Seminaries, Theologates, and the Future of Church Ministry
Aleshire, Daniel
a panel member, precisely situated lay ecclesial ministry in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation, and gave explicit attention to the differences between ordained and lay ministry. A few...
...Religion, especially confessional Christianity, has always concerned itself with authority and certainty...
...A number of bishops, seeing the problems that an ill-prepared ministry will engender, are already in her comer...
...9 Second, Roman Catholic theologates have a deep connection with the church...
...it needs a center of theological reflection on its work...
...Sister Katarina Schuth's recent book can help answer these expressed concerns...
...At least one university fully fiJnds the lay students...
...This study, particularly with the history defined by Reason for the Hope, Katarina Schuth's first mapping of theologates, provides a definition of Roman Catholic theological education that simply does not exist for any other major community of sd~ools in the United States...
...9 During the past fifteen years, both diocesan- and order-related schools have learned how the ecclesial and canonical concerns of episcopal or superior authority can be accomplished through tiered board structures that provide more inclusive participation in institutional governance as well as more support of each school...
...Catholic bishops' Program of Priestly Formation: intellectual formation, spiritual formation, personal formation, and pastoral formation...
...A few others expressed concern that the laity's primary vocation, namely strong families and the transformation of society, would be lost in the ferment of lay ministry...
...It doesn't matter if I know what's going on at graveside...
...the parishes need the resource of theologians who can enrich and inform their work...
...Please send cover letter, resume, salary requirements by March 15th to Search Committee Dominican Sisters Ministry Office, Attention Margaret Galiardi, O.P., 555 Albany Avenue Amityville, NY 11701...
...Some of these have to do with student and faculty issues, and others relate to the broader communities of faith...
...Interaction and accountability to Membership Board of the Sisters and Beard of Directors of 5.5 C clearly defined...
...Of the several issues that have been identified with faculty, what may be most uniquely Roman Catholic is the shift that Schuth documents from a faculty comprising a vast majority of priests and vowed religious to a faculty that is increasingly lay...
...others do this by working in the church and focusing on the building of ecclesial communion which has as its ultimate purpose the transformation of the world...
...Catholics have no exclusive claim to this phenomenon and the problems it introduces: There are Protestants at war with one another about the hymns they should sing and the patterns of worship they should embrace...
...The separation causes seminaries to speak increasingly generically, because they no longer have a particular community that will listen, and the church that founded the seminary shops the marketplace of religious ideas and innovations for the ones that hold greatest short-term promise...
...These characteristics constitute the Catholic version of a phenomenon that most other religious communities in the United States are facing...
...The problems of educating persons to serve in the culturally complex contexts emerging in America are iraCommonweal 2 8 February 11, 2000 mense, and all of theological education can benefit from the Roman Catholic experience of attending to cultural uniqueness while cultivating common religious identity...
...This affection for the certain or the authoritative is not solely a Catholic issue...
...Dominican Sisters, Amityville NY seek Executive Director to provide leadership, coordination, administration for Catholic 51ena 5plrituallty Center...
...All of these academic settings are educating the church's future lay ministers...
...Commonweal 30 February 11, 2000...
...Either construction of the theological ~rriculum can lead to failure, and Schuth's interviews show, in the judgment of rectors and faoalty who care deeply about the theological formation of candidates for priesthood, that theological education constructed around these formational themes is not succeeding in the way that many would hope and that the church may need...
...Qualifications include demonstrated expertise in Administration, Fund Raising and Public Relations as well as interpersonal skills and team functioning...
...The connection causes listening, even when the church or the seminary doesn't like what it is hearing...
...When an exceptionally sensitive and skilled cultural geographer, such as Katarina Schuth, charts a territory, the result provides a map that not only identifies locations and boundaries, but also marks the ups and downs of the terrain...
...It is this latter group which is the subject of the report...
...My grandchildren will know, and that does matter...
...Contrast these with the fourfold theological curriculum that has characterized post-Enlightenment Protestant theological education: Scripture, theology, history, and practical or pastoral studies...
...Many Catholics worry about the connection, which at times seems too intimate...
...9 A third contribution that Roman Catholic theological education can make to the broader community relates to the education of students for the increasingly multiracial and multicultural composition of the church...
...I, for one, would like the minister to be well prepared for these final rites...
...These are problems that almost any faoalty in a theological school related to The Association of Theological Schools could describe...
...9 In addition to these student issues, this study identifies an issue about faculty: They are overstressed by their workloads, frustrated with the variety of demands that are placed on them, and struggling with lower compensation than many of their peers in colleges and universities receive...
...Many theological schools, outside the Roman Catholic community, are experiencing increasing degrees of separation from their founding ecclesial constituencies...
...The interviews for this study noted problems with changing patterns of worship and church attendance...
...June 15th preferred starting date...
...As a Protestant theological educator, I want to highlight three areas...
...This study identifies the problems of educating multicultural seminarians for a multicultural church...
...Graduate degree and five years organizational experience required...
...In fact, the subcommittee's report highlights the essential role of the vast majority of laity...
...The patterns of religious hegemony that formed Presbyterians and Methodists, Lutherans and Baptists, Catholics and Congregationalists have all dissipated since World War II...
