SFTS Alumni

Alumni Reunion Weekend
April 15-17, 2010

SFTS and the Alumni Council are pleased to invite you to the San Anselmo campus for our annual Alumni Reunion Weekend. Special plans are scheduled for the classes of 1950, 1960 and 1985 who will be celebrating their 60th, 50th and 25th reunions, respectively.  

This year’s reunion will feature community worship, fellowship with old friends and insightful lectures. The reunion celebration dinner is set for Friday, April 16, and will include awards and special recognition for the anniversary classes.

Additionally, plans are set for a “Joint Reunion” by the classes of 1959, 1960 and 1961. Join Don Barnes, Herb Valentine & Pasquale “Pat” Castellano (’60), Ted Crouch & John Pickrel (’59), and Bill Johnson & Jim Zeek (’61) for the first “Joint 50th Reunion.” Catch up with these SFTS graduates and hark back to the good old days during the Alumni Reunion.

The Seminary continues a treasured tradition by scheduling two distinguished lectures:
The T.V. Moore Lectures and The Faith and the Common Good Lecture.

2010 T.V. Moore Lectures

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Images of God: New Perspectives in Biblical Scholarship
This lecture series provides alumni, clergy and lay leaders with access to renowned scholars who offer insight into theological education, current research and ecumenical opportunities. The lecture series, presented by current and former SFTS professors, will explore new perspectives in biblical scholarship, focusing on the “Images of God.”


Idols or Gods? New Perspectives on Images of God in Ancient Israel
Dr. Annette Schellenberg, Assistant Professor of Old Testament
Dr. Annette Schellenberg’s lecture focuses on the significance of the “idols” mentioned so often in the Old Testament. After explaining the Ancient Near Eastern understanding of cultic images, she will present the archaeological evidence of such images in ancient Israel and discuss the problems involved in interpreting them. Especially significant is the question of how these images relate with the OT texts that evaluate “idols” so critically (prophetic polemic against images; prohibition of images). In a last step, Schellenberg will show how the description of humans as “image of God” (Gen 1:26) is related with the Ancient Near Eastern understanding of images and the Old Testament prohibition of them.

Schellenberg is Assistant Professor of Old Testament at SFTS. After completing her PhD (on Ecclesiastes and the problem of human cognition) at Zurich University, she spent two years as visiting scholar at UCLA. Currently, she works on a book on Gen 1 and other Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern texts expressing the idea of a privileged human position.


Birthing God: Feminist Theology in Retrospect and Prospect
Rev. Dr. Judy Yates Siker, Vice President/Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins 
From the so-called “first wave” of feminism in the 1800s through the second and third waves and up to and including today, the range of diversity within this movement is expansive.  Feminist theorists have challenged basic assumptions in nearly every discipline and Christian theology is no exception.  In this lecture, Rev. Dr. Judy Yates Siker will offer an overview of the changing developments within Christian feminist theology, and how the experiences of women from a broad range of cultures have shaped and reshaped our images and understandings of God and of what it means to be human.  

Siker is Vice President and Professor of New Testament at San Francisco Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif. She is also an ordained Presbyterian minister PC(USA) who can be found preaching, teaching, and leading spiritual retreats for churches throughout Northern and Southern California.


A Post-Modern Reading of Paul’s Letter to the Romans and its Disclosure of a New Image of God
Rev. Dr. Herman C. Waetjen, Robert S. Dollar Emeritus Professor of New Testament
The hermeneutics of taking in hand the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Romans as an extension of the interpreter’s subjectivity, combined with the literary-critical methods of a close reading of the text and consistency building, unconceals an interpretation of Romans that exposes the fallacy of Luther and Calvin’s “justification by faith” and their theology of a punitive God. Rev. Dr. Herman C. Waetjen’s lecture will focus on salvation as justice and the deconstruction of law.

Waetjen is Robert S. Dollar Emeritus Professor of New Testament at San Francisco Theological Seminary. After teaching at the Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union for 34 years, he retired in 1996, but he continues to be invited to teach occasional courses.


