divinity school
Facing theological ed’s existential crisis
Four schools and the creative paths they’re charting
The surprising gift of knowing my vocation
How I became the kind of person who wants to do the work to which she’s called.
Why I went to seminary: A senators theological education
Long before I sat in Senate hearing rooms listening to witness testimony, I sat in lecture halls at Yale listening to professors dissect Paul.
by Chris Coons
Figuring out faith
In divinity school, professors engaged my heart and mind—and began the process of helping me figure out what I believed and whether it was important enough to give my life to it.
M.Divs. without collars
I enjoyed Michelle Boorstein's piece of reporting on M. Div. students who aren't headed for parish ministry. She details how some seminarians seek to be ministers of a sort as part of their calling to other vocations; she also touches on the challenges of post-Christendom pastoring and the need for more flexible and affordable paths through seminary.
Revisioning seminary
It’s time for bold, creative experiments in preparing women and men for the unique challenges of 21st-century ministry.
Face-to-screen learning: Seminaries go online
The idea that students will reside on a campus and attend classes at specified times seems increasingly quaint.
Making ministry difficult: The goal of seminary
For all their problems, churches are often a good deal more self-critical and boldly innovative than seminaries.
Faulty assumptions
I entered divinity school assuming that Christians ought to believe something is seriously wrong with the world. But I also loved the world.
New clergy, new churches: Church planting as a first call
Emily Scott had an idea: what if young adults got together for a weekly agape feast? Soon St. Lydia’s was born--but Scott was not ordained.
Cell groups: Inmates and seminarians study together
Vanderbilt was not the first school to offer theological education in a prison. But it did pioneer the approach of having seminarians learn in company with prisoners.
Devotional difference
When I first came to Harvard, the weekly
worship service was recognizably Protestant but flexible and welcoming. Over the years, our students have urged us toward
new ways of gathering.
Second-semester longings
I wasn't sure how many people I would find at our first weekly Eucharist
of the term. Driving was impossible, even if one mustered the will to
dig out one's car for the third time in three weeks.