I promise not to write at too great a length about theological education. Sadly, it is difficult to generate much interest in it, even among alumnae once they are absorbed with the demands of parish life. It is harder still to interest laypeople.
That’s too bad. What most people do not appreciate is that seminaries are both enmeshed in the trends that shape the culture and the church; and the graduates of seminaries (i.e., clergy), in turn, shape the church. So large numbers of church leaders, lay and ordained alike, may ignore what is going on in seminaries, but that doesn’t mean it won’t affect them. As a friend of mine in the business world (that’s “bidness” here in Texas) observes, “It isn’t what you don’t know that gets you, it’s what you don’t know that you don’t know.”
So over the space of a few blogs, I would like to map out my own evaluation of where we are and how theological education needs to change. Specifically, “Why theological education needs to be less like Saab and more like Fine Cooking.”
The next blog in the series will explain the points of comparison.
I, for one, think you’re onto something here. With some credibility one could argue that the malaise of mainstream Christianity (at least in the U.S.) began in the seminaries, though surely not there alone, and that it makes sense to look toward the seminaries, or more accurately, theological formation (they’re not quite the same thing!) for the way forward. I do not use the words “restore” or “recover” here because I’m not sure that’s what’s needed and many denominational seminaries are so far gone that restoring them would make about as much sense as simply restoring Port au Prince, Haiti, after the earthquake. No, much — maybe most — of the Haitian capital will be bulldozed (and the debris dumped heaven knows where) and rebuilt from the ground up. With regard to theological education it seems to me this will take not just “thinking outside the box,” but bulldozing all the boxes in which we’re conditioned to think about things like theological formation and starting from the ground up, or perhaps better, from heaven down. But, like Haiti, we’ve got to move quickly, for the disease spread by decay about us is reaching catastrophic proportions. Just getting seminary leaders together to “rethink their mission” is not the way to go. We need the “big, hairy, audacious goal” approach. That said, I have no idea what the results might look like. But it’s eleven o’clock and way past time to start home else Cinderella (the church) will might turn into a decaying pumpkin. And you know what that smells like!
I finally had a chance to look through the presentation … I really liked it – I may use it as a resource in my seminar on course design (with attribution of course!)
While every one of us probably has some greater or lesser measure of concern about seminaries and seminary training, my principal two in terms of the Church herself lie, first, with the proliferation of degrees that appear to lack the intellectual rigor of analogous degrees in secular studies and, second, the absence in most curricula of at least broad, but comprehensive and required, instruction in Science and its interface with religion, ethics, and culture.
Hi Fred, great idea, engaging metaphors, good sense of humor AND the promise of substance. Keep it up. I’m sure the well is overflowing with topics. I like your warm style–but with class.