Last month, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) announced it is merging with a Canadian university, closing its campus north of Chicago, and relocating over 2,000 miles away. As happy a face as the seminary and we alumni wish to put on this, this effectively marks the end of a once-prominent Evangelical institution.
At its heyday, when I was a student there in the late 90s, it was home to world-class scholars like Don Carson, Wayne Grudem, Harold O.J. Brown, Douglas Sweeney (now dean of Beeson Divinity School), the erudite and genuinely godly missiologist Paul Hiebert, and many others. Carl Henry was one of my visiting professors. John Stott spoke in the chapel. And yet, in just a quarter of a century, it's on the verge of dissolution. How did this happen?
Collin Hansen, editor-in-chief at The Gospel Coalition (TGC), wrote an obituary for our mutual alma mater. He identified two reasons — both practical — for TEDS’ demise: 1. lack of “ample endowments” like those that sustain elite institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Duke despite their ...
