Borderlands of Theological Education
Ebook
Traditional patterns of educating and training clergy face not only crises of increasing cost and declining enrollment, but also a crisis of identity, since at present it is the academy, not the church, that shapes formation for ministry. This collection of essays outlines a history and a new vision of the church as the primary location of ministerial formation for the future of theological education.
Podcasts interviewing book contributors are available on Apple Podcasts and here.
1.“In This Interregnum, a Great Variety of Morbid Symptoms Appear”: Seminaries and Local Formation in This Crucial Moment for Theological Education
Joshua B. Davis
2.The End of Seminary
Joseph W.H. Lough
3.The Dramatic Shifts in Theological Education: A Grounded Theory Approach
Kelly D. Campbell and Kris Veldheer
4.Hope, Theological Education, and the Boardwalk
Edwin David Aponte
5.Integrity in Seminary Leadership
Katie Day
6.Tending the Landscapes of Theological Education: Planetary Crisis and the Demands of Ecological Transition
Timothy Eberhart
As a professor at a traditional, residential, denominational seminary where almost all of the students attend full-time and are preparing for extended careers in ordained ministry, I read this provocative and counter-cultural volume with considerable interest. Whether you agree with their various arguments or not, the authors' unsparing analysis of the multiple challenges—pedagogical, ecclesial, social, financial, historical, intellectual, ecological, and even moral—now confronting such seminaries and the denominations they serve is required reading for all those engaged in contemporary theological education.
The condition of institutions educating ministers for the mainline American churches is perilous: enrollment plummets, funds evaporate, schools close or merge, and the very nature of ministry is debated. This collection gathers thoughtful and challenging essays analyzing the crisis and suggesting ways to surmount it. It opens important avenues for debate, discussion, and reform.
These insightful essays speak to the important topic of the role and work of the academy in the formation of clergy leaders for churches and our local communities. They help the reader become aware of the current crises in both theological education and our churches through a rich historical and contemporary analysis. What is more - rather than mere critique – they offer innovative strategies to address the commonplace problems that so many of our theological institutions face. An insightful and captivating book.
This book boldly and thoroughly analyzes and discusses multiple factors contributing to current crises facing theological education. Essayists delve into these constituents and altogether offer incisive, and insightful coverage. Gathered in one volume, these essays offer a conference worth of thoughts that, read individually or interactively, provide to Church and academic leaders, priests, pastors, faculty, lay leaders, and interested persons ways of understanding these factors. The essays reflect deep concern, respect, and most importantly hope for a transformed future for theological education.
Too many efforts to reimagine mainline Protestant theological education are thinly disguised strategies of commodification or expressions of half-baked theology. In contrast, the authors gathered between the covers of Borderlands of Theological Education demonstrate the need for rich, multifaceted, and intersecting discussions about theology, leadership, social change, economics, ecology, multiculturalism, and indeed the very character of ministry itself. Seminary faculties, administrators, boards, and denominational partners should consider the analyses and proposals offered here.
- Title: Borderlands of Theological Education
- Authors: Joshua B. Davis, Deirdre Good, Edwin David Aponte, Kelly Campbell, Katie Day, Timothy Eberhart, Joseph W. H. Lough, Kris Veldheer
- Publisher: Fortress Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2022
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781978715349, 9781978715332, 1978715331, 197871534X
- Resource ID: LLS:9781978715349
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-12-11T06:45:30Z
Joshua B. Davis has over a decade of experience in theological education, including as faculty at The General Theological Seminary and as dean of the Alabama Integrative Ministry School (AIMS). He currently teaches theology and ethics for the Stevenson School for Ministry and is adjunct faculty of religion at the University of North Alabama.
Deirdre Good is a licensed lay preacher in the Diocese of Maine and a faculty member of the Stevenson School of Ministry.