An Interview with Arthur Holder

The Reverend Arthur Holder is dean and vice president for academic affairs and professor of Christian spirituality at the GTU. An Episcopal priest and medieval scholar, he has published on Bede, biblical interpretation, pastoral ministry, and education in early and medieval Christianity. Holder served as editor for The Blackwell Companion to Christian Spirituality, scheduled for publication in October 2005.

What niche does your new book fill, and how did it come about?

This work is the most comprehensive book of essays on Christian spirituality. The previous one-volume reference works fall into two categories: dictionaries and anthologies of previously published articles. This is the first of its kind where the whole volume was conceived as one piece. Authors have written specifically for the book with an interdisciplinary approach. It grows out of our experience in the GTU doctoral program in Christian spirituality, widely recognized as the premier such program in the world.

Blackwell has a series of about twenty companions to religion, and they wanted to publish one on Christian spirituality. Margaret Miles, a GTU alum and former dean, recommended me as editor.

What makes the Christian spirituality program at the GTU unique?

The first thing, of course, is that there is one. The GTU program has its own distinct disciplinary identity, and there aren’t many of those. Besides ecumenical resources, the interdisciplinary structure sets it apart from other spirituality programs that tend to be more narrowly conceived as a sub-discipline in theology. The GTU has taken the lead in a revolutionary way of approaching the field. We take for granted things that other people are just trying to imagine. You need the global interreligious village of the GTU to put this into practice.

Tell us about faith and scholarship in your own life.

I’m lucky because my personal faith commitment, my vocation as an ordained priest, my scholarship, and my community life are all connected. I spent 16 years on the faculty at CDSP where my primary focus was preparing students for ministry, with a strong appreciation of the GTU’s role in enhancing that work. Now I’m looking at things from the other side of the lens. I see how each seminary in its own distinctiveness provides wonderful enrichment for the scholarly work that goes on with our M.A., Ph.D., and Th.D. students.

It’s been true for me as well. I would not have been able to edit this book, or even conceive of it, if it weren’t for my experience at the GTU. I wouldn’t have known that I wanted to.

You play a major role in the GTU’s re-accreditation process. How will the living institution of the GTU change and grow in years to come?

Instead of projecting on to the accrediting agencies the specter of external imposition, I think we can look at them as friendly critics who are helping us to accomplish our mission. It is really important to remember that accreditation is a process of peer review. No institution is perfect. We are really good, but we want to be better.

We are looking at what kinds of jobs our graduates have—what they are teaching and writing, their advocacy and service work, their leadership roles—to see if they are doing the kinds of things we say define the GTU, and to find out how we can help future graduates do even better.

Re-accreditation, revision and implementation of the strategic plan, our integrated marketing project, building our endowment—all of these projects have worked together. They’ve had good synergy, which has been very helpful.

Will you be teaching this year?

Yes. Frank McAloon from JSTB and I are teaching the introductory doctoral seminar in Christian spirituality this fall. In the spring, I’ll be doing a Newhall course with Elizabeth Drescher on postcolonial readings of Christian history.

Teaching is really important to me. I don’t do it because I should, I do it because I love it and I’d miss it if I didn’t!

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