Introduction - Why Learn from Crisis?
An important challenge for theological education today is to educate and form leaders of faith communities who are prepared to lead in a global and transnational world. This creates an urgent need to rethink and restructure theological education around the globe. Lamentations on the shrinking status of theology have been prevailing over the last four decades at least, particularly in the Western world. Where theology as a discipline was once the queen of sciences at the university, it has become an endangered species – often banished to seminars at best. Most teachers of theology still seem to hold to traditional teaching methods mainly because of the assumption that theology has been taught to the same communities that have historically had access to education, and less often to those who represent the complex world realities of the Christian church. It is no exaggeration to claim that theology and theological education face both a global crisis and many local crises. Glocal theological education must therefore be interdisciplinary and integrative. Theological education that does not stimulate critical thinking or empower students to engage with their context (as it connects to other contexts) could be termed irrelevant, as theological education plays a pivotal role in the liberation of these students from their local experiences of crisis. A crisis calls for leadership, and the leader – here the theologian – needs to give an adequate and persuasive account of reality. In a crisis, the use of words is of great importance, and theology has a thing with words. We hope that this book will help theologians in many different contexts to rediscover how theological studies may be formative in shaping leaders who are able to interpret faithfully and credibly what`s going on when a crisis strikes and even propose a way forward to cope with that crisis. As such, the book strives to be an introduction to the fine art of theological discernment
Publisert i 2024
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