{"title":"A Space for ‘Thinking Differently’: Learning and Teaching Practical Theology in Non-confessional Settings","authors":"Katja Stuerzenhofecker","doi":"10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000039","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article develops a context-specific approach to learning and teaching of Practical Theology in non-confessional settings in higher education. Where Practical Theology is not linked to ministerial training and exclusively Christian discipleship, the first task is to redefine its purpose for a diverse body of students and staff of all faiths and none. The classroom is conceived here as a space for ‘thinking differently’ in dialogue with alterity about contemporary issues in lived religion with the aim of shaping ethically engaged habitus. This is framed as the process of ‘becoming divine’ through self-transcendence and active contribution to this-worldly transformation. Underlying this approach is a theological anthropology of the human subject as fragment which is open to the future. The use of autoethnography is explored as a method for narrative identity formation which complements and is complemented by engagement with public debate. The non-confessional setting draws attention to fluid identities beyond the binary of ‘church’ and ‘world’, and to issues of pluralism in identity formation. Finally, questions arise regarding the role of the educator and the management of their own ‘confession’.","PeriodicalId":224329,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adult Theological Education","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125397424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Spiritual Formation in an Australian Baptist Theological College: A Survey-based Case Study1","authors":"I. Hussey","doi":"10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000042","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article reports on preliminary research into spiritual formation at a Baptist theological college in Queensland, Australia. In response to a growing awareness of the need to quantify spiritual formation (as defined by Queensland Baptists) a 55 item inventory was developed and made available to all 250 college students with a response rate of nearly 50 per cent (122 students). The survey enabled the comparison of students in different demographic segments and at different stages in their theological education. The research suggests that in the areas where the College has been intentionally allocating resources and emphasis (as driven by its aspirational Graduate Attributes Statement) it has largely been effective in spiritual formation. However the research also suggests that development in some areas has resulted in retardation in other areas.","PeriodicalId":224329,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adult Theological Education","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123118495","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Comparison of the Spiritual Participation of On-Campus and Theological Distance Education Students","authors":"M. Nichols","doi":"10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000041","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Distance education has a well-established heritage as an effective means of formal higher learning. Despite this, its role in theological education is actively resisted by many evangelical Christian theorists. The main reason for this reluctance to endorse theological distance education is the concern that distance students do not have an adequate formation experience as they learn. Formation is a term representative of development as a Christian disciple, typically measured in terms of spiritual maturity. This study compares the spirituality characteristics of on-campus and distance students studying the same undergraduate degree programme at Laidlaw College, a theological education provider in New Zealand. The Christian Spiritual Participation Profile (CSPP) instrument was applied. Findings indicate no significant difference across all measures, including those related to the propensity for further spiritual growth. Significant differences were found between full-time and part-time students, the latter experiencing better overall formational development.","PeriodicalId":224329,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adult Theological Education","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126287317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘In the Land of the Blind, the One-eyed is King’: Some Pedagogical Foundations for Deep, Practical Online Student Learning","authors":"P. Mudge","doi":"10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000040","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract All those involved in teaching and learning, whether lecturers or their students, are likely to have one or more ‘blind spots’. These blind spots can materialize without warning in areas such as ways of knowing, pedagogical frameworks, or even the types of teaching strategies one selects for face-to-face, blended or online teaching contexts. This article draws examples from online courses designed and taught by the author (principally to RE teachers in primary and secondary schools), and argues that course lecturers and their students alike need to examine and critique certain background assumptions to teaching and learning, their pedagogical models and ways of knowing, along with the practical teaching and learning strategies that they select to support these areas. The two courses referred to are EDUC6043, Religious education: theory and practice, and RELT6016, Spiritualities, practices and values. Two teaching approaches explored in more detail are personal, reflective writing, and project-based learning.","PeriodicalId":224329,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adult Theological Education","volume":"54 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114576287","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From Jerusalem to Athens: A Journey of Pentecostal Pedagogy in Australia","authors":"D. Austin, D. Perry","doi":"10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000035","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The history of the national training college of Australian Christian Churches (formerly Assemblies of God in Australia) provides a fitting case study for a journey of development in Pentecostal pedagogy. Using well-known city typology, this study argues that various internal and external factors carried this institution on a journey of pedagogical transition. Its missions-orientated origins in “Jerusalem” were driven by a pragmatic need for expansion, a characteristic anti-intellectualism, and a focus on experiential spirituality. Following the charismatic renewal and the rise of “new” Pentecostals, the college transited into a more conscious engagement with the broader community and intentional alignment with government quality assurance mechanisms. Ultimately, “millennial” students encouraged a more transformational approach, typified by the “Athens” model of pedagogy, demonstrating that scholarly acumen and Pentecostal spirituality are a potent combination.","PeriodicalId":224329,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adult Theological