The Evangelical Seminary of Southern Africa (ESSA), founded in 1980 as the Evangelical Bible Seminary of Southern Africa (EBSemSA), is a private evangelical theological seminary based at 189 Pine Street, Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. It trains Christian leaders for church and mission work in urban African contexts, offering theological education described as Evangelical, Holistic and Contextual. According to the institution's own site, its Bachelor of Theology programme was accredited (with conditions) by the Council on Higher Education (CHE) in November 2017, and in June 2019 ESSA was registered as a Private Higher Education Institution (PHEI) with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), following an earlier period of de-registration in 2011. ESSA was also historically reviewed by SAQA and previously sought accreditation from the Accrediting Council for Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA).
Qualifications & Programmes
- Bachelor of Theology (BTh) — NQF Level 7, 384 credits; part-time, block-release delivery (five 9-week academic blocks per year, with on-campus contact learning in weeks 3 and 7 of each block, plus Moodle-based home study); completable in as few as four years for part-time students. Curriculum organised into four areas: Understanding the Bible (Old Testament survey, New Testament survey, Life of Christ, Pentateuch, Prophets, Epistles, Poetic literature), Understanding Tradition (Systematic Theology, Church History, Early Church, African Church context, World Religions), Understanding Ministry (Homiletics, Counselling, Pastoral Care, Youth/Children's Ministry, Leadership, Urban Ministry), and Core Academic (Study Skills, Academic Communication, Hermeneutics, Theology, Apologetics, Ethics).