Locating US Theological Education In a Global Context

CONTRIBUTORS: E. Byron Anderson, K. K. Yeo, Margaret Eletta Guider, OSF, Lester Edwin J. Ruiz, Brent Waters, Namsoon Kang, Luis R. Rivera, and David Esterline.Theological education in the United States finds itself in untested circumstances today. Rapid social change is creating an increasing multicultural, multiracial, and multireligious context for leadership formation. At the same time, international enrollment, cross-border educational initiatives, student and faculty exchanges, and more are connecting US theological schools with a global community of Christian teaching and learning. How do US theological institutions ""locate"" themselves within this global ecology of theological formation so as to be both responsible participants and creative shapers within it? That is, how do they discern their proper place and role? It is questions like these that the contributors to this volume explore. Building on the decades-long discussion about the globalization of US theological education, this book argues that, in engaging such questions, US theological institutions have much to gain from a sustained conversation with the burgeoning literature on the internationalization of American higher education. This research offers theological institutions a trove of insights and cautionary tales as they seek to discern their rightful place and role in educating leaders in and for a global Christian church.CONTRIBUTORS: E. Byron Anderson, K. K. Yeo, Margaret Eletta Guider, OSF, Lester Edwin J. Ruiz, Brent Waters, Namsoon Kang, Luis R. Rivera, and David Esterline""This book raises a courageous prophetic call for the community of theological institutions in the United States to discern the blowing of the Spirit''s wind in the world and to take an audacious step towards globalization, which the authors argue would serve its future and global Christianity''s.""--Wonsuk Ma, Distinguished Professor of Global Christianity, Oral Roberts University""Theological schools in the US have a choice: we can learn about them, we can learn from them, and we can open ourselves to being changed by theological educators around the globe. This excellent volume of essays tutors in each of these ways.""--Kathleen A. Cahalan, Professor of Practical Theology, Saint John''s University School of Theology and SeminaryHendrik R. Pieterse is Associate Professor of Global Christianity and Intercultural Theology at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois.