Innovative Methods in Theological Education
Dhyanchand Carr

Introduction

There are two basic approaches with special reference to Theological Education as appropriate for the training of the pastors.

i)         The Traditional Approach

This approach operates under the assumption that the church comprises of people plucked out of the evil world which is set for damnation and hence, they need to be kept undefiled and pure to enter their heavenly abode. We can refer to this as the Noah's Ark model. Mission is conceived of as that task, helping a few more who are drowning to get on board the ark. Under this model, the role of a pastor is to help the people of God already on board from being tempted to jump into the flood.

This model activates a filtering process. All through the three or four years of theological education, this filter operates to retain only that, which will be acceptable to this model and filter off all else as the useless sediment which should be thrown away. I call this the training for Maintenance Ministry, i.e. to keep things going as they are.

ii)      The Missiological Approach

Any church lives or dies only insofar as it is involved in mission or lives to itself. Mission is not the business of a few professionals who adopt a hit and run method in far-away places. Or, even if they become "resident missionaries", are culturally and lifestyle-wise alienated and whose sole purpose is once again only to win a few souls from a vast majority of people deemed as already perishing.

Mission is the task of the entire congregation. It is primarily local. It is predominantly a collective endeavour. To seek justice. To make peace. To show compassion. To be salt, leaven and lamp. And while being so, involved to articulate a call to turn around. To enable people to see that God is already involved in redeeming the whole world, in the establishment of a new human community.

Under a missiological approach, training of pastors would mean the training of pastors committed to mission and equipped to enable the congregation to engage in mission. The appropriate model is that of a coach to the team which does the real playing.

The following discussion will concentrate on spelling out the details of this approach to theological education with special reference to a church, which lives in the context of oppression and injustice and which lives in the context of a plurality of faiths and cultures. We shall elaborate on how to achieve clarity of the gospel, a new hermeneutic and a contextually relevant praxis, i.e., being involved in a movement for a counter culture of peace with justice.

We shall follow the following scheme in our attempt to spell out the methods of theological education:

1)         Certain non-negotiable theological affirmations;

2)         Hermeneutical stance necessary to sustain the affirmations with implications for biblical courses;

3)         Making use of the social environment and secular human resources in the shaping of pastors;

4)         Need for courses in social analysis communication awareness and contextual theologies such as feminist theology and in general, learning to do theology, read history and read the Bible from the point of view of the last and the least; and

5)         Some practical methodological considerations based on the "taxonomy" of educational objectives.

 

Let us try and follow this outline spelling out the innovative methods first, as we try to trace the much needed perspectival re-orientation and imperative needs to understand the gospel, in the light of the teaching of our Lord on the imminent dawn of God's just reign and second, in our attempt to put together the new theological perspectives and the educational process to internalize those perspectives.

 1.   Certain Basic Theological Affirmations

God is God of the poor and the oppressed. God's holiness is to be envisioned not simply in terms of a sterile moral purity symbolized in many religious rites for purification, Hindu, Buddhist, Christians... including the routine Sunday morning ritual of a general confession of all Christian liturgies. God's holiness is rather to be understood in God's total unalterable commitment to establish peace with justice (Ps. 85:10�13).

God's love is best understood as a self-giving love, which spares nothing for God's own self most concretely made known in Jesus. This very same love leads God even to the extent of giving up the peculiar and exclusive attribute which belongs only to God: God's sovereignty. God voluntarily abdicates in order to lift up humankind, especially the downtrodden rejects of human societies, to God's level and to empower them to become co-rulers with God's own self.

Jesus Christ, Son of God, the greatest gift God gave to the world, is engaged in the continuing task of vanquishing and throwing out forces of injustice, domination, exploitation, oppression, pushing the meek and the powerless to the edges. The cross of Christ challenges people to dissociate themselves from serving the ruler of the world (Jn. 12:31�36) and associate themselves with Christ on the cross and with all victims of injustice. This is true repentance. This is as much a collective endeavour as a personal act of seeking to be right with God. It results in reconciliation and bringing into being a new community totally dedicated to call the whole world into true repentance.

The Holy Spirit, gift of God through Christ, helps us in new discernment different from what the world teaches and a new articulation of God's message which at one and the same time, brings justice to the poor and destroys the wicked. It brings to naught all attempts of the dominant to sustain themselves in power as they claim to enjoy divine sanction for their dominance and tyranny (see Isa. 11:1�6 and John 8:44�56).

