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DOING MINISTRY FOR A CHANGE? THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY Dr. F. Ross Kinsler Theological Education by Extension College Symposium 21 April, 2006 May I, first and foremost, express, for myself and for many others in the worldwide ecumenical family of theological educators and church leaders, our deep gratitude and profound congratulations for the Thirtieth Anniversary Celebration of the Theological Education by Extension College and all that it represents in terms of creative vision, dedicated service, and hard work over the years. Thirty-one years ago the Theology Department of the South African Council of Churches and the Association of Southern African Theological Institutions organized an international consultation here in Johannesburg to consider the proposal to launch the Theological Education by Extension College. Desmond Tutu, then Assistant Director of the Theological Education Fund, a dependency of the World Council of Churches, played a key role, and he invited me to come from Guatemala in Central America to share our experience with and vision for TEE, which was beginning to spread like wildfire in many places around the world. The next year TEEC was launched under the most capable leadership of Louis Peters. Then Desmond moved to Johannesburg, and I was called to Geneva to replace him in what was renamed as the Programme on Theological Education of the WCC. From that vantage point I was able to follow the TEE movement as it spread and adapted to very diverse contexts and resources, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, but also in Europe and North America. During the 30 years that followed, the TEEC has remained as one of the most important expressions of the TEE movement, with connections to programs in other parts of the world, contributing to and learning from their efforts. I have been asked to share today some reflections on the global challenges we face today as theological educators, new possibilities and models of theological education that are emerging, and critical issues for personal, ecclesial, and social transformation through TEEC and sister programs around the world. GLOBAL CHALLENGES TO THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION 1. From the struggle with Apartheid in South Africa to a worldwide call for justice Thirty-one years ago, when I first visited South Africa, the primary challenge you all faced was Apartheid. The consultation that gave birth to the TEEC was itself, I believe, illegal, because it was inter-racial. Radical change has taken place since then, with much to be grateful for and no doubt with deep, enduring problems. I would like to focus briefly upon today's global challenge of racial-economic-gender-ecological injustice from the perspective of a recent experience within one of our church families, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC). That body, which embraces 218 Reformed, Presbyterian, Congregational, and United denominations with 75 million members in 107 countries, chose for its 2004 General Council meeting in Accra, Ghana the text John 10:10: "...that all may have life in fullness." Something powerful happened at that meeting, which led the participants to call upon their own and other churches and ecumenical bodies to covenant for justice in the economy and the Earth. The Letter from Accra begins with these paragraphs. Our most moving and
memorable moments came from our visit to Elmina and Cape Coast, two
“castles” on the Coast of Ghana that held those who had been captured into
slavery, as they suffered in dungeons waiting for slave ships that would
take them to unknown lands and destinies. Over brutal centuries, 15 million
African slaves were transported to the Americas, and millions more were
captured and died. On this trade in humans as commodities, wealth in Europe
was built. Through their labor, sweat, suffering, intelligence and
creativity, the wealth of the Americas was developed. The Letter from Accra goes on to affirm, "the world today lives under the shadow of an oppressive empire," i.e., "the gathered power of pervasive economic and political forces throughout the globe that reinforce the division between the rich and the poor." "This is not just another 'issue' to be 'addressed.' Rather, it goes to the heart of our confession of faith. . . . How can we say that we believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord over all life and not stand against all that denies the promise of fullness of life to the world?" (For other WARC documents, especially "Covenanting for Justice in the Economy and the Earth," see www.warc.ch ) Those who participated in the Accra meetings and many others who have joined them to covenant for justice in the global economy and in the Earth believe that this calling is as urgent as was the call of the Confessing Church in Germany in the 1930s and 40s against National Socialism (Nazi) and the call to denounce the ideology of Apartheid in South Africa as heresy and its practice as sin in the 1970s and 80s. I believe that we must invite every theological education program, beginning with the wealthy countries but also right here with the TEEC, to clarify its vision and prioritize its curriculum in these same terms. We hear that 30,000 people die every day of hunger, perhaps twice that number die daily if we add curable diseases, contaminated water, and other effects of extreme poverty, especially in Africa. (We have to remind our friends in the U.S. that the daily global toll of death by hunger is ten times the loss of life in the U.S. on that one fateful day, September 11th, 2001.) 