SEBTS Center for Faith and Culture receives $1.25M grant
By Mary Asta Halvorsen, SEBTS
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) has received a grant of $1.25 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. in order to support the Congregational Renewal Initiative of Southeastern’s L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture (CFC). This is in addition to a May grant for the seminary’s Center for Preaching and Pastoral Leadership.
The CFC exists to advance the way of Christ in all of culture. Its Congregational Renewal Initiative is a concerted effort between the CFC and Southern Baptist churches to strengthen congregations through the development of research and resources on spiritual formation for public witness.
The initiative is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative, which aims to encourage the flourishing of congregations by helping them deepen their relationships with God, enhance their connections with each other and contribute to the vitality of their communities and the world.
“We are so grateful to receive a grant from Lilly Endowment through its Thriving Congregations Initiative,” said CFC Director Benjamin Quinn. “Over the next five years we will work with nearly a dozen Southern Baptist churches to develop a curriculum to address the relationship of Christian spiritual formation and the public life and witness of Christians. This project sits at the center of our mission at the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture, and we trust that the work of the grant will yield fruitful insights to further equip our students and bless local churches.”
Through content, community and conversation, the CFC seeks to equip Southeastern students as leaders and thinkers who are grounded in their Christian faith and in the truth of God’s Word so that they may serve and strengthen the church, acting as Jesus’ witnesses in all areas of life.
Learn more about the CFC’s resources and mentorship program here.
CBU professor receives $1M grant to study responses to sacred architecture
By CBU Staff
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (BP) — Matthew Niermann, professor of architecture at California Baptist University (CBU), was recently awarded a Templeton Religion Trust research grant for more than $1 million. The grant will fund a study that will explore how sacred architecture communicates spiritual information to both religious and non-religious people.
Niermann and Julio Bermudez, a professor formerly at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., are leading the research team. The group includes researchers from other universities and six CBU students as research assistants.
The study will include 180 participants — 60 Evangelical Protestants, 60 Catholics and 60 non-religious people — visiting three buildings: a Catholic church, an Evangelical Protestant church and a secular structure. Using biometrics, such as eye tracking, skin temperature and heart rate, the study will record the participants’ responses to the buildings. The study started in June and will run for three years.
“We are exploring sacred space’s role in providing religious knowledge for differing populations,” Niermann said.
The title of the research is “Spiritual Understanding and Architecture: A Multi-method, Empirical Investigation Across Religious and Non-religious Populations.”
An intent of the research is to help build a new field of study called experimental theological aesthetics, which combines theology, aesthetics and empirical research to examine how beauty and artistry in religious contexts influence spiritual experiences and beliefs.
“We are asking questions about how one senses God through beauty and the arts — and examining how this happens within individuals,” Niermann said.
The Templeton Religion Trust seeks to find the value in art. It does this through aesthetic cognitivism, the idea “that art is a method of communication, understanding, and truth,” according to its website.
Related to the study, CBU will host a symposium in spring 2026, bringing together top global scholars to develop the field of experimental theological aesthetics and publish a series of scholarly articles on the project.
