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This Handbook for Accreditation† provides the rationale, guidelines, and procedures for membership in the Association of Reformed Theological Seminaries.

The Association of Reformed Theological Seminaries was created to help meet a growing need in theological education for an accrediting agency that understands and is dedicated to the mission of reformed theological education. Over the years, institutions for pastoral and theological training which have had their roots in the Christian community, even in the reformed tradition, have struggled to maintain the vision, mission, and distinctives with which their founders endowed them. While this is in part due to the general secular and liberal drift in America over the past two-and-a-half centuries, it is at least conceivable that the existence of an organization involving a group of like-minded institutions and committed to the reformed faith as expressed in historic creeds, might have been able to arrest that drift, or, at least, impede that drift, thus allowing the reformed faith to flourish more than is currently the case.

The Association of Reformed Theological Seminaries, taking its stand on the historic reformed creeds of the Church, is committed to the preservation and promotion of the reformed faith and the progress of the Kingdom of God throughout the world. We welcome institutions throughout the world who share this vision and invite them to unite with us in this important calling.
The Board of Directors

† This term is used throughout to mean the system of institutional accountability
described in this Handbook.

Chapter 1