Two students from the Pacific School of Religion share their definition of “faith in action” and thoughts about the Graduate Theological Union.

Judith Holloway

Faith in action springs from our relationship with God. If we have a spiritual practice, then our action becomes “right action,” to use a Buddhist term. I came to study at PSR and the GTU because its curriculum allows me to focus on ecotheology, a cornerstone of action and motivation and theological reexamination. I draw my energy from others here at the GTU who share that same passion and fire for transformative change. We look at redefining ourselves and we ask how we define God. What is the human relationship to creation? How is God God if we destroy ourselves, if we make the world uninhabitable?

Roy King, Jr.

Faith is the conviction based upon personal experience of something beyond present reality and needs. It’s a beacon, a motivating force that has drawn me to study the history and contemporary aspects of world religions at the GTU. As a practicing psychiatrist and psychotherapist, I’ve learned to modify what we’re taught to do in therapy to help someone of a different religious background. Many of my Muslim outpatients do their prayers during a session with me. The GTU has spurred me to teach comparative religion and do public work in the interfaith arena.