2. From ecological destruction to "the Great Work" for this generation Ecologist Wendell Berry explains in his book, The Art of the Commonplace, that Christianity has been for over 500 years largely complicit with or indifferent to "the rape and plunder of the world." Another ecologist, Thomas Berry, expresses the extraordinary challenge faced by our generation in passionate terms in his book, Our Way into the Future. We find ourselves ethically destitute just when, for the first time, we are faced with ultimacy, the irreversible closing down of the Earth’s functioning in its major life systems. . . . with biocide, the extinction of the vulnerable life systems of the Earth, and geocide, the devastation of the Earth itself. (104) The labor and care expended over some billions of years and untold billions of experiments to bring forth such a gorgeous Earth is all being negated within less than a century for what we consider “progress” toward a better life in a better world. (164) The Great Work now . . . is to carry out the transition from a period of human devastation of the Earth to a period when humans would be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner. To bring this eloquent, lofty challenge down to earth and to people like us, we turn to Kenyan Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate for 2004. Her trajectory began in 1977 with a tree-planting campaign in response to devastating deforestation and widespread unemployment. Her work later became known around the world as the Green Belt Movement. Then she won a seat in Kenya's Parliament with an unprecedented 98% of the vote and also became Assistant Minister for the Environment. On receiving the Nobel Peace Prize she commented, "Protecting the global environment is directly related to securing peace." She articulates for all of us the integral relationship between peace, justice, and creation in a brief article for the September 2005 National Geographic entitled "My Seven" concerns for Africa: Environment, Empowerment, Education, Good Government, Sustainable Development, Employment, and The Future--"to create a world that honors and rewards women." Surely theological education must carry major responsibility for taking up this challenge among and beyond the churches, which will require a paradigm shift for many, from an almost exclusively personalized and individualized concept of salvation to a collective, ecological understanding of the Reign of God--before it is too late. An important resource comes to us from the indigenous peoples of Africa, Latin America, and elsewhere, whose cultural and spiritual heritage values the integrity and integration of all life--person, family, community, the land, and nature as a whole. Our churches and theological institutions will want to work, locally and regionally, with projects such as the Green Belt Movement, of which there are many, as we all struggle for peace, justice, and the integrity of creation. 3. From individualized and privatized healing to integral and systemic wholeness No one can ignore the historic role of the Christian movement in the development of scientific medical resources with amazing achievements among those who have access to these resources. At the same time all of us must be astounded at the failure to provide basic, appropriate healthcare among the vast majority right here in Africa and other Three-Fourths World countries and even among significant poor populations in the so-called First World. Not too long ago it was said that a mere one billion dollars would have been sufficient to permanently eliminate the scourge of malaria, but it did not happen. Studies indicate that the great pharmaceutical companies have developed thousands of medicines in recent years, but those related to tropical diseases are just a handful. Retroviral drugs are still inaccessible for most AIDS patients in many countries. British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, notes that thousands of African children die unnecessarily every day, that 25% of those deaths could be prevented by providing a $4 mosquito net for each child, that half of all malaria deaths could be prevented by providing diagnosis and drugs costing $0.12 per person. The disease underlying all the others is, of course, poverty. So Brown calls on the rich countries to complete debt relief for the poorest countries, to increase development aid to achieve the Millennium Development Goals for health, education, and the halving of poverty by the year 2015. But he notes that these goals adopted by the rich countries in 1999 have already fallen behind miserably. On present progress in Sub Saharan Africa, primary education for all will, at best, be delivered not in 2015 but 2130, 115 years too late; poverty will be halved by 2150, 135 years too late; and avoidable infant deaths will be eliminated by 2165, 150 years too late. This is too long to wait for justice, too long to wait when infants are dying in Africa while the rest of the world has the medicines to heal them. ("What is Morally Unjust Cannot be Economically Correct," envio, March 2005, 50) What began as the greatest bond between rich and poor of our time is at risk of ending as the greatest betrayal of the poor by the rich of all time. As a global community we are at risk of being remembered not for what we promised to do buy for what we failed to deliver, yet another set of broken hopes that break the trust of the world's people in the world's governments. (50) Top-down solutions, locally and globally, are most likely to fail. Even within many poor countries unjust distribution of economic and healthcare resources prevails. So we must turn, sooner or later, to grassroots, community-based movements, which is where our churches can offer a mission and a message of integral wholeness, shalom, real human development. And we must ask our theological formation programs what resources and models and curricula they can offer in response to these vital and urgent challenges of our time. GOOD NEWS FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY We turn now from critical analysis of today's world to the biblical roots of our faith in order to find Good News for our time and for our people, i.e., for all God's people. We know that the two great threats to life in the 21st Century are economic injustice and ecological destruction, both of which are driven by the corporate-led, imperial, global economy, both of which bring immeasurable threats to the life of this and future generations. When we read the Bible with a concern for economics, we discover a vital thread for life running through the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. It has been called Sabbath Economics or Jubilee Spirituality. Following is a brief introduction to this economic-spiritual paradigm, which offers Good News for the 21st Century and which may provide a new vision for theological education in our time. 1. Jubilee and justice Let's begin by re-reading some biblical texts that have often been spiritualized so that their economic message is lost. First, we observe that Jesus himself, after fasting for 40 days, was tempted (tested) to make stones into bread, and he responded to the devil, "One does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Mt. 4:4) It almost seems that he places "spiritual" matters or "spiritual" bread above "physical" bread and "physical" hunger. Then we find that Jesus is quoting Dt. 8:3, which refers back to the manna story (Ex. 16), which is the first lesson for the former slaves about how to live in freedom. They must take only what is needed, no more, no less, and this is what the Sabbath Day, which is first introduced in this very passage, is meant to teach God's people. This is in direct rejection of "free enterprise," which encourages and enables some to accumulate and forces many into poverty and even slavery. In Mt. 4:4 Jesus makes this connection in order to show us, not that bread is unimportant, but that we are to ensure that all have enough bread and none of us has more than enough. Next, we turn to the story of Jesus' anointing in preparation for his crucifixion and burial. The disciples complain that the ointment should have been sold and the money given to the poor, but Jesus challenges them with these enigmatic words, "You always have the poor with you." (Mt. 26:11) It seems as if Jesus discounts or minimizes their concern for the poor. But then we note that he is quoting Dt. 15:11, which says that "there will never cease to be some in need on the earth," but it also says in v. 4 that "There will be no one in need among you" if you obey the Sabbath Year mandates to cancel debts and free slaves every seventh year. So in Mt. 26:11 Jesus affirms that beyond charity there is a more fundamental responsibility to break the chains of poverty by reversing the economic mechanisms that produce wealth for a few and increase poverty for many, most notably the debt/slavery system. Lk. 4:16-21 is a key passage, located at the outset of Jesus' ministry. Here Jesus identifies himself and his mission with Is. 61:1-2a: Good News to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, and liberation of the oppressed, ending with the proclamation of the year of the Lord's favor, which seems to be a reference to the Jubilee Year (Lv. 25), which called for not only the cancellation of debts and liberation of slaves but the return of mortgaged lands, i.e., the redistribution or restitution of lands and homes to all the families of Israel in the 50th Year, a "super Sabbath Year." It is remarkable that Luke's narration of Jesus' ministry begins not with a reference to the Kingdom of God, as do Matthew and Mark, but with this Nazareth synagogue story and its reference to "the year of the Lord's favor." Luke's Gospel does refer frequently to the Kingdom of God, but at this critical point in his narrative he chooses to identify that Kingdom with the Sabbath-Jubilee call to radical economic justice. From this point we cannot but go on to the Book of Acts, which was also authored by Luke, for we find that the key passage in Acts is the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit, which includes sharing in worship and table fellowship "day by day" and the distribution of the believers' possessions "as any had need" so that "there was not a needy person among them." (Ac. 2:43-47, 4:32-35) Empowered by the Spirit, they practiced the Sabbath Day mandate to share equitably, as in the manna story, "day by day," the Sabbath Year mandate to overcome the mechanisms of poverty by canceling debts and freeing slaves (no doubt the believers who were debt slaves were being released), and the Jubilee mandate to redistribute their possessions so all could have life in fullness. This is an essential clue to the mission of the early church throughout the Book of Acts, for Jesus' followers down through history, and for us today in our unprecedentedly unjust and unequal world. 2. Jubilee and creation If we were to trace the Torah passages (Covenant Code, Deuteronomic Code, Holiness Code) dealing with the Sabbath Day, the Sabbath Year, and the Jubilee Year, we would find that many of these passages include the mandate to give rest to the land and those who work the land, humans and laboring beasts, and even to provide for the landless poor, aliens, and wild animals in the fallow years. For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield; but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat. You shall do the same with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard. Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed. Be attentive to all that I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods, do not let them be heard on your lips. Ex. 23:10-13 Remember the Sabbath Day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work--you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath Day and consecrated it. Ex. 20:5-11 On the seventh day God finished the work that God had done, and God rested on the seventh day from all the work that God had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that God had done in creation. Gn. 2:2-3 God rested the seventh day of creation, blessed it, and hallowed it. And the Sabbath Day became a permanent memorial and covenant for God's people, who are to regard that day and all of creation as a holy responsibility. We are to serve and worship God through the preservation of planet Earth for the life of all its inhabitants. 3. Jubilee and shalom In response to the devastating state of the poor in our world, we again turn to the Jubilee message of Jesus. What we find is not only healing for individuals who are sick, paralyzed, blind, possessed of demons, even dead, but the formation of a healing, caring, sharing community. This dimension of Jubilee has not often been taught, even less practiced. Consider first the man with paralysis in Mk. 2:1-12. He was disabled not only by the paralysis but also by the social marginalization that came with his physical limitations, by the prejudices of the Purity Code of the Pharisees that identified his disability as the result of sin, by the poverty and debts that came from his inability to work and from spending on ineffectual cures, and above all that came from the Temple monopoly on purification rites. So when Jesus told him (three times), "Your sins are forgiven," he revealed to this man and to all who were there that the coming of God's Reign meant that he and they could be released from the sins of popular prejudice, the Purity Code, family debts, and Temple rites. The term "release" (afiemi) which is used here appears in other Sabbath-Jubilee texts such as Lk. 4:18-19 (twice) to refer to the release from prison and oppression as well as illness and sin. The story of the rich man, who apparently was very religious and who ran to Jesus in order to be sure of his eternal life, ends on a tragic note, for he rejects Jesus' call to sell his possessions, give the money to the poor, and follow him. (Mk, 10:17-22) But then Jesus tells his disciples two times, "How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter God's Reign." Then he adds the analogy of the camel and the eye of a needle, and the disciples, utterly astounded, respond, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus says, "For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible." The story then takes a surprising turn. Peter, no doubt out of desperation, cries out, "Look, we have left (afiemi) everything and followed you." And Jesus responds, "Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left (afiemi) house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age . . . and in the age to come eternal life." For most of us this is a mystery, simply because we have never really understood or practiced Jubilee, for if we "release" into the community our possessions, not just abandon them--as Jesus asked of the rich man--we will in effect have access to a hundred times more of family and possessions--as the disciples were just beginning to experience and as they understood more fully at Pentecost. (Mk. 10:23-31) he problem of the rich man is explained in a series of sayings in Mt. 6:19-34, which deal with economic-spiritual issues in Jubilee terms. Laying up treasure in heaven rather than on earth means to release them for the work of God's Reign, not "in heaven" but precisely here on earth. The healthy eye sees and desires God's Reign rather than selfish gain. The rich man thought he could have eternal life and keep his possessions (his god), but Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and wealth." Perhaps most difficult to imagine is the final, longer saying about living like the birds of the air or the lilies of the field with no concern for the morrow. The only way that could happen amidst the awful poverty of Jesus' day--or in our time--is to become part of a community in which all care for all mutually, as Sabbath economics teaches us, i.e., to seek first God's Reign and God's Justice. NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION It is my understanding that South African theologians, faced with the perversion and atrocities of Apartheid in the 1970s and 80s, came to the conclusion that their traditional theological tools and frameworks were totally inadequate and set out on a new hermeneutical path which focused on their oppressive context, rediscovered the biblical roots of liberation, and led to work for holistic freedom. The reality of economic injustice and ecological destruction in 21st Century Africa may likewise call theologians and theological educators to set out on new hermeneutical paths. The following paragraphs offer some possibilities for new, more diverse models of theological education, and these in turn open up possibilities for more effective ways to respond to the Sabbath-Jubilee call to economic justice, the care of creation, and shalom. 1. From Theological Education by Extension to Diversified Theological Education . The Theological Education by Extension movement began in the 1960s with the primary purpose of giving access to a much wider circle of clergy, laity, and ministerial candidates for theological education and ministry. More precisely, it affirmed that theological education should give priority to local leaders who demonstrate their calling and dedication through their service and should not require them to be uprooted from their diverse cultural contexts, extended families, economic base, and ecclesial communities and responsibilities. More fundamentally, it was founded upon the belief that ministry is commended to the people of God through baptism and discipleship, not to a professional or clerical class through schooling, credentials, and ordination. This movement soon demonstrated that large numbers of people, especially the natural leaders, women as well as men, who