The church is not the exclusive community which will inherit salvation. Rather, it is the front line force, which gathers momentum through associating itself with all God's partners (the victim sector and all those in solidarity with them, i.e., all those who work for peace with justice), irrespective of their faith affiliations.

2.   Hermeneutical Stance

If we develop a hermeneutical stance, a lot of difficulties can be overcome. This task involves giving prime importance to (i) the ways in which our Lord himself handled his Bible (i.e. three-fold canon of Law, Prophets and Writings); (ii) his self-understanding as the Human One, i.e., the Corporate Centre of a sum total of all victims of human history. As we all know, a lot of victimization has taken place audaciously claiming God's sanction - e.g. gender oppression and marginalisation of women, racist/casteist segregations; political tyranny, economic inequality; and (iii) his call to seek God's just reign, i.e., to become active fellow workers with God and not just in pursuit of a seat in heaven!

All biblical courses, while providing tools of criticism, background information to the books of the Bible, i.e. questions of date of authorship and the socio-historical environment in which the biblical books got written, must also provide a hermeneutical perspective. This will mean that, we carefully help our students how to go about the task of selecting, prioritizing, deconstructing and reconstructing all the time, keeping in mind our Lord's own theological emphases and the boldness with which he questioned contemporary hermeneutics of his time. God's nature, God's purposes in creation, God's ultimate purpose for creation (i.e. including humankind), God's emphasis on mercy and not sacrifice were some of the firm convictions with which he reinterpreted scriptures.

Another important hermeneutical stance is to become aware that all hermeneutics of traditional theology has been domination endorsing! The only way to correct this is through consciously and deliberately interpreting scriptures from the perspective of the suffering people. An African Proverb very aptly says "All tales of hunting glorify the hunter until the hunted lions started telling their own stories". Two examples (one from the Bible and one from life experience) throw light on the Bible.

i)         Exegetical Neglect Leads to Wrong Interpretation

For many Western New Testament scholars, the beatitudes in Matthew's gospel (5:3-12) is a diluted version deliberately aimed at toning down the original ones found in "the more faithful reporting of Q" in Luke! It also aims at spiritualizing and helping the rich to become kingdom heirs by becoming humble before God! In fact, Matthew's gospel is the more radical and consistent gospel which advocates concerns for the poor and marginalised peoples.

The phrase 'poor in spirit' of Matthew 5:3 is a more exacting version of Isaiah 61:3 which points to a constriction in spirit in the context of political tyranny which has taken away many lives ruthlessly. Matthew starts his version of the beatitudes by connecting our Lord's words to Isaiah 61:3. This very clearly points to the fact that he is not 'spiritualising' or making special room for the rich and the powerful to be included. Rather, he radicalizes "blessed are the poor" by pointing to what poverty due to injustice does - it drains away the spirit of dignity. But this imposed emptiness of the spirit paradoxically makes them fit to become co-rulers with God, who voluntarily gives up the right to rule and exercise dominion. They will be a new collective who will remain in the poverty of spirit but will exercise rule through service. This service is not in servitude imposed by the dominant but service given freely in love which will convert the wolf-like dominant sectors to become lambs.

By careful exegetical work with prior basic affirmation of God's holy intention of creating a new humanity, we can arrive at a fresh insight which has far reaching implications.

ii)      Willingness to Learn from the Poor and the Simple

Many Christians feel guilty if we start eating a meal without taking a moment to thank God. But do we ever think of God's channels of providence through whom God feeds and sustains us, i.e., the underpaid farm workers? We probably think that we have paid for the rice we buy, but we do not think of all those who toil to keep us well fed.

In the outskirts of Madurai are lots of rice fields. One practice which is common to the Madurai district is that children belonging to the farming community take to the streets with bunches of rice seedlings and picket the passers-by by laying seedlings at the feet and stretching out their hands for a small money-gift. I used to be worried whenever I saw this that parents encourage little children to beg. But one little girl whom I advised not to waste her time on the street begging retorted that she was not begging. She was in fact doing what she did to remind the non-labouring passers-by that many women are involved along with men folk in producing food for the hungry stomachs of the world. She said she demanded money not as a charity but as a response to being reminded that the giver was indeed obliged to be grateful for all the work that goes on in keeping him well fed. To thank God without remembering God's partners in the job of providing food for the world is sheer arrogance.

