A seminary is an educational institution devoted to training clergy, ministers or other religious professionals, historically most closely associated with the Christian tradition, where Catholic seminaries following the reforms of the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century standardized clerical education, and Protestant denominations later developed their own seminary systems for training ordained ministers. Seminary curricula typically combine theological study, scripture, pastoral training and, in many traditions, a period of supervised ministry, and seminaries have historically served as key institutions for shaping denominational doctrine and clergy formation. As a socialization institution parallel to other religious-education forms found worldwide, such as the madrasa in Islam and the yeshiva in Judaism, the seminary channels aspiring religious leaders through a formal institutional structure that certifies and standardizes religious authority.
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The seminary is the institution through which religious traditions, especially Christian denominations, formally train and ordain clergy.
Many seminaries developed alongside or within university structures, and theological faculties were foundational components of the medieval university.
The yeshiva functions within Judaism analogously to the seminary in Christian traditions, as the institution responsible for training religious scholars and, in some cases, rabbis.
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