Seminaries in the United States have for more than two centuries sought to equip ministerial leaders for service within the community of faith. And yet these institutions have traditionally been the focus of very little quantitative research. This lack of data is particularly noteworthy given the existential crises many seminaries currently face,…

This article is about the death of a graduate school for spiritual formation and theological education. I ask what the death of this school can teach us about teaching theology and religion for the sake of student transformation and more loving pedagogies. I also ask how, when an institution dies, it can die beautifully. The underlying thesis of…

Hindu sacred scriptures are a rich interweave of cosmological revelation that is embedded in melopoeia (melodic poetry) and sung in designated meters during rituals, liturgical services, festivals, and personal prayers. Revelation is conveyed through enigmatic dialogues, debates, parables, anecdotes, legends, and narratives. These occur between…

This article explored the state of the industry of graduate theological education using three key measures: accessibility, affordability, and financial sustainability. Access was analyzed with respect to educational modality (i.e., in-person, distance) and student populations (i.e., by demographic category). Affordability was investigated by…

Rapidly increasing demand for online graduate education in our globalized, post-pandemic, "flat" (Freidman 2007), digital age has coalesced globally dispersed and culturally diverse learners into virtual classrooms, amplifying a multiplicity of voices. Social learning theory (Bandura 1977) emphasizes that knowledge is constructed between…

This study explored the alignment between the self-reported needs of the religious workforce and the ways theological schools are addressing these needs. Analyses of the 2022 ATS Alum/Mapping the Workforce Survey, MDiv curricula, and teaching areas of theological school faculty suggest there are significant gaps and even larger misalignments based…

The member institutions of the Association of Theological Schools share a legacy of collaboration. Recently, a renewed urgency for such partnerships has emerged. In this article, the collaborative tradition is revisited, longstanding approaches are scrutinized, and emerging models are explored. The historical motivations for…

Academic freedom is an important principle in higher education. This is no less true for religious higher education than public higher education. There exists, however, a tension between academic freedom and theological commitments in religious higher education. This dissertation presents findings from a comparative case study between a church…

Drawing from research in the field of higher education more broadly, this article describes how graduate theological education continues to experience a seismic shift. The in-person, residential college experience is no longer the only option for students today, and many are gravitating toward taking courses and programs online. However, there is…

This qual-QUAN mixed methods study explores how significantly the theoretical and theological impetus of the seminary licensure focused counseling programs impact the actual practice of those who have received this education and training (Hall and Roussel, 2012). The theological and theoretical foundations, expert panel, and counselors' responses…

This article begins with a brief autobiographical depiction of my religious education. It then charts the ways in which the inadequacies of that religious education caused me to treat my family's traditional religious expressions with suspicion rather than appreciation, undergirding coloniality as a phenomenon within my religious education.…

The focus of this qualitative case study was to examine the pre-COVID-19 church attendance decline of all generations in the United States. The problem addressed in this qualitative case study was the current church exodus among multiple generations of attendees and its impact for church leaders. The purpose of this case study was to examine…

In the past two decades, more students are choosing to pursue online education. This is especially true with the pandemic restrictions across the world over the last year. This phenomenon affects students learning in every field; biblical counseling in seminary settings is of interest in this preliminary study. This research examined both…

These brief essays by Mary Hess, Eugene Gallagher, and Katherine Turpin are solicited responses from three different contexts to the provocative book by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown, "The New Culture of Learning" (2011). Mary Hess writes from a seminary context, providing a critical summary of the authors' major concepts and…

Having completed a degree in theology and philosophy, Robert Jackson writes that he really did not know which career he wanted to pursue. He eventually opted to do a one-year postgraduate teacher training course, but was not sure that he wanted to be a teacher or that he would be effective in that role. The moment of truth was being sent into…