The Imperative of Diakonia for the Church and Theological Education

This article begins by arguing that diakonia is an imperative for the church, be it at the local, national, regional, or global level. It goes on to describe how diakonia has been part of the identity of the World Council of Churches during its 70 years of existence, and highlights the struggle of diakonia and development within the fellowship and ecumenical partners. The article focuses on the document Called to Transformative Action: Ecumenical Diakonia as the most recent attempt to reflect on who we are and what we do as church. It identifies one important aspect of diakonia as reflected in the Pan‐African Women's Ecumenical Empowerment Network perspective on theological education. The article concludes by reflecting on the author's vision for a just community of women and men in prophetic diakonia.     

Spiritual Machines,Personal Bodies,and God: Theological Education and Theological Anthropology

Programs of theological education in Christian traditions are exploring “distanced learning” as one way to address certain challenges to their educational excellence. A major strand in a twenty‐year old discussion of the nature and purpose of theological education has urged that analysis of theological schooling's failures and assessment of proposed remedies ought to be framed explicitly in theological terms as part of an ongoing inquiry into what makes theological education properly theological. This essay tries to show how following that advice can make a practical difference in assessing the merits of distanced learning. It does so by raising questions about the theological‐anthropological assumptions, respectively, of theological education and of distanced learning.     

Catholicity and Context: The Cenotaphs of Orthodox Theological Education

Abstract. For more than twenty‐five years, field education programs have been the primary pedagogical strategy by which contextual (practical) theological training has occurred at most Orthodox theological schools in America. These programs are based on a developmental approach, with students progressing from observation to participation to actual leadership. A synthetic model of contextualism will prepare students more effectively for ministry in the third millennium by providing attention to the contemporary context throughout the entire curriculum. This article will: (a) discuss the current practice of Orthodox theological education in America, (b) examine six classifications of contextual theology, and (c) suggest nine core values and goals that support a synthetic model for the contextualization of Orthodox theological education in America.     

Formation for the Whole Church: A New/Old Vision of Theological Education in the 21st Century

This article offers a proposal for a vision of theological education beyond the boundaries of training and teaching for traditional professional ministry roles. Particular attention will be given to the idea of education as formation and the shared role academic institutions have with congregations. Implications for reshaping definitions of student and faculty will be explored.     

The Voting Propensity of Hong Kong Christians: Individual Disposition, Church Influence, and the China Factor

Considering China's history of unfavorable treatment of mainland Chinese Christians, the authors hypothesize that Christians in Hong Kong reflected their concern over the future protection of religious freedom during the 1995 Legislative Council election, the last election before the handover of the British colony to Chinese sovereignty. We have looked at the relative contributions of individual disposition, the China factor and church influence on the presence of Hong Kong Christians at the polling booth on election day. Our analysis found that Hong Kong Christians are subjected more to the influenceof the latter two factors. The influence of socio-economic status is relatively unimportant in determining the voting propensity of Hong Kong Christians. While both Catholics and Protestants are influenced by general church teachings, this research found that Catholic voters, are more subject to their church's organizational mobilization than Protestant voters.     

Theological Education in Epistemological Perspective: The Significance of Michael Polanyhi's “Personal Knowledge” for a Theological Orientation of Theological Education

Of what significance to theological education is critical reflection? Representing an influential perspective, Charles Wood seems to ascribe to critical reflection the highest priority by defining theology as “critical reflection upon the validity of the Christian witness.” This article argues that such a perspective devalues participatory modes of knowing. In contrast, the scientific epistemology of Michael Polanyi better illumines the pedagogical nature and theological orientation of theological education. Specifically, his notion of “indwelling” serves as a point of integration by which participative knowing is extended and intensified by the clarificatory power of critical reflection.     

The Future of Theological Education: A Speculative Glimpse at 20321

Abstract : While the long‐term future is unpredictable, institutions need a way of seeing their work past the present. This article identifies the forces that cause change in theological schools and speculates about the characteristics that theological schools will exhibit in twenty years in light of the most significant forces that will influence them, including denominational and congregational issues, the changing racial/ethnic composition of the American population, the changing character of global Christianity, and the changing practices of American higher education.     

God's Free Grace and the Freedom of the Church: Theological Aspects of the Barmen Declaration

This article explores the fundamental theological decisions of the ‘six evangelical truths’ of the Barmen Theological Declaration of 1934 on the occasion of its 75th anniversary. Seeing it in close proximity to the theology of Karl Barth, the essay considers in turn the substance and ongoing significance of the Declaration's reaffirmation of the First Commandment, its iteration of the threefold form of the Word of God, its repudiation of natural theology, its ringing affirmation of the positive freedom of the church and, finally, its ecumenical importance as an impulse to Christian unity.     

Contextuality and Catholicity: The Task of Orthodox Theology in Ecumenical Theological Education

The essay unfolds theological foundations for theological education in ecumenical perspective from Orthodox perspectives seeing it as a worldwide enterprise fundamental to the mission of the church, not in its institutional character, but in its eschatological awareness of being a foretaste of the Kingdom of God. The relation between early ecumenical optimism and enthusiasm towards the goal of the visible unity of the church and the wide application of contextuality, i.e. the recognition of the contextual character of theology as a method from the 1970s onwards is discussed. According to the Orthodox perspectives, the ecumenical movement has lost its momentum and coherence and its determination for the quest of visible unity with the predominant acceptance of contextuality as the guiding principle in ecumenical discussions and theological education. The author argues that Orthodox theology has to deepen the understanding of its own contextuality and soften the existing antithesis between contextuality and catholicity of theology and theological education. Orthodox perspectives should underline the relevance of a fundamental unity of divine revelation, as represented in the broad understanding of Christian tradition, which is for the entire created world, not only for believers and which is challenging both a potential distortion, wherein unity is identified with the maintenance of denominational loyalty, as well as all contextual expressions of Christian theology with regard to their relation to the overall goal of church unity. The paper concludes with a plea for all Orthodox theological education to be of some real service to the church in deciding to deal both with current issues (to be contextual) and not to lose sight of the past (to be oriented to catholicity and church unity), to both open up to ecumenical theological education while at the same time maintaining a strong commitment to the common church tradition.     

The Challenge and Urgency of Gender Inclusion in Theological Education

Twenty years after the conclusion of the Ecumenical Decade of the Churches in Solidarity with Women, this article considers the development and the need for inclusion of gender in the sphere of theological reflection and education in Latin America and the Caribbean. Rather than a historical account, it proposes an approach that works toward thinking about and developing a new form of relationship between women and men, and between them and today's society and church.     

The Church and the Trinity I: The Church of the Spirit

We are commemorating the tenth anniversary of the death of the outstanding young preacher Geoffrey Preston by publishing this trilogy. It was written not very long before he died and has not appeared in print before. Its other two parts, 'The Church of the Son' and 'The Church of the Father', we will be publishing in our July/August and September numbers.     

Shame,Ministry, and Theological Education: Leaves from the Notebook of a Defiant Seminarian

Many young adult Christians are highly influenced by relativism of all sorts, which can lead them to a state of doubt. If they voice their doubts too loudly, they are often shamed and abandoned by their elder Christians who do not have (or, perhaps better, do not voice) these doubts. I suggest that those of us involved in youth ministry must meet our youth where they are at, that is, meet them in their doubt, which is not, in my view, a bad place to be. This article focuses on a psychoanalytic understanding of shame and draws from the work of Donald Capps, Erik H. Erikson, Heinz Kohut, and D. W. Winnicott.