had been largely excluded from formal theological studies, can and will respond to the TEE challenge and pursue serious theological studies, largely at their own expense and under often difficult circumstances. That story is told through the book, Ministry by the People: Theological Education by Extension, which was published in 1983 by the WCC and Orbis Books. In July 2004 a small group of theological educators, the Steering Committee of TEENET, met at the Vancouver School of Theology and approved the proposal to gather a new collection of analytical reports of what we have been calling Diversified Theological Education. We believe that there has been a significant shift away from the polarization between TEE and residential programs and concepts of theological education toward an increasingly diverse use of methods, models, and concepts of theological education. You have before you the outstanding example of the TEE College. The following examples come primarily from Latin America and North America. The Latin American Biblical University (UBL), based in San Jose, Costa Rica, started out as a residential Bible school in 1923, offering a three-year program of Bible, Theology, and Ministry courses. Later correspondence courses were added in order to reach a wider range of church leaders throughout the region, laity and clergy of many traditions. Then, as the institution moved up the educational ladder and became a seminary, a more rigorous program called Diversified Distance Program was added at the university academic level, but it still functioned basically by correspondence with little or no personal contact. In time it became evident that both the residential program and the distance program had fundamental flaws--the residential students were becoming divorced from their churches and cultures and basic economic realities by long (up to 6 years) periods on campus, which was far too expensive, and the distance students needed at least brief opportunities to escape from the demands of family, work, and church in order to concentrate on their theological studies, to gain access to mentors and greater library resources, and to enter into dialogue with a wide diversity of students from throughout the region. In 1988 the two models, residence and distance education, were combined. All students are now expected to take a major part of their studies in their own countries; all are required to spend one or more two-month terms at the Costa Rica campus. Both residence and distance dimensions were strengthened so that the institution was able to gain government recognition as a university and offer an M.Th. degree in addition to its B.Th. and Lic.Th. The UBL now has ties to some 15 theological centers in 10 countries and offers, in addition to self-study modules, intensive courses led by visiting professors from Costa Rica or qualified local adjunct professors, TEE networks, and links with other institutions and resources. Student enrollment at the university levels has risen to about 2000. Few are able to advance at the old rhythm, but their studies are far more contextual and meaningful. The UBL catalog now lists some 14 methods of study available to students in its residential and/or distance options. Personal options include: self-study modules, reading courses designed by faculty or proposed by students, research courses designed by students, credit by examination, individual tutorial courses, self-evaluation of experience (a detailed guide is provided), credits transferred from other institutions, action/reflection projects, professional practice in relation to an ecclesial or social group. Group study options include: regular courses on campus or at one of the UBL centers, group tutorial courses, intensive courses, interdisciplinary courses, thesis (required for most degrees). This story is far from complete. When the faculty of the UBL moved toward university status and advanced degrees, it also decided to move more decisively into basic theological education among local church and community leaders whose schooling is more limited. The Pastoral Bible Institute (IBP) was created, offering accessible study materials and some training for local administrators and educators--with or without an existing institutional base. Before long this program, which is led by one fulltime staff person, was serving another 2000 students throughout the region. In Guatemala a sister institution, the Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies in Central America (CEDEPCA), offers the UBL and IBP courses and also responds to critical pastoral needs throughout Central America. One department reaches about 500 women each year with basic biblical-pastoral courses that enhance their self-esteem and deal with their struggles in the churches and in society. Other centers in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Honduras, Cuba, Haiti, and Dominican Republic offer a variety of programs and resources in conjunction with the UBL and the IBP. This whole development of diversified theological education in Latin America (and elsewhere) takes on real meaning when we consider its potential, at all levels, for theological-biblical-pastoral formation with a Sabbath-Jubilee perspective. In recent years these countries have emerged from a period of deadly military oppression only to find themselves overwhelmed by the global and regional domination of corporate, "free trade" capitalism, otherwise known as re-colonization, the new imperialism. The heritage of Catholic and Protestant missions has left their churches somewhat ill-equipped for critical social analysis, relevant biblical understanding, and effective pastoral guidance--with the notable exception of base communities, liberation theology, and some of the ecumenical and Pentecostal movements in the region. The contribution of programs such as those mentioned above must be measured in terms of their ability to mobilize hearts and minds and hands, throughout the ecclesial movements, for socio-economic, ecological, gender, and racial justice. 