Education","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127566240","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Experiencing and Reflecting on Thinking and Feeling in Pastoral Care: Deploying Psychological Type Theory in Continuing Ministerial Formation","authors":"Greg Smith, L. Francis","doi":"10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000037","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Psychological type theory suggests that the two contrasting judging functions of thinking and feeling may be reflected in different approaches to and different practices of pastoral care. The present study describes an exercise designed to help clergy experience and explore these differences and observes and analyses the responses of two groups of clergy (curates and training incumbents) who participated in the exercise (N = 27, 15). The data commend the experience for wider application.","PeriodicalId":224329,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adult Theological Education","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115576424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Identity and Formation in Theological Education: The Occasion of Intersex1","authors":"Susannah Cornwall","doi":"10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000032","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Formation towards 1vocation necessitates continuity and discontinuity with one's former self. Some commentators understand the language of formation as potentially damaging given the implications of submission and “unselfing”, though formation might also be understood as collaborative and agential. People with variant sex or gender may be particularly at risk in contexts which exhort self-emptying, given their already-threatened agency and physical and psychological integrity. However, failure to give adequate space to reflection on sex and gender identity during vocational discernment and theological education may be detrimental to all candidates for ministry, not just variant-sexed or variant-gendered ones. The concept of re-forming identity in relation to God and vocation is not necessarily psychologically sinister; however, questions of sexed, gendered and sexual identity require particularly sensitive handling in theological education institutions, since these facets of the self may be considered acutely vulnerable, especially in contexts where only some manifestations of them are deemed healthy (or even possible) in theological terms.","PeriodicalId":224329,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adult Theological Education","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128749410","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Theology in the Public Square of Australian Higher Education","authors":"D. Fleming, T. Lovat, B. Douglas","doi":"10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000034","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In the Australian context, tertiary theological education has historically been the domain of particular religious denominations, being applied principally to students within the denomination in question and delivered largely through colleges explicitly oriented towards training for religious ministry within the same denomination. As such, the introduction of the discipline of theology into the mainstream of a number of public and secular Australian universities marks a significant shift in this educational landscape. This article argues that theology's move from the denominational and confessional context to the public square of a secular university carries with it a need to reassess the discipline's educational assumptions. Not only is the majority student base not from within a particular denomination or looking to ministry training, but a significant number of students are typically not belonging to any faith and, in many cases, not interested in doing so. Theology in the public square must therefore be assumed to be primarily a discipline among other disciplines. Like other disciplines, it must therefore be available principally for the public good, and assessed for its worth by related criteria. These criteria impel a revision of the theological and pedagogical assumptions of the discipline when delivered in this context.","PeriodicalId":224329,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adult Theological Education","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127340003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Caring to Know or Knowing to Care? The Relationship between Knowledge Creation and Caring in the Theological Education of Christian Social Work Professionals","authors":"Marianne Rodriguez Nygaard, Geir Afdal","doi":"10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000033","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The aim of this article is to investigate the relationship between knowledge creation and caring in the education of one of the Scandinavian churches' care professions: deacons. Care professionals are knowledge workers in the sense that their knowledge and skills influence quality of care. They not only need to have a certain knowledge base, but they also need to handle knowledge development in the context of complex practice. This means that learning how to create knowledge with participants and professionals is necessary to professional caring education. Further, knowledge creation depends on the provision of care in these contexts. Therefore, 1) knowledge creation is important in providing quality care, and 2) care itself may speed up the knowledge creation processes. In this article, we investigate how the relationship between care and knowledge creation is understood in key educational texts, namely education, curriculum documents. Findings indicate that care is understood as the purpose of the education, but less as a condition for the creation of knowledge. Also, the curricula prepare students for knowledge creation and care with participants, but not with other professionals.","PeriodicalId":224329,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adult Theological Education","volume":"61 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123913498","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"In What Ways does Theological Knowledge Contribute to Thinking about Theological Education?","authors":"T. Gerhardt","doi":"10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1740714115Z.00000000036","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Contemporary secular society has created a greater divide between faith and reason. Religion in certain quarters through its bias towards apologetic foundationalist epistemology has further driven religion and faith into the private realm limiting any valued contribution theology can make to thinking about education. The article therefore proposes a postmodern intertextual method utilizing a radical correlation of acculturation, following Tillich, resulting in a new paradigm of theonomy. Such an approach can provide a creative alternative to foundationalism allowing theology to once again contribute meaningfully to thinking about education.","PeriodicalId":224329,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adult Theological Education","volume":"119 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122425906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}