Do you not know that you are God’s temple? [1 Cor. 3:16] New Perspective on Paul’s Image of the Temple in Light of Numismatics, Ancient Art and Ancient Theory of Architecture
Dr. Annette Weissenrieder, Assistant Professor of New Testament
Dr. Annette Weissenrieder’s lecture will look at the idea and use of ancient temples in the city of Corinth and as Paul depicts them in his first letter to the Corinthians. Paul’s ideas will be placed in the context of ancient sacred architecture by drawing on the rich evidence provided by coins, art, and literature. These sources show that sacred architecture was both oriented toward the person of the Roman emperor, and connected with the symmetry and proportionality of the human body. Weissenrieder’s method is suggested by Paul’s own use of architectural terms and measurements found in the only remaining architectural treatise to survive from antiquity, Vitruvius’s De architectura libri decem.

Weissenrieder joined San Francisco Theological Seminary and Graduate Theological Union after teaching at the University of Heidelberg for six years. She was a visiting scholar at Union Theological Seminary in New York, McCormick Theological Seminary and Harvard Divinity School. She was awarded, together with Gregor Etzelmüller, the Hengstberger Prize of the International Research Forum of the University of Heidelberg.

2010 Faith & the Common Good Lecture

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Images of God: New Perspectives on Hearing the Gospel of Mark
Dr. Antoinette Wire, Professor Emerita of New Testament
The Faith and the Common Good lecture is an opportunity for alumni/ae and friends of the Seminary to gather for a challenging lecture with a person of faith who exemplifies both excellence and service in their vocation. Speakers are selected on the basis of the unique ways in which their vocational lives are informed by their practical faith.
Dr. Antoinette Wire will be presenting. “Images of God: New Perspectives on Hearing the Gospel of Mark.” Mark will be presented as a gospel shaped in decades of oral telling of Jesus’ story.  The lecture will focus on how Jesus’ announcement of what God is doing in this gospel as shaped by a variety of tellers shows an image of God that can makes more sense in our multicultural world than traditional Christian formulations.

Wire is a Professor Emerita in New Testament Studies at SFTS. Antoinette and her husband, Hugh, have been teaching in China several years in the last decade.  She is the author of The Corinthian Women Prophets: A Reconstruction through Paul's Rhetoric (Fortress, 1900) and Holy Lives, Holy Deaths: A Close Hearing of Early Jewish Storytellers (Society of Biblical Literature, 2002).  She is now working on a study of Mark composed by tellers.

Faith & the Common Good is a gift to SFTS and the wider community from the John S. Hadsell and Virginia T. Hadsell Endowment Fund. Dr. Hadsell is an SFTS alumnus (BD ’54) and professor emeritus; Mrs. Hadsell served for many years on the SFTS Auxiliary Board.

Reunion Registration

On-Campus Meals
SFTS will be serving breakfast, lunch and dinner on Thursday and Friday.  We will be serving a complimentary breakfast on Saturday. Please indicate which meals you would like to attend in the registration form. Also remember to indicate if you have any dietary restrictions (vegetarian, low-salt, gluten, etc.) on the registration form.

On-Campus Accommodations
We have limited on-campus lodging available, so please make your reservations early by indicating your request on the attached registration form or by calling 415.451.2830.  Guest lodging will be reserved on a first-come, first-serve basis. Baird Hall, $50 per room, per night (single/double occupancy).  Dormitory housing, shared baths and ADA accessible.

Cancellation Policy
All cancellations must be received in writing before Wednesday, April 7, in order to receive a full refund.  No refunds will be given for cancellations processed after April 7.

Off-Campus Accommodations
There are several wonderful hotels, inns and bed & breakfasts in close proximity to the San Anselmo campus. For additional listings, please contact the Marin County Visitors Bureau toll free at 1 (866) 925-2060 or www.visitmarin.org for more options.

• Best Western Corte Madera, just off highway 101. (415) 924-1502
• Courtyard by Marriott Larkspur Landing, just off highway 101. (415) 925-1800
• Embassy Suites San Rafael, just off highway 101. (415) 499-9222
• Four Points by Sheraton San Rafael, just off highway 101. (415) 479-8800
• San Anselmo Inn in the heart of downtown San Anselmo. (415) 455-5366

Questions?
Contact Sarah Campbell, Director of Annual Gifts
Phone: (415) 451-2830
Email: scampbell@sfts.edu