From this starting point, reflection on our Lord's words, 'I am the bread of life', assumes tremendous depth of meaning. He said, without eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking his blood we can have no part in him. This saying is in John's gospel which deliberately omits reference to the institution of the Lord's Supper. John seems to say that the Son of Man's blood is in the sweat of labour and his flesh is in every morsel of rice in the form of the exploited labour who worked to produce that morsel of rice and who often does not get enough to eat!

3.       Exposure to Poverty and Oppression - A Must in Theological Education

No doubt, all of us in one way, especially in the context of Myanmar, belong to the category of the oppressed and marginalized. Even so, as members of the Christian church, we embark upon a path of isolation and seclusion from all the other oppressed. We are made to forget our own social context and seek a path of salvation, with our eyes glued to attaining heaven after death. We forget that our Lord warned us that seeking to save ourselves is the surest way to damnation. Rather, the readiness to lose ourselves in the service of God and of fellow human beings, especially those oppressed and marginalized, is the surest way to be saved. It is therefore imperative to provide opportunities to the theological students to be exposed to the context of the poor and the oppressed. This exposure quite decidedly should not be to win souls for salvation but as an expression of solidarity and as a means of learning from the oppressed and marginalized groups.

Our B.D. programme at Tamilnadu Theological Seminary is for four years. During the first year, students reside on campus. For a fortnight during the break between the first and the second trimester, for a period of two weeks, they have an exposure to rural life with a special accent on farming and the problems faced by small farmers and landless agricultural labourers. Early morning everyday for an hour, they work in the fields to have an understanding of the labour and toil that goes into the food industry. They come to learn about the harm done by chemical fertilizers and pesticides and the exploitation by transnational companies which market these chemicals for profit. They come to understand how original natural strains which are naturally resistant to pests have been withdrawn and how hybrids susceptible to pests and therefore heavily dependent on pesticides, have been introduced and promoted. Students acquire a commitment to promote organic farming and how to conscientize the elite about what goes on by the clever manipulation of the transnationals. The rest of the time they learn all the introductory courses and get special training in teaching and organizing Sunday Schools.

During their second year students live off campus in houses in the urban poor localities around the seminary and commute in cycles to the seminary for classes. During the September break, they have exposure to industry, industrial labour, and child labour. Their living off campus enables them to establish friendship ties with poor neighbours, mostly belonging to Muslim or Hindu faiths. An opportunity for dialogue in life is provided. The very poor conditions in which many people live and how they have developed survival techniques, the problems they face such as loan sharks who further exploit the poor through exorbitant interest rates, how they are vulnerable to attack by thugs who work as agents of the loan sharks. This experience helps students question many of the assumptions and values of the middle and rich classes.

Third year students have a real taste of social action. For three months they live in one of the areas of social action by an NGO (non-government organization) or a people's movement. They come to understand the necessity of struggle for justice and methods of organizing and standing together with oppressed people. This experience often proves to be a means of breaking away from hangovers of traditional theology and middle class values of individualism and rationalizations for the prevailing structures of injustice.

After the three-month experience gained through friendship with activists and suffering people, students live in a village for three months and teachers go to the camp and stay with students for one week at a time and help them learn their theological subjects living among people. This enables them to interact with their teachers in an entirely different atmosphere. Dalit families who day by day experience oppression and bear the stigma of untouchability are all around them. The experience deepens their understanding of the role played by religion and a form of "couldn�t care less" spirituality of Christians. They become more committed to be in solidarity with Dalit people and to start theologizing using Dalit suffering as the basic datum to do theology. This leads many to understand the cross of Christ as a continuing event which can be seen and felt in the experience of the victims of injustice. The last three months are spent in our own Rural Theological Institute, based in a farm fifteen kilometers away.

The fourth year is the year of consolidation. All along students are also provided opportunities to conduct worship, preach, do bible studies and participate in worship services of the many churches in and around Madurai.

Altogether TTS students write 36 papers and a small thesis of 10,000 words. In addition to the above structured programme during the years they spend in the seminary, they also participate in interest groups of their choice such as human rights, ecology and environment, media awareness. The spiritual life of the students is nurtured in addition to all the corporate worship and Bible reflection sessions through fellowship groups. On average, ten students drawn from all the classes with a faculty member, form a fellowship group.

