Seminary revisited

Christian Century, April 5, 2003

LIKE JOHN ESAU in "Ten things I didn't learn in seminary" (Feb. 22), I have a list of things I did not learn in seminary. After 18 months in the ministry, I have come to believe that seminaries waste their time trying to add more practical experience. No amount of course work or field experience can touch what happens in a particular congregation. I would advise seminary students to study as much theology as they can. I would advise seminaries to focus on theology, biblical studies, literature, poetry and self-care.

As a pastor, finding time to read and absorb "hard-hitting" theology is difficult. Even when I do read such works, I have no professor to help me decipher what I read and no fellow students to talk with. Those things that undergird our roles as preachers, worship planners, teachers and caregivers are the hardest to acquire once in ministry.

Pastors must also come into ministry committed to good self-care. I am lonely. Taking time for friendships with colleagues or others is at the bottom of an endless "to-do" list. Seminaries are doing a disservice if they do not create an environment in which future ministers can learn to value avocation as vocation, to balance services and renewal, and to appreciate that even God took a sabbath.

Anne-Marie Hislop
St. Andrew Presbyterian Church,
Davenport, Iowa

No connection was made between the theme of theological education and the lead editorial decrying President Bush's assault on the environment ("Tree mugger," Feb 22).

The environmental community has awakened to the fact that the moral authority of religion is a crucial component in the challenge to create a just and sustainable world. Meanwhile, an increasing number of churches (as well as synagogues and mosques) encourage people of faith to enhance their awareness and care for God's creation.

Where are the seminaries on all this? While we can be sympathetic to the breadth of issues that 21st-century seminarians must study, surely the pastoral, prophetic and liturgical aspects of a worldview that recognizes the sacredness of creation should be an essential part of that education. Through the initiating work of Theological Education to Meet the Environmental Challenge (TEMEC), ecology ministries or chaplaincies grace some seminary campuses, but their potential to become part of a newly invigorated mission for the Christian church, unequaled in its interfaith, worldwide appeal, is largely ignored.

Katharine Preston
Lincoln, Mass.

One possible addition to the CENTURY'S splendid theological education issue (Feb. 22) might be a rousing call for increased cooperation and involvement between local congregations and the nearest seminary. Although many schools were organized by groups of churches in an area, and although many pastors attend lectures and seminars at a seminary, there seems to be no real interlocking dependency between town and gown. As a divinity school trustee, I have lobbied for churches to appoint a representative to be a channel of communication and an advocate urging laypeople to attend seminary functions. Faculty members need to work in and with local congregations.

John Y. Elliott
Ashburn, Va.

William Placher helps us understand some of the important issues facing seminaries ("Spread too thin," Feb. 22). As president of one of the "less competitive" theological schools--"a seminary down the road" (Placher's phrase)--I have a thought or two from my nearly ten years in the backwaters of Kansas City, Kansas.

Placher begins by noting a mighty discouragement because of the immensity of the task in theological education. There is so much that one ought to know in regard to the sheer quantity of material. One cannot argue with that assessment, but I don't think we're on to something new here. Theological education has always lived in the acute realization that there is never enough time, in the years given to formal studies, to become equipped for the daunting task of religious leadership. When my best friend graduated from law school almost 40 years ago, he admitted that he knew "nothing" about being an attorney. I am confident that the same reality faces a medical student who sails through a six-year course.

The upside of the challenge in theological education is that the curriculum in virtually every accredited school is vastly stronger, more engaging and richer in the number of voices and languages being heard than at any other time. By comparison, the theological education I received in the 1960s was a boring affair that appealed only to the very committed.

Today a layperson could walk into many seminary classes and find an excitement and relevance that hardly existed in earlier generations of theological study. Placher reminds us of the challenges that so many voices create, but that is a small price to pay for the opportunity to engage the realities of women, minorities and scholars from Africa and Latin America. I tell students that I am envious of them. Theological education has never been more exciting, more relevant and more fun. How to integrate all those voices into the curriculum is a problem worth having, and many seminaries are doing the integration creatively.