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Exploring Miseducation and Embedded Theologies: Demystifying the Theological Formations of American Cultures
Proposal abstract :
This project supports the development of a research survey instrument, its subsequent use with theological students at the outset and completion of their Master of Divinity degree program, and an analysis of the data in order to identify the formative effects of various cultural factors that are believed to function alongside religious faith in shaping the religious formation of incoming theological students. The information gathered from the instrument will contribute to the development of the emerging signature pedagogy at Brite Divinity School. In particular the analysis of the results will shape the teaching/learning outcomes of the faculty in its efforts to nurture an effective 21st Century Christian identity for religious leaders as public theologians in the United States.
Learning Abstract :
Who are the seminarians that Brite teaches? What influences seminary students' religious development? How do they spend their time? To get an overview of these questions and others, a survey was administered to 131 seminary students at Brite Divinity School. The survey research revealed to the researchers that the students are far more complex than the faculty had previously imagined. It showed the faculty that culture trumps religion and that, to students, there's a fine line between the two. Religion, in fact, becomes changed by culture and is no longer about the normative rhetoric that is attached to communities of faith and their related institutions, and how they purportedly derive meaning from them. Rather, it is about "meaning-making," those things that actually end up providing the resources from which people gain meaningful understanding about themselves, others, and the world in which they live. Consequently, seminarians often derive more meaning from the "sacred" found in the supposedly "secular" arena rather than in traditionally religious locations. Professors and practitioners must become master participant-observers in both realms if their goal is to be relevant religious educators in a context in which religion is no longer the definitive realm for the sacred.
This project supports the development of a research survey instrument, its subsequent use with theological students at the outset and completion of their Master of Divinity degree program, and an analysis of the data in order to identify the formative effects of various cultural factors that are believed to function alongside religious faith in shaping the religious formation of incoming theological students. The information gathered from the instrument will contribute to the development of the emerging signature pedagogy at Brite Divinity School. In particular the analysis of the results will shape the teaching/learning outcomes of the faculty in its efforts to nurture an effective 21st Century Christian identity for religious leaders as public theologians in the United States.
Learning Abstract :
Who are the seminarians that Brite teaches? What influences seminary students' religious development? How do they spend their time? To get an overview of these questions and others, a survey was administered to 131 seminary students at Brite Divinity School. The survey research revealed to the researchers that the students are far more complex than the faculty had previously imagined. It showed the faculty that culture trumps religion and that, to students, there's a fine line between the two. Religion, in fact, becomes changed by culture and is no longer about the normative rhetoric that is attached to communities of faith and their related institutions, and how they purportedly derive meaning from them. Rather, it is about "meaning-making," those things that actually end up providing the resources from which people gain meaningful understanding about themselves, others, and the world in which they live. Consequently, seminarians often derive more meaning from the "sacred" found in the supposedly "secular" arena rather than in traditionally religious locations. Professors and practitioners must become master participant-observers in both realms if their goal is to be relevant religious educators in a context in which religion is no longer the definitive realm for the sacred.