Agosto Named Interim Dean
of Hartford Seminary
June 14, 2007 – Dr. Heidi Hadsell, President of Hartford Seminary, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Efrain Agosto, Professor of New Testament, as interim dean of the Seminary, effective August 1.
Agosto succeeds Dr. Ian Markham, who has resigned as dean to become dean and president of Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, VA.
Dr. Agosto came to Hartford in July 1995 after serving on the staff of the Center for Urban Ministerial Education in Boston for 12 years, the last five years as director of this inner-city urban theological education program, a campus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. At Hartford Seminary, he also is director of El Programa de Ministerios Hispanos (Hispanic Ministries Program).
“We are blessed that Efrain has agreed to become interim dean while we start a search for a new dean,” Hadsell said. “Efrain brings a deep understanding of theological education, experience in ministry in daily life, a commitment to interfaith dialogue, and compassion to the position.”
Agosto has a Master of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell and completed his Ph.D. in New Testament Studies at Boston University.
He was born and raised in New York City; his parents came to New York from Puerto Rico in the 1950s. He attended New York City public schools and received his B.A. from Columbia University in 1977. Agosto was nurtured in New York Hispanic Pentecostal churches and was a licensed preacher for the Hispanic Assemblies of God in the 1980s.
He has served on the pastoral staffs of Hispanic Pentecostal, Baptist and Congregational churches in New York, Boston, and East Hartford, CT. He was interim pastor at Boston’s Hispanic Community Church (United Church of Christ) in 1994, and part of an interim pastoral team at the Iglesia Cristiana Nueva Esperanza (UCC) in East Hartford in 1999, where he continues to worship as an active lay member.
In his work in New Testament studies, Agosto teaches, researches and writes on the Pauline Epistles, especially the leadership and ministry of Paul and others in these communities. He has published several articles and book chapters on these topics.
His book, Servant Leadership: Jesus and Paul (Chalice Press), was published in November 2005. It studies issues of social status, leadership practice and theology in the Jesus movement and Pauline Christianity, with implications for the practice of religious leadership today.
Agosto has taught courses in Paul and His Urban Churches, New Testament Introduction, Readings in Pauline Theology and Ministry, and with Professor Carl Dudley of Hartford Seminary’s Hartford Institute for Religion Research, New Testament Tensions and Contemporary Issues. Agosto and Scott Thumma, also a sociologist from the Institute, team taught a course on Pentecostalism. Agosto also has taught a Doctor of Ministry course on Leadership in the New Testament: A Case Study Approach, in which he and the students employ biblical cases to explore issues of leadership in Jesus and Paul.
Agosto’s wider service has included the Final Selection Committee and Mentor for the Hispanic Theological Initiative, a scholarship and mentoring organization which seeks to develop Latino and Latina doctoral candidates in religion and theology. He also served on the Executive Committee of the Association of Theological Schools, Committee for Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Profession of the Society for Biblical Literature and was formerly a faculty representative to the Board of Trustees of Hartford Seminary. Currently he serves as chair of the Seminary’s Center for Faith in Practice.
Hadsell said that the search for a dean will start in the fall, and the Seminary expects to have the position filled at the start of the 2008-2009 academic year.
About Hartford Seminary: Hartford Seminary engages leaders in interreligious initiatives and inspires vital faith communities. It prepares leaders, students, scholars and religious institutions to understand and live faithfully in today’s multi-faith, world, engages a diverse array of people in dialogue, and affirms the particularities of faith and social context while openly exploring differences and commonalities. The Seminary provides educational opportunities that enable participants to understand themselves and their faith traditions better and to contribute more fully to a culture of dialogue and creative leadership in their local civic and faith communities nationally and abroad.
For further information or questions, please contact David Barrett, Director of Public and Institutional Affairs, at (860) 509-9519 or dbarrett@hartsem.edu. A photo of Efrain Agosto is available by calling David Barrett; Agosto also is available for interviews.
