Student from diverse cultural, theological background finds fit at Louisville Seminary

Kerri Allen understands what it means to come from a diverse congregational culture and spiritual experience.

A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, she grew up Unitarian, because that was the church that welcomed her interracial family. On top of that, her mother was from the African Methodist Episcopal tradition and Allen attended Catholic school.

“I had a diverse religious experience growing up,” she said.

Allen entered the Reformed tradition when she started attending a hybrid United Church of Christ and Presbyterian church, and then about 10 years ago she joined a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregation she describes as “very diverse and very welcoming.”

With that as the backdrop, Allen needed a seminary where she could both forge a deeper understanding of Reformed theology and call and feel a kinship to a place and people who shared her “progressive values” and multicultural understanding.

That environment was Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (LPTS).

“It was important for me to see the cultural and denominational culture that we have here,” said Allen, who transferred to LPTS from another seminary. “I kind of felt like there were opportunities for me to get exposed to a lot of different things that I wanted here at Louisville.”

She especially lauds the diversity and range of expertise in Louisville Seminary faculty — from Amy Plantinga Pauw, the Henry P. Mobley Professor of Doctrinal Theology; to Scott C. Williamson, the Robert H. Walkup Professor of Theological Ethics.

Allen also has been able to make a more cohesive connection between her interest in politics and theology and faith since coming to Louisville Seminary. Prior to entering seminary, Allen spent 15 years working in partisan politics, and during that time she also wrestled with God’s call for her to enter ministry.

That political activism “started to make more sense to me. God is active everywhere,” she said. “I didn’t see them as separate as I had prior.”

Though Allen is still discerning what her call might actually be once she leaves seminary, she said she now knows advocacy will be a significant part of whatever she ends up doing in ministry.

The future could include going on to earn a doctorate degree, or “designing a Reformed theology around health care advocacy and what that means for the church,” she said. “We are called in many different ways.”

At Louisville Seminary, “I have been able to start to develop that theology and now can move forward,” Allen said.