This chapter provides insight into the challenges facing higher education and provides a rationale for redesign along with effective strategies and management approaches, based upon the case study experience of Winebrenner Theological Seminary in Findlay, Ohio.

In this essay I review the advantages and challenges of contingent faculty service from a perspective which crosses programs, but chiefly from within one academic institution, a church-related but independent theological seminary. I anecdotally relate certain "value-added" potentialities which accrue for students and instruction when an…

To increase the alignment between the lives of ministers serving congregations and what seminary professors think that congregational ministry is like, this study used qualitative methods to examine the themes voiced by seminary professors and graduates in ministry at five Protestant seminaries in the United States. There was some agreement about…

The antebellum era (1790-1861) of American history was a revolutionary time for higher education in response to the question of slavery. Demonstrations of student protest in that age resulted in landmark change and contributed to the cause of abolition in the land. This study seeks to provide an accurate description of the historical actions of…

Debates about Catholic higher education in the United States sometimes focus too much on what Catholic colleges and universities should not do, rather than what they should do. This article attempts to reframe those debates away from the negative expressions of Catholic identity (i.e., denying guests a right to speak on campus based on their level…

The development of human spiritual formation involves the work of the Holy Spirit and the effort of human beings. Under this model an individual must come to recognize the inner state of the self in order to truly engage in spiritual development. In Chinese culture, the element of self-awareness in pursuit of spiritual formation is not emphasized…

This article uses womanist ethics and theories of writing instruction to illuminate the experiences of black women seminarians with theological writing at a predominantly white institution. The three cases presented here highlight two ethics for teaching and evaluating theological writing: clarity and creativity. Already triply marginalized by…

When upper-level theology courses are taught within a general education program at colleges and universities, instructors are often challenged to invite students, some of whom are committed neither to the discipline of theology nor to Christian faith, into a style of critical reflection that largely depends on both of these commitments. In a…

Catholic universities in the United States have developed complexity reflective of the larger development of modern universities and "multiversities." This complexity, together with the decline in the numbers of sponsoring religious orders and diocesan priests, presents new challenges for the sustaining of a theologically rooted,…

"Ex corde Ecclesiae" (1990) continues to be the normative teaching of the universal Church twenty-five years after it was promulgated by Pope John Paul II, and its "Application for the United States" (2000) remains in force as particular law. Minimalist interpretations have emphasized the requirement of the…

This article presents a pedagogical approach to training seminarians for faith leadership in the era of what Heidi Campbell has called "networked religion." It argues that the increasing digital mediation of religious practice, expression, and community represents an opportunity for students to explore and inhabit ministry sites and…

This doctoral research project examined perceptual gaps of service quality and value in the context of higher education. The researcher performed quantitative analysis of survey data gathered from students at a small, Midwestern Bible college. Students self-selected to participate in this research project and, using class status as an independent…

This case study account reviews issues related to seminary formation and education at the Beda College, Rome, including Fundamentals of Formation, Community Life, Organizing Formation, Intellectual Formation, Spiritual Formation, Pastoral Formation, and the challenges arising in these fields.

The institution of the seminary was established by the sixteenth century Council of Trent. Seminaries were charged with the formation of men for the priesthood. The character of seminary education was largely unchanged until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). This article observes and comments upon the changes and developments over the past…

The college accreditation movement that arose at the turn of the twentieth century had an important antecedent in the Society for the Promotion of Collegiate and Theological Education at the West. Founded in 1843, this nondenominational philanthropy aspired to direct the development of higher education by dispersing eastern funds to Protestant…