In 1885 wealthy California landowner Charles Maclay founded as the Maclay School of Theology in San Fernando, California to train Methodist ministers. The school eventually became the Claremont School of Theology, an institution that existed to train people to minister and bring the word of Christ to all.
Well never mind that. According to an article by Larry Gordon in the Los Angeles Times:
Leaders of the Claremont School of Theology will announce Monday the gift of $40 million from an Arizona couple [David and Joan Lincoln] to help expand the Christian divinity institution into a university that will include training for Jewish and Muslim clergy.
The contributions will help the school transform itself into an unusual multifaith institution, to be named the Claremont Lincoln University in the couple’s honor, with enrollment expected to grow to about 600 over the next decade, officials said. The new university will offer interfaith degree programs and serve as an umbrella for three units: the existing Claremont School of Theology, which will continue to train students from its United Methodist base and other Christian denominations, and new divisions that will train rabbis and imams.
So the school still offers training in religious studies, though now the religion itself doesn’t appear to matter so much.
