Theological education in crisis

The situation of academic theology at Western universities, for example in Germany, has become precarious.

Critics even fear a tough end to this discipline, which was once regarded as the supreme discipline of science. 1

The number of students at theological faculties in the West has been falling for years. Some schools are only saving themselves by offering religious education courses. Fewer and fewer people are enrolling for traditional pastor training.

Obviously, the pastoral profession has long since lost its appeal. Jens Eberl even warns of a "church without priests" in his discussion of the crisis in Catholic theological education. 2

The crisis in the pastoral profession has long since manifested itself in a crisis in pastoral training. 3

And this trend has also long since reached the Evangelical universities and seminaries.

The number of students at theological faculties in the West has been falling for years. Some schools are only saving themselves by offering religious education courses

What is causing the crisis in theological education in the West? Is it the precarious framework conditions that have always existed for higher theological education, such as finances, administration and the like?

People are quick to resort to such categories when theological education is once again up for discussion. Is it the radically changing attitude of Western people towards the church and faith itself?

The never-ending divisions and rifts in the church? Or even the search for a spirituality that is less cerebral, less rational?

Or is the spreading crisis much more fundamental, about the nature of theology itself, about the question of the object of theological education, about the actual proprium of theology, or as the well-known Croatian-American theologian Miroslav Volf so aptly put it, about the "place of God in theological education and even more so in theologizing itself?" 4

There is no question that, as always, there is a lack of money for theological education and mentioning the other precarious conditions is certainly appropriate.

But elsewhere in the world, these conditions are many times more critical. And yet masses of students flock to theology lectures. Quite different from here, in Europe and America.

So circumstances alone cannot be the reason why many faculties are simply on the brink of extinction? So we should look deeper if we want to get to the bottom of the problem.

 

Is theology still a speech about God?

Theology stands for talking about God. He, God, is its primary subject. Or as Jürgen Moltmann put it clearly years ago when he stated:

"It is simple and yet true that theology has only one problem - God. We are theologians for God's sake. God is our dignity. God is our agony. God is our hope".5

Is God the real center of our theological education in Euro-America? Is Moltmann's theorem true for us? Or is it other topics that determine the theological discussion?

Of course, here too we cannot do without a reference to God. But is it primarily about God or rather about issues of religious practice? What do our students learn about God or the issues surrounding the question of God?

"Have you grown closer to God in the five years of your theology studies, have you learned to love him even more and have you deepened your personal fellowship with him?" I was asked after the end of my own theology studies.

Admittedly, the question seemed very strange to me and I replied: "I have learned to understand the Bible better, to distinguish better between theological convictions, I have understood the doctrinal positions of my church and learned to justify them in the Holy Scriptures, and much more. It was always somehow about God. But when asked specifically whether my relationship with God has improved qualitatively, well, I haven't thought about that yet."

Between you and me, no, it hadn't improved. Somehow my studies were also about God. But my relationship with Him was only a marginal topic, in the subject "Spiritual Formation".

At best, it had remained the same. Quite unlike some of my fellow students who had lost their faith during their studies.

What had I studied then? Theology, or rather religious studies? With Miroslav Volf, I very much suspect it was more religious studies for long stretches.6

In the practical absence of God in the teaching content of theology, is probably the deepest cause of the crisis in theological education and with it, ultimately, the life of faith of Christians

Theology would have been concerned with God, with his place in the life and faith of Christians, whereas religious studies dealt with the religion lived and believed in.

Of course, it was about my religion, about the Christian faith, which turns to the Triune God. That is correct. But was it about God?

I first noticed this connection when I was writing my popular book "Church works" and asked Christians about the 10 most important factors that made up their life of faith in the church.7

I received all kinds of interesting answers, but God was virtually absent from their list. Yet the faith of Jesus' church is first and foremost about HIM, our Lord and God, isn't it?

I then looked critically at my own sermons and, above all, lectures and seminars at the theological college. I even asked the students to judge from the lecture notes what my lecture said about God. And experienced the same effect.

My students only found indirect references to God. Unnoticed, I myself had followed the same trend that I am criticizing here.

Here, in the practical absence of God in the teaching content of theology, is probably the deepest cause of the crisis in theological education and with it, ultimately, the life of faith of Christians.

Where the most important things are no longer the most important things, topics of the day quickly take over, displacing the most important things from the curriculum of the theological faculties and replacing them with urgent topics of the zeitgeist.

We learn who God is in the actual doctrine of God in systematic theology, one quickly replies to my criticism here. And the latter gains its insights from the exegesis of Holy Scripture and its historical reflection in the history of the Church. Correct. I can only say that.

