AAR Spotlight on Theological Education

May 13, 2019

In this edition of Spotlight, Dr. Scott Alexander presents five essays focused around the Science for Seminaries project. These five insightful essays embody the rich and multifaceted nature of the conversation that took place last November at AAR Annual Meeting. The first two are by Curtis Baxter of AAAS/DoSER and Deborah Gin of ATS. What both of these essays have in common is the relative altitude of their perspectives. Both Curtis and Deborah give us a bird’s-eye view of the initiative from the perspective of the two national sponsoring organizations. Curtis provides a concise summary of the vision behind the Science for Seminaries initiative, an informative overview of its national scope, and an invitation to readers who may be interested in participating. Deborah’s piece is an ideal complement. Among other things, Deborah deftly summarizes and synthesizes the data ATS collected from graduating student questionnaires, revealing not only key aspects of the initiative’s impact on students, but also raising vitally important questions of pedagogical ethics. These two essays are followed by perspectives from three faculty, MT Davila, Paul Metzger, and Fred Ware, each of whom helped lead a Science for Seminaries initiative at their home institutions and each of whom teaches at one of three distinct types of graduate schools of theology and ministry!