Just Published! Beyond Walls — A Bicentennial History of Bexley Seabury
Rev. Dr. Thomas Ferguson
Bexley Seabury Seminary is delighted to announce the publication of Beyond Walls: A Bicentennial History of Bexley Hall Seabury-Western Seminary Federation by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Ferguson, Interim Academic Dean and Associate Professor of Church History. Commissioned in observance of our 200th anniversary, this landmark volume offers an illuminating account of our seminary’s distinctive heritage and ongoing witness within the life of the Episcopal Church.
Previewed at our Bicentennial Gala in 2024, Beyond Walls now invites readers to explore two centuries of change, challenge, and renewal in theological education. Ferguson’s narrative traces the intertwined stories of Bexley Hall and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary—two historic institutions whose eventual federation formed today’s Bexley Seabury Seminary.
Through careful research and engaging storytelling, Beyond Walls situates our seminary’s journey within the broader history of the Episcopal Church and American Christianity. It examines not only our contributions to ministry and leadership formation, but also the ways theological education has been shaped by—and at times complicit in—systems of privilege, racism, and exclusion. Yet woven throughout is a story of adaptation, innovation, and enduring commitment to forming leaders for the changing Church.
As Ferguson writes, the evolution of Bexley Seabury mirrors the transformation of the Church itself: responding to cultural shifts, embracing ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, and seeking to embody the Gospel “beyond walls.”
With a foreword by the Rev. Dr. Frank M. Yamada, Executive Director of the Association of Theological Schools, and an afterword by the Rev. Canon C. K. Robertson, Beyond Walls both celebrates our legacy and challenges us to reflect on the future of theological formation.
Dr. Ferguson—who previously served as Deputy to the Presiding Bishop for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations—is also the author of The Episcopal Story: Birth and Rebirth (2015) and The Past Is Prologue: The Revolution of Nicene Historiography (2005).
Beyond Walls is published by Wipf and Stock and available now.