And in practical theology, in preaching and pastoral care, evangelization and mission, we try to apply what we have learned in dogmatics. Or do we not? That's exactly what our curriculum prescribes.

A learned doctrine is transferred into everyday life. If only this everyday life wasn't constantly changing. The transfer only succeeds all too rarely and the newly trained theologian fails at the first challenges of his everyday parish life.

The result is pastoral fatigue, burnout and increasing flight from the pastoral professions. Is it due to inadequate training of pastors? Is something essential being overlooked?

 

Crisis of the pastorate

People have been talking about the crisis in the pastoral ministry for years. And the complaints can be heard from Europe and America, as well as from faraway Australia. 8

The cases of pastors who have stumbled over their moral failures will soon be too numerous to count.

Names like Bill Hybels, Ravi Zakharias and Mark Driscoll stand for many other Protestant and Catholic ministers who have had to resign as a result of their lifestyle. Mark Farnham even speaks at this point of the crisis of pastoral virtue. 9

Pastors receive their ministry calling from the hand of God. Their ministry is carried out in the name and on behalf of God. He himself assures them of his support.

However, if they leave the framework of their calling and abandon their relationship with God, crises is almost inevitable. 10

Jana Jičínská writes:

The crisis of the pastorate, despite all the difficulties of the context in which spiritual leaders have to carry out their ministry, is also a question of the frightening coldness in the relationship between the pastor and His master

"Spiritual life is absolutely crucial for pastoral workers. Growing into Christ and following him brings the strength to handle all difficulties, crises or doubts in a different perspective Jesus empowers his servants by strengthening them, bestowing gifts and graces. It supports maturity and stress management. It frees from addictions and the Evil One. Christian service is an extraordinary area of the Holy Spirit's action and its manifestation in various services. Pastoral care is not psychology or psychotherapy, but offers Jesus and his salvation, which transforms and heals human being." 11

The crisis of the pastorate, despite all the difficulties of the context in which spiritual leaders have to carry out their ministry, is also a question of the frightening coldness in the relationship between the pastor and his master.

And this coldness seems to stem directly from the crisis in theological education that these pastors have experienced.

God's far-reaching concrete absence in theology results in the factual absence of God in the pastor's life and ministry. Even the simple question of when the Lord last spoke directly in the pastor's life causes a clueless shrug of the shoulders here in Germany.

I often hear the sentence: "We are not charismatics, we listen to the Holy Scriptures and not to voices from the beyond."

Of course, crises are also always opportunities. And so the crisis of the pastorate was already recognized as an opportunity for the church in 1995.12

The renewal of the pastorate will potentially lead to the renewal of the church. It is no coincidence that people have been complaining for years about the crisis in theology studies.13

Calls for the reform of theology studies have been correspondingly loud. 14 Obviously, the two crises are interdependent.

 

Theology with intention

Throughout my long life as a theologian, I have held with the German theologian Karl Rahner (1904-1984), who said of himself that he practiced theology for the practice of faith.

Karl Rahner wrote:

"I have always practiced theology for the sake of proclamation, for the sake of preaching, for the sake of pastoral care - in other words, for the sake of faith." He continues: "I'm not a scientist and I don't want to be one, but I want to be a Christian who takes Christianity seriously, who lives unbiasedly in today's world and from there allows himself to be given this or that and a third and a twentieth problem to think about; if you want to call that 'theology', that's fine." 15

Rahner, one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century, did not want to be a theologian who served a science. He served his Lord Jesus Christ. He was concerned with God in his life and in the lives of his fellow human beings.

And it was from here that he developed his discourse on God, his theology in preaching and pastoral care. Is that what made his theology so quick-witted, his words so convincing?

I think so. In Rahner's life, God remained the most important thing and all the questions that life posed to him were discussed from this central point. He reflected on life and ministry theologically in the best sense of the word.

And his theology attracted crowds. There was no need to fear empty lecture halls in his lectures. There was no need to fear a crisis in theology around Rahner.

Quite different from the situation in many places today. Lecture halls here are characterized by yawning emptiness. And the faculties are faced with the question of how long their program can continue to exist.

Can we hope for a future? You bet! But the condition is clear - our education today needs theologians, theologians who, like my great role model Rahner, practice theology from a living relationship with God.

Johannes Reimer, Professor of Missiology at the University of South Africa (UNSA) and was a member of the leadership team of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) for many years.

 

Notes

1. Friedrich Wilhelm Graf: Tumult im Theotop: Akademische Theologie in der Krise, in: FAZ, 21.2.2008, 8; Ted A. Smith: The End of Theological Education. (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing 2023).