BERKELEY, CA–February 1, 2022–The Graduate Theological Union is pleased to announce that GTU Board of Trustees member Dale Walker has pledged $100,000 toward GTUx over the next four years. This substantial pledge will be used for developing, administering, marketing, and growing the GTUx platform and its user base. The first installment of this pledge was made in November of last year.
This gift allows GTUx, a free, donation-based platform, to expand its content offerings in critical areas of study—such as justice and public life, environmental care, eco spirituality, and politics and religion—and to engage broader populations, as part of the GTU’s ongoing commitment to education access. Nearly 2,000 people have joined the GTUx community to date.
“I am motivated by my belief in the mission of the GTU,” Walker said. “Our future includes the development of GTUx as a key component of the GTU's larger strategic vision. In this way, we will be able to extend our reach to a much wider array of audiences—including those who are spiritually curious, agnostic, or atheist in orientation—and among whom issues of sustainability, ethics, and social justice are of increasing interest and utmost importance for our world today.”
Introduced in 2021, GTUx extends the GTU’s campus and furthers its mission by serving as a dynamic, digital learning resource for individuals and communities internationally to engage deeply with the world’s wisdom traditions. Providing unique online learning opportunities, virtual programs and events, and unparalleled digital collections and resources for the study of religion and theology, GTUx encourages spiritually rooted engagement with the critical issues of our time to inspire transformational change for the creation of a more just, compassionate, and sustainable world.
"Dale’s generous pledge marks a confident statement about the innovative ways GTUx is making the GTU’s wealth of wisdom resources available to meet the needs of our world today, in an educational landscape that is rapidly changing,” said Uriah Kim, GTU President. “60 years after its founding, the GTU continues to provide cutting-edge scholarship and opportunities for timely dialogue on interreligious and interdisciplinary topics, all of which are now being made available to new audiences, thanks to GTUx.”
In its first year, three online GTUx originals were made available to GTUx community members: The Spirit of Justice, Greening Spirituality, and The Lure of Power: Religion, Politics, and Insurrection. This spring, three new GTUx originals are scheduled to release: The Arbaeen Pilgrimage, led by Dr. Mahjabeen Dhala; Ecospirituality, led by Dr. Rita Sherma; and The Psychedelic Renaissance – Part I, led by Dr. Sam Shonkoff, in addition to new GTUx lectures.
GTUx represents a central component of GTU 2.0, the GTU’s strategic five-year vision. GTU 2.0 marks the GTU’s commitment to meet the changing demands of higher education, expand access to learning, innovate programs to better prepare graduates for a range of career pathways, and shape the future of theological education. With GTUx, the GTU is breaking new ground in shaping the future direction of theological education, while offering cutting-edge content that furthers the GTU’s mission to address today’s most pressing challenges to education access, justice, and religious learning, as well as spiritual care and practice.
More information on GTUx and its original offerings can be found at gtu.edu/x, and in the latest issue of Skylight Magazine.
About the Graduate Theological Union
The Graduate Theological Union (GTU) is one of the world’s most comprehensive centers for religious education, and one of the largest and most diverse partnerships of seminaries and graduate schools in the United States.
More than a consortium and academy, the GTU is a dynamic laboratory that provides scholar-innovators with a staging ground to reimagine the future of interreligious life. An education with the GTU equips leaders to translate learning into action that will have tangible impact in the world.
Since its founding in 1962, the GTU has been at the forefront of interreligious education and dialogue. The work of our eminent alumni, students, and faculty across cultures, traditions, and technologies continues to create new pathways to a truly pluralistic future.
Discover more about our programs and the work of our alumni and community at gtu.edu.