A strong and solid theological education for clergy is vital for the life of the church.
There are those, I know, who would disagree, arguing that skills in preaching, leading liturgy, administering the sacraments and engaging in pastoral care is all that’s required, without adding all that “irrelevant academic stuff.” These skills can be gained in all kinds of ways, surely, that don’t require the cost and sacrifice of three plus years of academic study.
There is more than one response to this argument. In the first place, the training of minds — the academic side — is not an optional extra. Jesus calls us to love God with our whole being, including our minds (Mk 12:29). Our minds need to be trained, focussed, shaped. Anti-intellectualism is dangerous and leads to people who don’t think issues through but who are led by emotions, emotions they don’t necessarily understand. Theological education is not attempting to turn students into formal academics. Instead, it’s opening up worlds that will engage, shape and broaden the mind — and also, therefore, the heart.
Secondly, the purpose of theological education is not primarily to teach skills. Its aim is the formation, and even transformation, of those who believe they have a vocation to holy orders, and other ministries. This formation has a number of crucial elements. It means being formed into a kind of leadership that is profoundly theological and spiritual which begins with the study of the Scriptures. Understanding the Bible is not simply a question of my response to individual passages and how they connect to my life. It’s far bigger than that.
The study of Scripture involves learning at least one biblical language — in most cases, this will be Greek but Hebrew is also encouraged — so that the sacred text can be read in the original languages, with awareness that every translation has its own bias. It means studying the social and religious contexts out of which the texts arise and which enable us to discern meaning for our very different contexts. It involves exploring the different genres of literature that the Bible contains (on a wide spectrum) and the literary ways in which the story or the discourse or the poetry is told, to tell the Bible story in our own diverse environments. It includes developing an awareness of the diversity of Scripture within its overarching unity, enabling it to speak to many different settings and situations today.
Equally important is knowing the development of theology in the historical life and experience of the church. Understanding the ecumenical creeds, for example, enables us to grasp the centrality of affirming God as holy Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — and also Christ as both divine and human. Learning the history of these debates in those crucial early centuries, when the church was so often under persecution, is critical for our grasp of the theology. Learning about the Reformations of the sixteenth century helps us to grasp the centrality of grace within the life.
One of the things church history teaches us is how different contexts, cultures and genders bring their own insights to bear on studying Scripture. Our Western context has often ignored the Eastern church which is every bit as old and revered as ours. We’ve also tended to assume whiteness as the norm, when in fact Christians across Africa and Asia vastly outnumber us. We’ve assumed maleness to be another norm, setting aside the insights that women bring to theology and spirituality. Theological education expands our horizons beyond the narrow bounds of Western white male structures and symbolism.
On a somewhat more practical level, theological education gives insight into spirituality, sociology, psychology, missiology and pastoral care. Students need to learn how society functions and how the human mind and emotions work. Theological education unveils the rich veins of Christian spirituality down through the ages. It teaches how mission works — how it has sometimes failed in the past by being associated with colonialism, and how it needs to become contextualised and focussed not only on individual conversion but also on social transformation and care for our endangered environment. It teaches the elements of pastoral care and the theology which should undergird it.
Yes, there are indeed skills to be learned in the process of theological education. But these skills are the outward manifestation of a profound sense of theology, an awareness of where the evangelical centre of our faith lies. That centre is a broad place that incorporates not just the individual but also the community and indeed the whole creation.
In one sense, such learning is a life-long process and not just for the formal years of theological education. Our clergy and ministers need to be aware of the need to continue their own education beyond graduation and ordination. They need to be learners all their lives. The word ‘disciple’ means a student and we never move beyond that role as followers of Jesus Christ. We need always to be open to learn, to discover new ways of understanding the faith, new insights from the Scriptures, new abilities to comprehend the world we live in. The model of Mary of Bethany sitting at the feet of Jesus to learn from him, above all other duties, is a wonderful picture of where the centre lies in discipleship and ministry (Lk 10:38-42).
It's true that life is much more complex now and the old model of ordinands living together for three or four years while they study and pray is no longer viable. The church can’t afford it and ordinands are often married with children and don’t have the same freedoms. We need to think in new and imaginative ways about how that formation can happen, without forsaking academic and theological rigour, and without abandoning the focus on learning together in community.
However we do it, in what shape or form for the future, theological education will remain essential for the vigour and well-being of the church in its God-given tasks of worship and mission.
Dorothy Lee is Stewart Research Professor of New Testament at Trinity College Theological School (Melbourne) with a particular interest in the narrative and structure of the Gospels—especially the Gospel of John—and women’s ministry in the New Testament.