Resources

Interviews Daniel O. Aleshire, an executive director of the Association of Theological Schools. His views on the interests of seminaries on spiritual formation; Tasks of seminaries; Why seminaries should prioritize spiritual formation.

Arguing for an understanding of theological discourse in the broad social reality of which it is a part, Chopp suggests a return to rhetoric and poetics in education -- a reinvigoration of the imagination (which she opposes to modern modes of knowing). Education must emphasize the ability to envision, to produce the aesthetic images and metaphors that fund knowledge, values, and community in the church and in the world.

Reflects on the reasons for the lack of changes in theological seminaries. Complaints on the roots of traditional curricula in precritical assumption; Effect of religion's conservative shift on the mood of theological schools; Pressures on theological schools to offer an education that is perceived to be of high quality.

The politics of pedagogy when teaching for belief in culturally diverse settings inevitably draws attention to the power dynamics in the encounters of teachers and students. The quest for a pedagogy that is not oppressive or coercive provides the impetus to liberative proposal for teaching practice.

The task of theological education is not always clearly understood in the church -- or it is understood in different ways by various constituencies. We invite five seminary professors to reflect on their vocation, especially on its relation to the life of faith in the church and to the church's effort to be faithful to the gospel. We asked them to consider the ways in which they seek to hand on Christian traditions and also the ways in which they seek to provide students with skills to critique aspects of those traditions.

In this article, I take Anderson and Scanlon's observation about clergy malaise and pastoral vulnerability as the starting point for my own reflection on supervision and formation in the context of theological education and ministerial formation. Using a number of insights derived from the recent work of Robert Kegan, In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life, I offer an alternative attribution theory for understanding clergy malaise and go on to explore the implications of this theory for those of us involved in theological education and the formation of candidates for ministry. In accord with Anderson and Scanlon, I agree that clergy malaise is a symptom of a heightened sense of vulnerability. I am somewhat hesitant, however, to identify the cause of such vulnerability as an inadequate formation for ministry. Thought I readily acknowledge that an inadequate formation may exacerbate the phenomenon, I believe Kegan's analysis alerts us to a more probable cause, namely: the limited capacity of the individual minister to meet the mental demands of modern life.