A top leadership theorist offers a compelling proposal for renovating the way religious education is practiced today. Christian colleges and seminaries have not been immune from the cultural influences shaping contemporary education. Challenging the conventional wisdom advanced by the educational debate during the last fifteen years, Robert Banks here builds an innovative new model of theological education based on how ministry formation took place in bibli… More >>
#1 by Darren Cronshaw on July 2, 2010 - 5:17 pm
Robert Banks, Reenvisioning Theological Education: Exploring a Missional Alternative to Current Models (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999)
Banks, one of Australia’s foremost theologians and most progressive theological educators, applies missional thinking to models for theological education. He revisits biblical models of ministry and character formation, overviews ongoing discussions amongst theological educators over the last three decades, and draws on his experience of teaching in seminary, university and marketplace contexts. Dissatisfied with abstract learning, the clerical paradigm and learning too much too soon, he argues for a thoroughgoing overhaul of training that is more field-based, life-encompassing and inclusive of all of God’s people. He offers practical suggestions for interdisciplinary subjects, celebrating the arts and popular culture, centering on ministry practice rather than classrooms, having internships at the centre not the end of courses, and involving lecturers in grassroots ministry and students as co-workers with their teachers, offering interdisciplinary subjects, and celebrating the arts and popular culture. Some missional churches and networks and some colleges are developing new paradigms for training, and this book offers a helpful framework for combining learning in community, character development, spiritual formation and action-refection.
Originally reviewed for D Cronshaw “The Emerging Church: Pioneering Leadership and Innovation Reading Guide”, Zadok Paper (Forthcoming 2010).
Rating: 5 / 5