Father Chris Renz recently published an inspiring and quite beautiful historical account of St. Albert’s College. His 225 page work In This Light Which Gives Light contains many rarely seen photographs of the friars and the school that help to tell a marvelous story of religious and academic devotion.
Originally founded in 1851 as the House of Studies for the Western Dominican Province, the College of St. Albert the Great was civilly incorporated in the State of California in 1932 with the hope that it would become "a lighthouse of religion and learning to the regions around," and in so doing open up a conversation between the Church and contemporary culture.
As its growth continued, the College became well situated both academically and geographically to respond to the ecumenical movement of the mid-twentieth century. Ideas which served as the seedbed for the Graduate Theological Union (1962) also provided the means for the College to be the first Catholic institution to join the GTU in 1964. Shortly thereafter, the College changed its name to the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, moving classrooms and administration to the GTU campus.
For more information about the book and how to order it, please go to http://www.dspt.edu/ and click on the About Us section or call 510-883-2030.
