This explanatory sequential mixed methods study reviews the programs and academic courses for women at complementarian schools of Christian higher education. The literature review historically unfolds the egalitarian and complementarian debate. Choosing the complementarian path, I advocate theological or practical ministry training for complementarian women, and review other recent research pertinent to this field. The initial quantitative phase utilizes content analysis from catalogs on institutional websites. In a second qualitative phase, twelve purposively selected directors were interviewed at exemplar complementarian schools such as Cedarville University, Covenant Seminary, Dallas Theological Seminary, The Master’s University, Midwestern Seminary, Moody Bible Institute, Reformed Seminary, Southern Seminary, Southeastern Seminary, Southwestern Seminary, and Westminster Seminary. The analysis includes quantitative and qualitative data revealing consistency and variation among these institutions in order to provide insight and example for other institutions and educators in Christian higher education.

Theological training is in a crisis worldwide. Although the role that Theological Seminaries have fulfilled is acknowledged, there is a growing concern about the ability of these institutions to serve the upcoming generations of Christian leaders. Some warn they may not be well tailored for our post-modern age. Many people feel that the Seminary as an institution is in danger of extinction due to irrelevancy. Seminaries, in general, are perceived as not connecting to the needs of today’s church. The Auckland Park Theological Seminary (ATS), whose training is the subject of this research, is not excluded from this concern of the Church for relevant theological training. Many pastors of the AFM of SA are of the opinion that the training offered at the ATS does not effectively train pastors for the ministry. The purpose of this research is to investigate and describe how pastors who studied at the ATS experienced their theological training, as well as to offer guidelines to the Church and the ATS to develop a more effective model for theological training. Semi-structured, phenomenological interviews were conducted with a number of pastors. These interviews were taped with their permission. The question asked during each interview was: “How do you experience the theological training offered at the ATS as preparation for the ministry?”. The research has revealed a number of themes and sub-themes that should be addressed by a new model for theological training. They are as follows: • There is a need of a thorough theological education as foundation, especially in the areas of Bible knowledge and Dogmatics. • The focus of the training is mainly cognitive and not practical. There should be a greater emphasis on the “how” of doing ministry. • The respondents indicated that they have a need that their own spiritual gifts and ministries should be developed. • They experience a lack of training in interpersonal skills. There is especially a need for training on how the pastor’s family should effectively function in ministry. • The research has shown that the ATS should take co-responsibility to develop the character and spirituality of their students. • The students expressed a need that the lecturers should be their mentors. • The greatest needs were in the areas of management and ministerial skills. The students felt that they were not adequately prepared in the areas of leadership, management of personnel, team building, developing a vision for ministry, marketing and funding, preaching and communication skills, how to mobilize the members of their churches, the Missiological purpose of the Church, youth – and children’s ministry, the planning of church services, music and worship, technical skills such as video productions, the use of multimedia, and computer skills, and general skills such as the practice of the sacraments, hospital visitation, and the role of statistics. • The research has shown that the students have a need for specialized training in accordance with their gifts and ministries. Based on these results, guidelines are then offered for a more effective model for theological training. / Dr. B.J. Geyser

This is in many ways a limited study. The first limitation is that only four denominations, the Anglican, Congregational, Methodist, Presbyterian, are considered and nothing is said about the work of the Moravians, Lutherans, Roman Catholics and the Dutch Reformed Churches in the field of theological education. The second limitation is that it is a study of theological education as distinct from general, industrial and other forms of education. All the forms of theological education considered here were run at missionary institutions that offered other forms of education and prepared their students for public government examinations with certain government conditions to be met. Moreover, a certain standard of general education was required before candidates were admitted to the theological course. Therefore, theological education was constantly dependent upon and was influenced by secular education and government regulations concerning secular education. For that reason the first chapter is a very brief survey of White Education in the Cape and African education in all four provinces from the beginning to 1915, the year before Fort Hare opened its doors to students seeking 'higher' education. The second chapter discusses the educational programme of Lovedale because Lovedale generally determined the whole of African education in the Cape. When Lovedale and the Methodists transferred their training to the South African Native College at Fort Hare, theological students had to abide by educational and other regulations of the university College. Chapters III and IV deal with the Methodist theological schools and the courses followed at Fort Hare. The third limitation of this study is that it is a study of the theological education of Africans, which category includes Coloureds and Indians because in the four churches under review they were trained together with Africans. In all churches under review here the theological education of whites was done in an unsatisfactory and ad hoc way. Many men were ordained without a satisfactory theological education. They were given some training by their superintendents, bishops or other men appointed to do the job in addition to their own normal duties. A few were sent overseas and many went through some arrangement within this country. St Paul's Theological College for Anglicans was opened in 1902. A start was made with the training of white Methodist Candidates for the ministry in the buildings of the Wesleyan High School for Girls in Grahamstown, in July 1928, under the Rev. James Pendlebury, B.A. (a supernumerary). Dr. William Flint who started the Methodist College as Principal, at Bollihope, Cape Town, in 1929, was seventy-five years of age when he opened the new Sbllege. From 1948 white theological students of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational Churches have been trained at Livingstone House, Rhodes University, Grahamstown. .The final limitation is that this study ends at the close of 1960 and thus omits some of the exciting developments in theological education that have taken place since then. These limitations and demarcations were, however, necessary in order to focus attention on a small area where the main problems could be seen clearly, unencumbered by lesser issues. Where the training was run on denominational lines, it seemed necessary wherever possible to give a chapter to each denomination, and to attempt to pull the threads together in a concluding chapter.