2. From the periphery to the main stream Fuller Theological Seminary is "the largest and most diverse theological seminary in North America" with well over 4000 students representing over 100 denominations and 67 countries. "Fuller produces more Ph.D.s than any other seminary in the world," and its Doctor of Ministry program, with 600 students in the U.S., Canada, Korea, and Australia, "is the largest program of its kind in the world." The home campus for all of Fuller's programs is in Pasadena, California, but diverse programming and links with other institutions enable many of its students to carry out their studies, usually on a part-time basis, from other locations. The Master of.Divinity program, which provides the basic training for ministry in most North American denominations, enrolls some 900 students each year at nearly 20 sites in 4 regions throughout the Western states. The fastest growth at Fuller is now in the use of information technology for "individualized distance learning" and the use of electronic networks for group participation. Up to half of the required courses for degrees at the School of Intercultural Studies may be taken by Distance Learning through Fuller Online. The critical question is mission intention and outcome. According to the promotional flyer, Fuller at a Glimpse, which we have quoted above, "The mission of Fuller Theological Seminary is to equip men and women for the manifold ministries of Christ and his Church in all of its activities, including instruction, nurture, research and publication, and worship and service," based on a traditional, evangelical understanding of God's mission. One cannot help but wonder how this great institution deals with the two primary threats to life in the 21st Century--economic injustice and ecological destruction. What might be its contribution to the transformation of U.S. churches, culture, and socio-economic-military empire if it were to shift its primary mission focus toward Sabbath Economics/Jubilee Spirituality in all its programs? What would the curricula for the School of Theology, the School of Psychology, and the School of Intercultural Studies look like? What kinds of research and writing, faculty, libraries, and other resources would be required? How might Fuller's diverse educational models and methods be directed toward the primary challenges of the Gospel in today's world? One of the newer distance programs at Fuller, the Master of Arts in Global Leadership, evokes the possibility that this growing, wide flung network--through electronic media, independent study, and periodic "cohort" gatherings--might take on the challenge expressed repeatedly in this paper. There is no question that TEE and Diversified Theological Education offer enormous possibilities for widespread programs of theological education, now that alternatives to the schooling model have attained recognition and accreditation within the mainstream. The SEAN materials developed in South America have been adapted, translated, and adopted in several regions of the world, including the International Faculty of Theological Studies (FIET), which in recent years has enrolled some 20,000 students throughout Latin America. The Latin American Doctoral Program (PRODOLA), launched just two years ago, offers doctoral studies in theology for leading theological educators and church leaders by means of periodic, intensive seminars--with extensive reading, projects, and writing before and after each seminar--led by outstanding theologians in the region. In 2003 the Senate of Serampore College, which provides accreditation for all recognized theological institutions in India, inaugurated the Senate Center for Extension and Pastoral Theological Research, with a mandate "to promote diversified theological education and practice of ministry" among and beyond its 50 member seminaries and theological colleges. And the TEE College has become the leading theological education program for Southern Africa and serves as inspiration and resource for many programs elsewhere. The persistent question is, however, Will these programs redirect their efforts toward the urgent need for economic justice and ecological integrity? 3. Radical alternatives Recent political developments might be interpreted as a massive failure of the U.S. churches--and their theological institutions--to resist and reverse the march into war in the Middle East, the imposition of "free market" ideology and schemes on the entire world, the growth and intensity and devastating results of poverty in Africa and elsewhere, and the loss of welfare, healthcare, and other possibilities for the poor and middle class in the U.S. itself. So we need to explore alternative possibilities for theological education in North America, where so much investment has been made in theological education, and elsewhere, where resources are so much more limited. "The Center for Christian Studies is a theological school of the United and Anglican Churches of Canada which prepares and supports women and men in educational, pastoral and social justice ministry in the church and in the world." Whether they go into volunteer or professional ministries, ordained or unordained, their formation takes place in the midst of social and ecclesial service that combines action and reflection in an integral and on-going fashion. Students maintain their roots in local communities, gather from around the country for intensive one to two week intensive courses at different locations, undertake field assignments and field seminars in congregational and social ministries, take additional courses at local institutions, and share at least one two-week immersion experience in a foreign setting--over a five year