theological education

Churches have long outsourced theological education. Now it's moving back.

Princeton Theological Seminary's farm grows food. But this isn't the main point.

Theological schools occupy a unique place within higher education. With relatively small enrollments and modest endowments, seminaries feel the cutting edge of change. Online learning, new degree programs, and nontraditional scheduling proliferate. And rumors abound that one school or another might shut down.

I knew Jannie Swart's witness would have a lasting impact on our seminary. I didn't anticipate how it would challenge me in the classroom.

"We had to be willing to do a clear-eyed assessment of our financial situation—and to risk our old identity for the sake of a renewed mission."

People do not float through life in the bubble that is their skin. We are grounded, dependent beings that live through the lives and deaths of others.

There is much hand-wringing about the future of theological education. Yet graduates still follow the Spirit's call into some form of ministry.

In the context of a seminary class behind bars, Jesus' question to Simon is a probing and challenging one.

It would be a shame if the crisis in seminary education didn’t lead to fresh thinking about how the church calls, trains and places leaders.

Why is theological education necessary? What are the conditions of its fruitfulness? Such questions are both basic and perplexing.

I enjoyed Michelle Boorstein's piece of reporting on M. Div. students who aren't headed for parish ministry. She details how some seminarians seek to be ministers of a sort as part of their calling to other vocations; she also touches on the challenges of post-Christendom pastoring and the need for more flexible and affordable paths through seminary.

It’s time for bold, creative experiments in preparing women and men for the unique challenges of 21st-century ministry.

The idea that students will reside on a campus and attend classes at specified times seems increasingly quaint.

For all their problems, churches are often a good deal more self-critical and boldly innovative than seminaries.

China's leaders still speak implicitly against religions with strong foreign ties. Meanwhile, Christian theology thrives in China.

What is it about theological educators that allows them to get along with civility and respect in spite of wide theological diversity? I attended the recent biennial meeting of the Association of Theological Schools and was impressed with the spirit of friendship there.

In this deeply researched and illuminating monograph, Elizabeth Clark examines the development of early church history as an academic field in the U.S.

Vanderbilt was not the first school to offer theological education in a prison. But it did pioneer the approach of having seminarians learn in company with prisoners.

"What would happen," asks Carol Howard Merritt of Western Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., "if we coupled baby boomers' prophetic focus with the pragmatism of my generation? What if the church unleashed us to plant churches?"

I'm a part-time student at a denominational seminary, where I'm working (very slowly) on an academic-track masters. It's generally been a good experience, but the school's not a perfect fit. Again and again, professors and coursework assume a ministry context.