Marilyn Marsh currently serves as the Executive Dean of Esperanza College of Eastern University. Marilyn's life was significantly shaped by her experience at Palmer Theological Seminary and growing through the pain and struggle of her battle with cancer.
Marilyn first went to Openseminary to learn theology in a classroom. As it turns out, through her trials and time in school she discovered and nurtured a deeper and richer relationship with God. Because of the intense introspection and setting of spiritual goals throughout the program, Marilyn emerged on the other side of Openseminary knowing God in a more personal and intimate way.
One of the meaningful takeaways from Openseminary was the focus on inner spiritual work. This was necessary in each model throughout the program. Students spent a lot of time working through the “Immunity to Change” Personal Inquiry process, which results in examining each person’s own theological beliefs before they were able to examine a particular area of study.
This process was painful at times. Each experience revealed layers of everyone’s own theological foundations and forced them to get to their core beliefs, revealing that it was sometimes not what they initially thought it was.
It was always an exercise of personal theological reflection. While painful at times, Marilyn says it always produced a result that was unexpected, complex, and required growth.