Historically, clinical spiritual care and education (or clinical pastoral education, CPE) has focused on pastoral formation, pastoral competence/conversation, pastoral understanding, and interpersonal dynamics. With the rise in holistic education in adult education this research sought to understand how students’ spirituality is affected by the CPE process. The primary research question was: Does CPE affect the spiritual lives and formation of its students? And if it does, how? A secondary research question was: Does CPE affect students’ connection to the god(s)/higher power/divine entity of their understanding? And if it does, how? First, the researcher developed a qualitative survey that allowed participants to self-define their spirituality and provide open-ended descriptions on how CPE affected their spiritual formation, or not. The survey was published with ACPE, Inc. and 17 participants answered. The data was analyzed through thematic coding and five themes emerged: Changes in Relationality, Things That Came Out of Struggle, Changes in Spiritual Beliefs & Spiritual Practices, Importance of Essential Elements in CPE, Things that Came Out of Struggling Related to Divinity. My assessment of the results of the themes is that CPE has been implicitly addressing the spiritual needs and spiritual formation of its students. Therefore, my recommendation is for Educators to find ways to make the implicit explicit thus enhancing what is already present in the curriculum.

Distance education is one means of delivering theological education which is being used increasingly. This delivery method is particularly helpful to nontraditional students who desire higher education but who cannot leave family and work commitments for residential study. For some in both developing and developed countries, distance education is the only route open to higher theological education. Criteria for assessing effective delivery of distance education have not been established in the literature. The purpose of this study was to identify such criteria. Data were collected with a three-round Delphi from an international panel of seventy-four members comprised of denominational and non-denominational educational administrators and distance educators, denominational district representatives, accreditation representatives, and adult education representatives. Two pilot studies were conducted to test the questions used for round one. Criteria statements were retained if they were deemed "important" or "very important" by at least 80 percent of the respondents on rounds two and three. The panel's responses were found to be independent of respondent location--national or international--and the category of the respondent's group membership. The findings of the study led to the identification of a set of thirty-one criteria in eight categories which may be useful for evaluating existing distance education programs or guiding the development of new programs. The eight categories were ethical concerns, commitment, curriculum, evaluation, support, technology, feedback, and faculty. There was a 100 percent consensus in rating these thirty-one criteria as "important" or "very important" by the panel members. / Ph. D.

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This research investigates the complex nature of caring in relation to women in ministry, in particular when women's roles as carers are subsumed into a patriarchal agenda in the church, with negative effects for women. The thesis explores this as an ethical problem that confronts women, but also those who are training women for the ministry. It proposes that feminist pedagogy provides important insights, tools and analyses which, when incorporated into women's formation, can help to counter these negative tendencies and the way women have internalised them. The findings of the research suggest that a critical ethic of care, which incorporates biblical principles of compassion and justice, is central to the liberating praxis of women in ministry. This has two important consequences: Firstly, it has implications for the women and how they assert themselves as moral agents of critical caring in their ministry. It suggests that in addition to the traditional caring work that women do, women also care when they seek justice by challenging the status quo understandings and practices of caring. In addition, women care when they look after themselves: when they seek healing, when they scrutinise their roles and responsibilities, and in some cases, make decisions not to care. Secondly, a critical ethic of care has implications for theological education at the epistemological, the pedagogical and the practical levels. The findings from the empirical research, based on two case studies of a Women's Studies course, have helped to identify the kinds of changes that are necessary. These include revisioning the theological content that is taught, as well as the teaching methodologies. Changes to the institutional culture and the relationships within it are necessary so that the institutions become more welcoming and hospitable to women. This thesis suggests that educators have an ethical responsibility to prepare women with the necessary knowledge and skills for the difficult, and often uncaring, terrain of their local churches. It concludes by challenging women to take responsibility for inserting themselves into local communities of practice, as a vehicle for their ongoing formation and support once they leave the theological institution. / Systematic Theology & Theological Ethics / DTH (THEOLOGICAL ETHICS)

An international survey was conducted to assess theological higher education via distance learning as perceived by graduates of Trinity College and Theological Seminary's (Trinity) doctoral programs. The purpose of the study was to determine student-perceived strengths and weaknesses of Trinity's doctoral-level distance education theology programs. Also, the future of distance-learning mediated programs of theological higher education was speculated. A random sample of 400 doctoral recipients was selected from the population of 802 doctoral recipients who graduated from Trinity between the years of 1969 and March 1998. A mailed questionnaire was used to collect data. A total of 203 (50.0%) were returned. Frequency counts, percentage distributions, and chi-square tests of goodness-of-fit were employed to analyze the data. A profile of the modal type of student who would participate in theological distance education at the doctoral level was developed from the demographic variables queried. Responses to questions regarding respondents' educational experiences and coursework were solicited as well. Respondents identified five primary strengths of Trinity's distance education doctoral programs as: the convenience of the program; the immediate application of course content to personal and professional endeavors; the quality of education provided; the Biblical groundedness of the curricula, the materials, and the faculty; and the required reading and research. The three predominant weaknesses of Trinity's distance education doctoral programs as identified by program graduates include: the lack of interaction between students and faculty; the lack of regional accreditation; and course repetitiveness meaning that some courses offered repeated content from prior studies at a lower educational level. It was concluded that the future of theological higher education via distance learning is promising. Trinity has emerged as a dominant distance learning institution as a result of its continued exploration and advancements. However, Trinity and other similar distance education institutions must continually and consistently evaluate their programs and their students' expectations in an effort to transition theological distance education into the 21 st century.

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No description available.