HISTORY

The American Baptist Seminary of the West (ABSW) unites over a century of Baptist-related theological education in the far western United States with national and international relationships. The seminary's roots go back to the 1871 charter of California College, first located in Vacaville and moved to Oakland in 1887. In 1912 California College relocated to Berkeley, changing its name to Berkeley Baptist Divinity School. Three years later this school merged with the Pacific Coast Baptist Theological Seminary, which had begun instruction in 1890 at the First Baptist Church of Oakland and had moved to Berkeley in 1904. From 1915 to 1968 the school carried the name Berkeley Baptist Divinity School.

In 1968 the Berkeley Baptist Divinity School joined with California Baptist Theological Seminary (founded in 1944 at Temple Baptist Church in Los Angeles and moved to Covina in 1951). The new two-campus institution

Dr. Claiborne M. Hill Second President, BBDS

was renamed American Baptist Seminary of the West. In 1974 the Covina faculty joined the faculty in Berkeley, where together they could share in the resources of the Graduate Theological Union (GTU).

As a charter member of the GTU (1962), ABSW is the center of Baptist ecumenical theological education in the far western United States. The seminary is affiliated denominationally with the American Baptist Churches, USA and the Progressive National Baptist Convention. ABSW admits students from a variety of denominational traditions.