Disruption and Hope: Religious Traditions and the Future of Theological Education ed. by Barbara Wheeler (review)

Disruption and Hope is a warmly written Festschrift honouring the Association of Theological Schools’ retired executive director, Daniel Aleshire. Editor Barbara Wheeler, former president of Auburn Theological Seminary, compiled essays from six of Aleshire’s longest-serving colleagues explicating his favourite subject: theological schools and their educational traditions. Disruption and Hope bares resemblance to Benjamín Valentín’s Looking Forward with Hope, also published in 2019 (Cascade), but contains fewer voices and less diversity. Faithful theological school administrators, faculty, and denominational historians will appreciate this volume’s balanced views, although those who are looking for radical ideas should look elsewhere.

It is no secret that theological schools are struggling. David L. Tiede, president emeritus of Luther Seminary, uses the term “turning” (metanoia in Greek and shuv in Hebrew) to describe the necessary adaptations Lutheran seminaries must make. Tiede describes four educational “macrodisrupters” unsettling theological schools. His responses, while not particularly innovative, show how Lutheran education is already making changes. Martha J. Horne, dean and president emerita of the Episcopal school Virginia Theological Seminary, takes a more theological approach. She acknowledges the decline in her tradition but sees a way forward through the Anglican ethos of being, “formed by Scripture, shaped through worship, ordered for communion, and directed by God’s mission” (43). Horne spends the majority of her essay unpacking this statement and places particular focus on mission and liturgy. She concludes by promoting her tradition’s historic ability to hold ambiguity and diversity in a comprehensive unity, something she believes will be crucial for the future of theological education.

Donald Senior, president emeritus of Chicago’s Catholic Theological Union, pens a brilliant piece about future directions. In an eloquent and pastoral tone, Senior lauds Pope Francis’s vision of the Catholic Church and applies it to theological schools. Drawing from three of the pontiff’s writings, his application is simple, grounded, and refreshingly Christian. He suggests that clergy candidates will need to learn how to relate to others in a deeply empathetic way; foster a deep personal relationship with Jesus Christ; and urge the Church to be “of the poor and for the poor” (79). What makes Senior’s ideas so radical is their focus on humanity and Christian formation rather than business strategies and technology.

Richard J. Mouw and Douglas McConnell, both from Fuller Theological Seminary, present evangelical perspectives on theological education. Mouw describes how evangelicals have traditionally been biased against theological education. He admits that evangelical ecclesiology, united by a broad-based consensus theology, is “dangerously thin” (94). He believes evangelical theological education should teach more about the Christian past, thereby thickening the foundation from which new expressions of church emerge. McConnell, on the other hand, writes about implementing multifaith education. The centrality of the mission of God, he believes, gets worked out as witness. Unfortunately, his terms describing an evangelical posture, such as “convicted civility” and “engaged exclusivist” (107–108), seem odd and out of place in the growing field of multifaith education.

Judith A. Berling, professor emerita of Chinese and Comparative Religions at Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, sets a different tone than McConnell, believing North America’s growing religious diversity should be reflected in theological education. She argues that implementing increasingly interreligious courses, programs, and student bodies represents a move in the right direction. Challenges such as “ambassador fatigue,” a reality of religious communities that are called on again and again to help others understand (118), make moving in that direction difficult. Her ambitious yet commendable goal for theological schools is this: implement “a student-centered contextual pedagogy” that allows diverse student stories to intersect with broader theological and religious traditions (119).

Rich in content, the beauty of this book is not so much the authors’ pontifications about how schools will weather the storms and find their way. Instead, the book’s strength appears in its afterword. There, Aleshire himself reflects on...