...Formation is generally meant to include various aspects of ministerial education...
...Commonweal 2 9 February 11, 2000 Most Christians are quite certain about some things: God is loving, not hateful...
...Roman Catholics, however, have more experience in addressing these problems than any other religious community in America...
...The United States is becoming increasingly mulficultural and multi-ethnic, and any religious community that hopes to be "American" must be inclusive of this growing racial and cultural minority population...
...All of the laity are called to work toward the transformation of the secular world...
...Although the changes now must seem less revolutionary to Roman Catholics than the changes that resulted from Vatican II's reforms, the church is experiencing substantive change...
...The work of the teacher increases when the students know less about the subject than they used to know, and when they are more resistant to the conclusions a professor has to profess...
...While there are problems with a tight connection to the church, the increasing problem many seminaries are experiencing is a lack of meaningful, if not mandatory, ties that bind the work of the theological school to the needs of the faith community...
...The Protestant curriculum focuses on subjects, which are taught as disciplines, resulting in the educational assumption that if Scripture, theology, and history are learned sufficiently well, faithful practice and authentic spirituality will follow...
...Religious/spiritual sensitivities a must...
...For as long as Roman Catholic schools have been a part of ATS, one of their distinguishing characteristics has been shorter terms of service of senior administrators, particularly rectors and deans...
...1. Roman Catholic theologates, as this study describes them, have several contributions to make to the broader community of theological schools...
...God chooses good over evil, redemption over destruction, life over death...
...In fact, they are already doing so...
...But the patterns of renewal a theological school can bring to a community of faith require a fundamental sense of connection...
...We should be asking ourselves how we can attend to the formation of these ministers more effectively," said one bishop who seemed to speak for many...
...Others may choose to pursue studies in a Catholic college or university where funding is sometimes available...
...5SCoffers a competitive salary and benefits...
...Almost one-fourth of seminarians in theologates, according to this study, are American racial and ethnic minorities...
...Too tight a connection, in a church with a teaching magisterium and Ex corde ecclesiae, can dissipate this possibility for renewal...
...Her logical conclusion, therefore, is that adequate scholarship funds "are absolutely vital for the ongoing viability of the schools and the competence of their graduates...
...It provides the kind of map that helps schools understand both their unique situation and their common problems...
...Believers do not believe simply because they thought it up on their own: The Christian tradition stands on a variety of traditions that are considered, or have been declared to be, authoritative...
...While the academic preparation may be excellent, Schuth is concerned about the quality of pastoral training, which is an essential component in seminary curriculum...
...It addresses issues that define the fault lines in the church in the United States, and it does so with the honesty and hmnility that invite dialogue rather than diatribe...
...Theological schools can provide a context for critical reflection on the church's teaching and practices, and too close a connection can keep the schools from engaging this task, and thereby deprive the church of this critical, potentially renewing analysis...
...And, of course, a number of dioceses have established their own lay ministry programs which are usually affordable, with a delivery system designed for adults with other responsibilities...
...What Katarina Schuth's interviews seem to point to, however, is a group of people who value certainty and authority more than the religious convictions that are served by appropriate systems of religious certainty and authority...
...Committed to the mission of providing welcome and supped to people of all backgrounds in the development of faith, spirituality, holistic living, inner integrity and sacred union with God, each other, and nature in an atmcephera of peace, 33C offers a variety of retreats, workshops, educational programs and cultural experiences...
...But Schuth suggests, and with some justification, that the seminary is the preferred setting for the preparation of all ecclesial ministers...
...9 The study describes sensitively the problems associated with students whose capacity to serve as religious leaders seems limited by their cultural embeddedness, their intellectual capacity, their tendencies toward a religious conservatism that inhibits a breadth of religious understanding, and, in a Catholic context, assumes that pre-Vatican II practices are somehow more orthodox than practices and reforms mandated by Vatican II...
...The particular expressions of this phenomenon differ by denomination among the community of theological schools, but the same religious tendencies and problems of capacity are evident...
...Schuth's study, while charting the issues and practices of theological education for Roman Catholics, also describes several issues that are influencing theological education beyond the Roman Catholic community...
...Moreover, examination of the data suggests ministers may soon represent the church at critical moments of life and death, at the graveside, for example, as our bodies are prayed into the earth...
...Daniel Aleshire (Continued from page 23) provide a more helpful formulation of the educational task of learning for religious vocation...
...The Catholic categories focus on the consequences of learning in the theological student, and they assume that authenticity in ministry requires the formation of candidates who know an array of subjects and skills...
...Seminaries, Theologates, and the Future of Church Ministry examines the context--students, faculty, and educational practices---of the institutions that educate candidates for ministerial priesthood and nonordained ministries in Roman Catholic parishes and other settings...
...And, indeed, a majority of the bishops are concerned about how these new ministers are being prepared...
...These are serious problems for most religious communities, and what this study hypothesizes about Roman Catholic students is generally perceived to be true of many students, across denominations, entering theological study...
...On more than one accrediting visit of The Association of Theological Schools (ATS) to a diocesan seminary, I have heard a bishop say, in response to questions about small enrollments and the cost of education, that the diocese needs a seminary for more than the education of lay and priesthood candidates...
