Requiem: A Lament in Three Movements. - book reviews

Christian Century, May 24, 1995 by Joseph C. Hough, Jr.

By Thomas C. Oden. Abingdon, 208 pp., $16.95.

Though these books focus on seminaries of the United Methodist Church, they are part of a growing body of literature that reflects a general disquiet about theological education. Of course, controversy about the education of religious leaders is hardly new. It was a highly charged doctrinal dispute between Congregationalists and Unitarians that led in 1808 to the founding of Andover Theological Seminary, the first theological seminary in America. The Congregationalists considered the Unitarianism emerging at Harvard a threat to faith and piety They could not, they argued, leave the formation of their future leaders in the hands of heretics.

By the middle of the 19th century the old doctrinal debates had been complicated by the huge migration of American students to Germany. When they returned, they brought with them a critical method for approaching the Bible that directly challenged literal interpretation. Influential laity worried about the faith of young ministers exposed to these new teachings.

Neal Fisher points out that issues similar to those surrounding the founding of Andover surfaced during the discussions about establishing a new seminary (later named Vanderbilt) in Nashville--concerns about doctrinal fidelity, practical effectiveness and denominational distinctiveness. The current controversies over United Methodist theological education are strikingly similar.

Seminary faculties, for their part, have been discussing the nature and purpose of theological education for more than a decade. A series of conversations sponsored by the Association of Theological Schools has considered such matters as spiritual character and faith formation as an aim of theological education; the division between theory and practice; the fragmentation of study as a result of the development of discrete scholarly disciplines; debates over methodology in various fields, particularly biblical study; and the growing religious, ethnic and gender pluralism that characterizes both church constituencies and schools themselves. From the national and regional conferences sponsored by the ATS Issues Research Council, more than 40 books and articles have emerged. David Kelsey provides a perceptive and critical summary of these discussions in Between Athens and Berlin: The Theological Education Debate.

Another major conversation among theological faculties has been sponsored by the ATS Task Force on Globalization. Organized in 1986 under the leadership of William Lesher and Robert Schreiter, the task force has generated a discussion and a series of articles in five special issues of Theological Education (1990-1994) on the significance of globalization for theological education. Of special interest in this literature has been the perspective of African-American and feminist theologians, and an increasing number of people from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Responding to this new cultural situation, Donald Messer argues that education must be "simultaneously global and local, international and regional, urban and rural." One implication of this vision is that there will be different kinds of theological education to fit the different regions and traditions that make up global Christianity. But there is another side to Messer's vision: theological schools must be sensitive to the wide cultural diversity within local churches and to the social issues that form the global context of all theological education. Such education, he argues, will surely be subversive in that it will require us to change the way we understand Christian practice.

Messer is also concerned about theological education's responsibility for individual formation. Formation will come about not simply by adding some new courses or practices in spirituality, but by schools becoming communities that care deeply for the well-being of every member and that cultivate knowledge in ways that are deeply religious, broadly ecumenical and open to the world. He also suggests how to use new communications technologies to expand the reach of theological education.

In Truth and Tradition, chapters by Robert Neville, Judith Smith and Lovett Weems and a joint article by Anne Streaty Wimberly and Edward Wimberly address in a variety of ways the controversy over United Methodist seminaries. Smith focuses on the issue of power and control. She reminds United Methodists that while it is important that seminaries be accountable to the church, the denomination has always recognized that seminaries must be given a large measure of freedom if they are to do their task well. Pointing to imminent retirements that will seriously diminish the clergy pool, Weems suggests that seminaries and churches must cooperate in enlisting young persons for the vocation of ministry. Instead of mutual blaming, we need greater cooperation.

The Wimberlys encourage seminaries and churches to share the work of educating ministers. Their "narrative paradigm" would move the focus of theological education "away from the theory-practice and functionalist-oriented model that emphasizes credentialed knowledge and mastery of professional skills." It would instead "emphasize developing spilitually mature ministers who are in touch with their own story--how it may be shaped and reshaped in light of their understanding of the Christian story--and discernment of their role as minister." How all this is to come about is not made clear. But the Wimberlys suggest that the organization of theological studies must change and a much larger role be given to congregations.