Lilly gives $10 million for practical theology

Christian Century, Sept 25, 2002

Responding to research finding that more than half of seminary professors teaching practical theology and religious practice will retire by 2006, Emory University's Candler School of Theology has won a $10 million grant from Lilly Endowment to begin a doctoral program to fill the gap.

The study by the Auburn Center for the Study of Theological Education pointed not only to the faculty vacancies but also to what it called an inadequate supply of qualified Ph.D.s as replacements.

The new program "is designed to produce 40 new Ph.D.s at Emory very quickly--a significant community of teacher-practitioners," said Emory provost Howard O. Hunter in announcing the grant September 17. Eight qualified candidates will be admitted each year for five years.

"It's essential that tomorrow's pastors be taught by professors who can equip them to serve in a perplexing and fast-moving world of many cultures, many faiths, many competing values and many hungers," said Carl Holladay, a New Testament professor at Candler who chaired the proposal committee.