...9 First of all, these schools have developed a theological curriculum that provides a solution to some problems that Protestants have been struggling with for the past fifty years...
...A general perception in ATS schools is that longer terms of administrative service typically benefit the schools...
...2. Many of the concerns addressed by this study parallel the concerns in the broader community of theological schools...
...Like this study, the evidence for these problems is derived from interviews with persons who care about theological education, and who have a history of experience in it...
...These are not uniquely Catholic problems...
...Schuth's research and interests have been and remain seminaries, in particular theologates, and those who prepare for ministry therein...
...It is as sensitive as it is valuable...
...The current conventional wisdom is that some students are as talented and capable as have ever attended theological school, but these students do not constitute as high a percentage of the student body as they once did...
...hen a cultural geographer studies a community of schools, the result can provide a good map...
...I could only wish the rest of theological education had as helpful a descriptive resource...
...These bishops have come to terms with the reality of this historical moment, a reality shaped by the developing theology of ministry, a deeper understanding of priesthood, and by pragmatic necessity...
...9 This study also notes the complexity of theological formation because the church itself seems to be changing...
...theologate faculty just have their particular version of them...
...Scott Appleby's thoughtful introductory essay to this volume summarizes some of the changes in Catholic o11ture that translate into laity who have less education and formation in faith than previous generations of laity have had...
...Over the years the arc of her inquiry has grown to include not only the men who are preparing for ordination, but the lay people (mostly women) who are preparing for other ministries...
...Still other lay students choose a Protestant divinity school which may have more resources, but which lacks a Catholic environment, not to mention theology...
...Whatever their level of talent or ability, students across the spectrum of ATS-related schools seem to come to theological schools lacking deep roots in their religious traditions: If they have been 1Lfe-long Catholics, for example, they seem to know less about Catholicism than previous generations of Catholics, and if they are new to a religious tradition in which they hope to serve, they know little about its theology and ecclesial structures, let alone its folkways and patterns of piety...
...The work of the theological school is increasingly complex, and it takes time for senior leaders to learn their jobs, move institutions in directions that are needed or desired, and consolidate the changes into institutional practice...
...These formational emphases do not prevent intellectual formation from gaining a privileged place in a seminary, but the categories in normative Roman Catholic use (Continued on page 28) Commonweal 2 3 February 11, 2000 patterns...
...That, too, may already be happening in some places...
...The least talented students are, many fear, less able than the least talented students of earlier generations...
...3. Finally, there are some conventions in non-Roman Catholic theological education that this study suggests are becoming more evident in Roman Catholic theologates, and I think these latter institutions will continue to benefit by paying attention to two of these conventions...
...Protestant theological education offers convincing evidence that this assumption is more durable than correct...
...And before that becomes the norm, it's a story worth tracking...
...In an interesting way, the immigrant church at the turn of the twentieth century has become the most "American" church at the turn of the twenty-first...
...it has caused more than a few religious battles among Protestants over the past twenty years, with resulting tensions in congregations and parishes...
...They are aware that increasingly the faith of our fathers and mothers will be transmitted by laity who will evangelize, prepare children and adults for the sacraments, teach the ways of prayer and contemplation, articulate the principles of Catholic social teaching, and bring the Eucharist to patients in hospitals and nursing homes...
...Located on 15 acres of waterfront property in the Hamptons, Long Island, 55C is housed in a former mansion with four adjunct facilities providing overnight accommodations for 30--35 A staff of I0 is comprised of professional and support personnel...
...In this respect, Catholic theologates begin to look more like other theological schools...
...Many of these lay candidates are already deeply involved in church ministry: in parishes, on diocesan staffs, as chaplains on campuses, in (Continued on page 26) Daniel Aleshire Daniel Aleshire is executive director of The Association of Theological Schools...
...to be indusive, it must have ministers and priests who have come from these communities and know them intimately and well...
...These more Protestant board structures have generally proved to be beneficial to theologates, as Schuth documents in this study, and merit continued attention...
...In an age of pluralism and postmodern popular relativism, some people cease using certainty and authority in their proper "supporting roles" to important religious truths and use them instead in their own "starring roles," as if certainty and authority had intrinsic religious value...
...The work of faculty in all theological schools is increasing, in part, because the subject matter for which they have a scholarly responsibility has increased...
...Laity take compensation, tenure, contracts, and other aspects of the industry of higher education more seriously than diocesan or religious faculty members took them in the past...
...Some do this by working in the secular realm...
...This study describes Catholic theological education in the normative categories used in the U.S...
...Ever so gently, Schuth introduces another problem that emerges in the context of her extensive interviews: There is a struggle with authority and certainty among students, and probably in the church itself...
...No Protestant church body can claim the percentage of racial, cultural minority seminarians that the Roman Catholic community claims, even though they wish they could...
...Strategic planning and financial management and ability to communicate effectively so as to foster 55C mission in the broader civic and ecumenical communities also required...
...The increase in the length of service for rectors and deans that this study documents is promising...
Vol. 127 • February 2000 • No. 3
