This page describes theological societies in the United States of America that maintain a dues-paying membership list of theological scholars and meet periodically for theological discussion. Please email amtheosoc@gmail.com with any corrections or additions.
Self-Described National Theological Societies
Catholic Theological Society of America
CTSA was founded in 1946; see their website.
Evangelical Theological Society
ETS was founded in 1949; see their website.
Wesleyan Theological Society
WTS was founded in 1965; see their website.
Orthodox Theological Society in America
OTSA was founded in 1966; see their website.
Adventist Theological Society
We think the Adventist Theological Society was founded in 1988; see their website.
Self-Described Regional Theological Societies
Boston Theological Society
BTS was founded in the deep mists of time, but we are not sure when; we do know it pre-dates the Boston Theological Institute, which is not its institutional umbrella. See the BTS website.
American Theological Society – Midwest Division
Founded in 1927, the American Theological Society in the Midwest meets biannually in the Chicago area; see their website.
Pacific Coast Theological Society
PCTS was founded in 1939; see their website.
New Haven Theological Discussion Group
This group has no website but meets twice each year for lively discussion. We are told it was founded in the mid-1940s by H. Richard Niebuhr and Julian Norris Hartt, and conceived as a discussion group for the younger group of theologians, by contrast with the older theologians who met at the American Theological Society (HRN was a member of the old guard, too).
We know of two other groups with the same name, though the current New Haven Theological Discussion Group appears to be distinct from both of them.
- The prominent “New Haven Theological Discussion Group” was started by Henry P. Van Dusen in 1934. Its papers covering the years 1934-1965 are preserved at Columbia University’s Burke Library and at the Yale Divinity Library. It met regularly at Yale but also elsewhere on the East Coast and did not continue beyond the 1960s in this form.
- A Theological Discussion Group was founded in the early 1960s, with funding from a grant of the Hazen Foundation, as the “Hazen Theological Discussion Group,” meeting at Yale. When the grant ran out, it continued as the “New Haven Theological Discussion Group.” By the late 1960s, the group had renamed itself “The Biblical Theologians,” and, in a reduced form, this group still exists under this name, meeting once a year at Princeton Seminary. It does not have a website.
Old Life Theological Society
The Old Life Theological Society was founded around 2004; their website is not clear on the precise year.
Fox Valley Theological Society
The Fox Valley Theological Society was founded around 2009 or 2010; their website is not clear on the precise year.