Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary : 2000 Seminar

The Preaching Professor walked in, breathed a frustrated sigh, dropped her books on the table, and looked around at her colleagues with defeat in her eyes. "Why is it so difficult to get these students to understand the importance of thinking theologically?" she exclaimed. "What happened?" asked the Library Director.

"Well, we're working on the Pastoral-Public issue sermon in the Preaching Practicum. I'm trying to show them how, when you start from a contemporary issue or topic, it is not most fruitful to go straight to a scripture passage based on a word in the topic. For example, if you want to preach on peace, it is not always most useful to look up ‘peace' in the concordance. And besides, there are many contemporary issues that have no easy scripture references. I try to teach them to think about the issue theologically. What are the theological doctrines or implications inherent in their issue? Brainstorm these and then think of scripture passages that pertain to the theological issues. From there the preacher can hone both entry into the topic for a specific congregation and choose which scripture passage best speaks to the issue theologically. I call this step the theological move in preaching the Pastoral-Public issue sermon."

"Okay," said the Library Director, "what happened?"

"Yes, well, when I got done with all of this a student groaned in exasperation that he took theology last year and thought he was done with all that business. He was ready to get on in ministry. He said it in some jest, but his meaning was quite clear. He just didn't see how thinking theologically was pertinent to ministry."

"You find that frustrating in preaching class? Imagine how it feels to be teaching that nasty theology class!" said a Theology Professor. She continued, "The problem is, our students do not own their seminary experience. It isn't theirs. So many of them are going through the paces so they can obtain a degree, but they don't buy into what we're doing. They come for the Bible and Preaching classes and endure the rest. They just don't see the relevance of the rest of the curriculum for ministry, nor the interrelationship of the different areas of the curriculum. We also have students, especially international students, who experience a conflict between piety and scholarship, and they are concerned that their scholarship will undermine their piety. Students are determined not to let this place change them, and they consider their seminary years a success if they graduate the same person they were when they came in."

"That's what our new first-level curriculum and especially the agenda-setting courses are designed to address," said the Dean.

"Do you really think that curriculum redesign is going to change our students' attitudes towards theology?" asked a Church History Professor. "How is curriculum redesign going to affect student attitudes about the study of theology, or even the critical study of the Bible for that matter?"

"Let's go back to the idea of the agenda-setting courses," said the Pastoral Theology Professor. "I never really understood what agenda-setting courses are all about and what they are supposed to accomplish."

"The purpose of the agenda-setting courses," said the Dean, "is to let the questions of real-life ministry situations emerge in such a way that students will recognize the need to examine all areas of the theological curriculum in order to answer them. It is to provide the context in which the students discover for themselves, through immersion in ministry experiences and case studies, the need and relevance of the various areas of the seminary curriculum. The goal is that through these courses students will begin to discover their own voices, ask their own questions, and set their own agendas for their seminary study. They will be led to ask questions for which they'll go running to theology class and to the library in order to find answers."

"It all sounds a little loosey-goosey to me," responded the Pastoral Theology Professor. "I still prefer the model of introductory courses in which we give an overview of the discipline and lay out a method for study in that area. Later the students can find their own voices and set their own agendas."

"But it just isn't working," said the Library Director. "Our current students are primarily adult learners who already had a voice in the world from which they came. When they arrive here many have the experience of being silenced. They have been interactive, even leaders, in their old world, and when they come to us, in some classes, they are expected to be passive listeners and learners. It isn't working. Many become angry in their silence. They decide to do what they have to do to get out of here, but too often they don't understand what it has to do with them or why they need what we are offering."

"That's the point exactly," said the Dean. "And it's especially difficult when they are already pastors of local churches. They were doing fine without all this isolated, free-floating information roaming around in their heads. And they feel dishonored and disregarded when they are told that they have nothing to say, that they are supposed to be silent for a year or two before they can have a voice again. They often come looking for help in practical skills, not information. They can get that on the Internet now!"

"I always thought that a disintegration or breaking down process needed to happen at the beginning of seminary," said the Theology Professor. "It seems we don't support very well those who are finding their belief systems breaking down, and we don't challenge very well those who defend themselves against the breaking down process."

"Who's breaking down?!?" the President asked in alarm as he entered the room.

"No one. That's the problem," responded the Theology Professor.

"Why do you want anyone breaking down?" asked the President.

"It's not that I want anyONE to break down, it's that I think Seminary needs to be a process of taking apart, examining, and putting back together one's belief system. In the context of all this, students are exposed to the full range of the study of theology. They put their belief systems back together again in a learned and informed way.

"Right," said the Pastoral Theology Professor. "That's why we need to structure our first-level curriculum in the new design to introduce the students in a clear, organized way to all areas of the curriculum. It's so simple. Each area has an introductory course. It could be called an overview or prolegomena. We introduce students to methodology and the basic information in the field. They show us they are ready to continue in seminary studies by mastering this information. When they have done this, they begin to take elective courses in the field, and then in the third year they add their own informed voice to the mix in upper-level courses. Then they know something so they can have something to say. No one will take us seriously if we adopt this agenda-setting course model. It's just not academic enough."

"The students will take us seriously," said the Library Director.

"I hear everything you're saying," said the Bible Professor, "and maybe we need to do a better job of getting students more involved with their own education at the beginning, this finding your own voice, or whatever. But some of us are so content-oriented and have so much content to impart, that we need to have traditional introductory courses to get a lot of it out there in the beginning."

"Well, we're just going to have to change the way we think and teach."

"How are we going to do this? I don't have a clue. I don't know how to plan the course; I don't know how to teach the course; I've never even co-taught a course with a colleague!"

"The world is changing fast, and a lot of churches are dying. We can't just stand still and do nothing. And after all, we've been changing too. Could we have had this discussion five years ago?"

"This sounds pretty radical."

"It'll never happen."

"It has to."


Thoughts on the role of community for further reflection:

• How does theological reflection happen in the context of community?
• What is the correlation (it seems direct) between people's unwillingness to think theologically and their unwillingness to commit time to the endeavor of theological education?
• Fragmentation (involving rushing into class, rushing out again) is a condition of life here that impacts our levels of trust, willingness to know/trust each other enough to allow theological reflection to happen.
• Ekklesia is integral to the theological task.
• How might adjuncts be brought more fully into the conversation?
• Is anything good going on here? Yes, we celebrate that we can have this conversation.