C. Smalley is president of Arizona Theological Seminary and Bible College. In the school’s academic philosophy, which Smalley wrote, the school bills itself as favoring “academy model” over the “university model” of education adopted by most seminaries. It has also forgone accreditation with non-Christian educational entities. Contact

David Buschart is a professor of theology and historical studies at Denver Seminary. He has written that the challenges facing seminaries reflect the social, economic and cultural shifts affecting all institutions.

This ReligionLink edition explores the issue and provides resources and experts.

Read a June 17, 2012, guest column posted by The Washington Post, “What’s an American Buddhist?”

Read the transcript from a June 15, 2012, episode of Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, about an American who is the first Westerner appointed abbot of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery.

Read a July 19, 2012, column in The Huffington Post about the Pew study’s findings. It’s written by Khyati Y. Joshi, who served as an adviser on the study.

Read a Jan. 18, 2013 Tribune Star article about the ordination of transgender Shannon T.L. Kearns in Minneapolis, Mn. He will start the states first North American Old Catholic Church congregation.

Read an April 22, 2007 New York Times review of the popular novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) by Mohsin Hamid that studies the constructed relationship between Islam and fundamentalism by Americans after 9/11.

Peter A. Huff is chairman of the department of religious studies at Centenary College of Louisiana in Shreveport. Huff teaches courses on global fundamentalism and is the author of What Are They Saying About Fundamentalisms? (Paulist Press, 2008).