Education

[1] How should ELCA colleges and universities committed to responsible learning form students for a post-COVID-19 world?  Pandemics, says Laura Spinney, illuminate and exacerbate social needs.[1]  Citizens respond in panic.  They quickly forget when plague ends and return to complacency.  Still, pandemics change societies.  They can be an inflection point and even a portal from […]

[1] Martin Luther wrote his Small Catechism after traveling and observing how little of Christian teaching most people knew. Four hundred years later, one of us (Amy) had a Missouri Synod Lutheran grandmother who was not permitted to move from lower to upper Michigan with the rest of her family until she had finished memorizing the Small […]

Education matters considerably for the Lutheran movement. Consistent with the Reformers, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) teaches a dual calling “to educate people in the Christian faith for their vocation and to strive with others to ensure that all have access to high quality education that develops personal gifts and abilities and serves the common good.” “This calling,” says the ELCA social statement on education, “embraces all people in both Church and society.” Since April 2013, following Church Council action to establish a Theological Education Advisory Council (TEAC), ELCA leaders have undertaken actions that I believe could engender radical change to make education in the Christian faith essential and universal in this church. While yet unknown in the congregations, this work has moved from study and recommendations to early design that seeks a new church for new times. The Lutheran movement should become a network that serves a democratic turn to theological education for the whole people of God.

What is the future of theological education in the ELCA? That is the question that the authors in this issue wrestle with. This question has important implications for Lutheran Ethics because in our tradition, theology is supposed to be the sustained reflection on the faith with the intention to guide our proclamation, our praxis and our life together as a church. Without adequate theological formation the church runs blind and our ethics become reactionary or dangerously ideological. Additionally, theology is never done in a vacuum; if theology is truly incarnational then it is incarnated in concrete cultures, languages and communities. Unfortunately, for too long Lutheran theology has been myopically Eurocentric, dealing preferentially with concerns born of the White European and European decent experience. Both authors in this issue challenge us to reframe the way we understand diversity in the church and in theological education.

During my childhood my father used to talk about the rapidly changing times through a cartoon he saw. In Paris, a man was running with a new dress he bought for his wife so it would not become out of fashion by the time he reached home. Today we are living in rapidly and radically changing times. Science, technology and especially the tele-communications revolution are changing our lives beyond our imagination. In a letter dated October 5th 2015, responding to the ELCA Theological Education Advisory Committee’s (TEAC) report, the Conference of Bishops stated that: “We are at a Kairos[1] moment for theological education in the ELCA.” …The purpose of this article is to raise questions and offer a few reflections on TEAC from the margins: What is TEAC? What is its purpose? In what ways the plan outlined by TEAC has been beneficial for theological education in the ELCA? How will TEAC impact the ELCA’s TEEM programs (Theological Education for Emerging Ministry)? How does TEAC address the dreams and aspirations of people of color in our church? And finally how can TEAC be a resource in moving forward?

When approached about finding contributors to the Journal of Lutheran Ethics around a topic which was and remains particularly relevant to millennials, student debt emerged as perhaps the most important distinguishing criteria setting this generation apart from predecessor generations. Sure, many theological topics remain high priorities in the life and witness of most millennials, yet there remains a deep concern about the sustainability of these priorities given the immense debt that so many have accrued. I will be the first to recognize that I am not a financial expert, nor a person particularly fraught with debt myself. As I remind myself, this is not my own doing, it remains a gift from God. With that quite Lutheran recognition, I found two lenses that should be helpful in discerning this topic—though I recognize this topic is not new to many.

Students who enter seminary typically have experienced a call to ministry. However, pursuing that call professionally can be expensive. Melissa Curtis Powell, Director of Financial Aid at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, shares her expertise on the problems of student debt and ways to prevent students from being overly burdened.

HIGHER EDUCATION AS A PUBLIC GOOD [1] At the 2014 Laurier University Governance Dinner, Andrew Newman, an Audit Partner with KPMG’s Public Sector Audit Practice in Ottawa, described how his grandfather had gone to school through to grade eight and then went out to work. He then recounted how his father went to school through […]

Indian Residential Schools are a sinful part of Canada’s history that were facilitated and hidden by Empire. Bishop MacDonald explores the history of the schools as well as the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Reflecting on the context of Scripture, he uses the concepts of idolatry, systemic evil, and Empire to explore the role of Christians during the schools’ existence while calling on Christians today to examine their roles in relation to Empire. ​

Archbishop Antje Jackelén addressed the Class of 2015 at the Lutheran Schol of Theology Chicago at their commencment. She notes that when Jesus prayed for the apostles to unite and protect them as they are out in the world. Jesus would not take us away from the world: we are invited into it to share the joy we have in Christ. Climate change will test our ability to hope and to care for our neighbor. Faith leaders need to be at the forefront of this movement that spans all borders.