Emory Receives Grant to Explore Changes in Theological Education

Emory University’s Candler School of Theology has received a $460,000 grant from Lilly Endowment to lead a study of the purposes of theological education in a time of significant change. “Theological Education Between the Times: Consultations on the Meanings and Purposes of Theological Education” will convene diverse groups of theological educators to reflect on the nature of theological education. Ted A. Smith, associate professor of preaching and ethics at Candler, will direct the project.

“In the last few years it seems that every month has brought news of dramatic change at some theological school,” says Smith. “Decisions about faculty hiring and promotion are opening old questions about the mission of a school. New degrees are being created to respond to changing patterns of ministry and identity. Financial difficulties are closing some schools and forcing drastic cuts at others. At the same time, new kinds of institutions are sprouting up all over.”

These new realities signal one way we are “between times” in theological education, but it’s not the only way, says Smith.

A renewed vision needed

“Not only are we moving from one institutional configuration to another—or to multiple others—but we are also ‘between times’ on a deeper level. Christians see the present age as a time ‘between the times’ of the resurrection of Jesus and the fullness of redemption,” says Smith. “When you think of history like this, another dimension starts to come into view,” he says. “The changes of the present moment are never less than institutional shifts that demand historical and sociological analysis. But they are always more. And so the times require theological discernment, too.”

According to Smith, the project’s goal is to initiate conversations that deepen and renew visions for theological education.

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