11 “Beethoven wrote it—that is enough”

In June 1873, the young women at the Augusta Female Seminary in western Virginia opened their Commencement Exercises with a performance of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony on six pianos, two organs, and clarinet. The arrangement they used remains unknown but may have been an adaptation created by the music professor....

The Pageant and the Glory

A white handkerchief waved from a capitol window signals secession-and all over North Carolina the news is greeted with celebration and a rush to enlistment-though other voices are raised in dire warning of the destruction and death to come. The population of just under a million is almost evenly divided: one-third Unionists, one-third Secessionists, one-third enslaved and free blacks. The volunteer companies bear bellicose names: the Rough and Readies, the Lexington Wildcats, the Rockingham Invincibles. The Guilford Greys receive a silk flag from the local female seminary; 180 march to war and only 13 return home unscathed.

Taking Theology Home: The Spiritually Formative Experiences of Seminary Spouses

The purpose of this paper is to explore the spiritually formative experiences of fifteen female seminary spouses who participated in a phenomenological research study. Graduate theological education is not limited to married, male students. Seminaries are diverse educational institutions that equip married and single students, as well as men and women from every country in the world for gospel ministry. Because of this broad population in theological education, the qualitative proposals in this essay are not generalizable to all schools, students, and settings equally, but the perspectives of these seminary spouses are useful in cultivating a robustly holistic education for students who are married during their academic pursuits. It is the intent here to explore how theology can crossover from the academy to the home so that it is experienced in marriage. The goal then is to equip students, professors, and administrators to actively nurture the faith formation of the second-person of the ministry dyad. In order for these stakeholders to understand how to nurture this faith formation of the seminary spouse, we must first hear and understand the experiences of these wives as they share their reflections on these formational years as a part of their husband's education.