, is an RPTS alum. From Japan have come believers to study, including current students Kihei Takiura, Yasuko Kanamori, and Kunio Hase. Bela and Anita Szilagyi, representing the Hungarian Reformed Church, Greg Ikpur from Nigeria, and others from around the world—Korea, Uganda, Romania, Australia, Kenya, and Ireland—have come to be taught of the Lord. The testimony of unity in diversity as a function of biblical doctrine is what Rev. Anthony Selvaggio (RPTS 2002) called the “RPTS Advantage,” citing the doctrinal unity, cultural assimilation and opportunities for ministry that study at RPTS affords. And the places of ministry encircle the globe. Graduates have gone to serve in Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, and South America as pastors, missionaries, chaplains, and other servants of Christ’s Church.

Within our own neighborhoods the light of a biblically sound education has also been sown. In a seeming paradox, the seminary (“the spiritual seedbed,” as former RPTS President Dr. Bruce Stewart once defined it) is not located in a rural setting where it had its beginnings and where many of the Reformed Presbyterian congregations were planted. It now sits in an urban environment. Perhaps one student put it best: “Hope in the midst of the city. [RPTS] is a respite and a place of hope.”

—Beverly Simpson