period. The curriculum includes basic theological courses, but the focus throughout is diaconal service and justice. "The life and work of the Center for Christian Studies, as a learning community of faith, proceeds from an understanding that God is acting in our lives and that we are called to be co-workers with the Divine, engaged in the struggle for justice and peace. . . . The Spirit inspires us to seek wholeness for ourselves and to share that search in company with others for healing of the world, that all may experience abundance of life." The slogan that captures the spirit and intention of this program is: "Living a theology of liberation." An even more radical expression of alternative theological education is called Word and World. It has emerged in the last five years as a movement among theologically oriented social activists to bring together the seminary, the sanctuary, and the street in ways that are "radically biblical and biblically radical." Many of those who have given birth to this movement have experienced or even continue to teach in traditional seminaries, but they acknowledge the inadequacy of these institutions to generate commitment to and skills for justice and peace work. The new model offers one or two one-week "schools" each year, modeled on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's underground seminary (Finkenwald), anti-war Bible-study weekends with William Stringfellow and Daniel Berrigan, the Freedom Schools of the civil rights movement, base communities animated by liberation theology, and women-church experiments and other movements for gender justice and inclusion. Each school brings together local as well as national practitioners in the struggles of our time. The first one-week school was held in Greensboro, North Carolina and built on the witness of the 1960 martyrs of the civil rights movement and the on-going struggle for racial integrity there. The second school was held in Tucson, Arizona and focused on the struggles of indigenous peoples, the U.S.-Mexico border, sanctuary for undocumented immigrants, and the global economy. The third school was held in Philadelphia and dealt with what Martin Luther King, Jr. called "the giant triplets of militarism, racism, and materialism." And the fourth school was held in Rochester, New York and focused on gender and sexuality: the struggle for justice and inclusion. Each school has brought together many social and spiritual threads of teaching and experience with enormous impact on the participants. It is transformational theological education such as may never happen in traditional seminaries. Conclusion This has been a very limited survey of Diversified Theological Education in and for the 21st Century. It simply shows that the emerging possibilities are numerous. So each program of theological education is encouraged to gather available resources and build the learning system that offers greatest possibilities for reaching its goals and objectives. In a country like South Africa many highly motivated church leaders are being reached through correspondence courses, but their formation might be greatly enhanced through the addition of self-directed or facilitator accompanied nuclei meeting regularly in remote areas. The key to TEE's success is weekly or bi-monthly or even monthly gatherings to debate and deepen and apply what has already been studied individually, and this process can be enhanced through an annual or semi-annual gathering at the regional or national level to share more widely critical issues and challenges of ministry and mission. Partner ecclesial and educational institutions can contribute enormously through intensive one week to one month courses--at one or more locations--dedicated to social and ecological or even historical and scientific matters. If computers and the Internet are available, they can provide access to enormous resources and to interpersonal and group communication. Each of the components of the learning system should add to the essential processes of action/reflection, to the hermeneutical circle of social analysis/biblical foundation/concrete action, to personal/ecclesial/social transformation, to growth in knowledge/abilities/attitudes.
Our world is being run by a complex convergence of corporate economic globalization, U.S. imperialism bent on policing and controlling the countries and resources of the world, and increasing concentration of wealth among the Group of Seven/Eight--with concomitant intensification of poverty in the South, with terrible physical and spiritual consequences for both poor and rich, with the emergence of what has been called global Apartheid. The good news is that there is an increasing clamor for alternatives, an insistence that "Another World is Possible!" While the world we know is ruled from the top-down, by the rich and powerful, this other world is emerging from the bottom, among the poor and weak. The challenge we face at the present crossroads is to make our option, as theological educators and students, for that other world. Historically, theological institutions have tried to compete in resources and prestige with other institutions of higher learning, which is the model that 19th Century missionaries took with them to the far corners of the world. It may now be time to reconsider that model, however successful it may have been, and prioritize an emerging model of Diversified Theological Education that works--at all levels--with the marginalized peoples of all our countries and to commit ourselves to Sabbath-Jubilee spirituality in the struggle for the other world that God makes possible. Toward that end we celebrate here today thirty years of TEE College on the frontiers of "Doing Ministry for Change."
SEEK FIRST GOD'S REIGN AND GOD'S JUSTICE Matthew 6:33
Ross Kinsler April, 2006 Johannesburg
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