For nearly twenty five years, every Sunday evening after a service of Eucharist, we have a community meal in which the entire community, some of them non-Christians working as support staff, the students, teachers and their families participate in a common meal. The finance for this meal is contributed by all salaried people paying 3% of their income. This is an expression of commitment to the community and a token expression of 'As we all share in one loaf, we are one body and one loaf' (I Cor. 10:16). To be true to the gospel expectations, we need to be able to share to the point that those who have more have nothing left over and those who have little lack nothing. There is a long way to go to reach that goal.

4.       Importance of Courses on Communication Awareness, Social Analysis and Feminist Theology

Communication studies, social analysis skills and doing at least one course on a contextual theology have assumed enormous significance. We live in an atmosphere of communication. As we breathe to live our intellectual life, our values and perspectives are conditioned by information, cultural practices, traditional prejudices, food tastes, dress fashions, etc. communicated first by culture and second by the media - print and electronic - through advertisements, stories, carefully selected selling news, etc.

Communication studies should never be indulged upon purely to acquire the skills to handle sophisticated communication equipment and to acquire skills in brain washing techniques. No doubt, everyone needs to go through a process of unlearning and relearning. But this never should be through manipulative methods similar to those used by unscrupulous advertisers. The students should be able to perceive hidden agendas of storytellers, film producers and advertisers appealing to base instincts of sexual attraction or by kindling male ego, role model stereotyping. The students should also learn of how our inability to judge rightly to adopt values of gender equality arises from the cultural environment in which we grew up.

Equally important is the ability to analyse society. To ask the right questions - Why are the rich becoming richer and the poor become poorer? Is it because God blesses the rich and punishes the poor as usually put out by charismatic preachers who inculcate the worship of money? Is the US really interested in protecting the world from the hands of "Terrorists"? Or is it interested in grabbing the rights to oil via the Anti-Terrorism Route? Is the USA rich and powerful because as a nation which says 'In God we Trust' in their dollar bills, God has blessed them to be rich and powerful and has appointed them as the police of the world? Having learnt to ask general questions and questions about distant forces we should also learn to be able to analyse the immediate situation around us. If we discover that we have been led to believe in lies, which in the end distorts the image of God who is love and passionate for justice, then we need to learn how to counter their lies and help the people under the spell of lies to come out.

Finally in the same breath let me also say a few words about the imperative to do at least one course on Contextual Theology. The situation of women being the same in most parts of the world, I suggest learning Feminist Theology for its own sake and for the sake of a relevant model to do theology from the perspective of the least. All of us men need to undergo a thorough conversion from the ways in which we have been brought up to believe that God endorses male superiority as God created men to rule and the women to serve. This conversion will help us to go through other conversions, i.e. from the belief that the rich and the powerful are indeed the blessed of God.

In TTS, we make both Feminist Theology and Dalit Theology compulsory along with courses in Social Analysis and Communication Studies.

5.       Awareness about Educational Skills Development

In India and other South Asian countries, education takes place through the "Tell Method" and "Learning by Rote". Teachers lecture to convey both question and answer and students memorise what they hear and repeat it in the exams to score high grades. Apart from a small proportion of students who had outside of formal education developed skills of analysis, ability to see relationships, draw inferences to offer hypothesis, learn to weigh evidence, other students leave institutions which adopt the traditional 'tell' model without really getting equipped for life.

Educationally what is most important, alongside building up the data base of information of historical events, introductory details to biblical books and famous theologians and their insights, is to develop skills of (i) summarizing which helps students to select the most important and weed out the not-so-important material in articles and essays; (ii) comparison which helps identify similarities and differences; (iii) analysis which help students to identify hidden agendas, get at root causes to develop that important discernment referred to in Isaiah 11:3 not to judge with what the eyes see (and some times made to see) and what the ears hear (and often made to hear) but to judge with equity and render justice to the poor (a skill endowed by the Spirit of the Lord to the Messiah, the Righteous Branch of David); and (iv) offering a new hypothesis or advancing a thesis - a skill of developing a thesis and sustaining it through offering strong evidence (the Messiah first leads to the establishment of justice and eventually to eschatological harmony, for through this process, the wolves will have learnt to eat grass and the lambs will have become the proud and gentle hosts to the wolves). What is needed is a powerful articulation of kingdom values and a challenge to repent through accepting a communitarian bondedness. This should break down existing logic which is individualistic, elitist, casteist, racist, hegemony-endorsing, etc. and in its place, establish a communitarian way of thinking and living.

How may we go about developing these skills and values? I am assigned to teach a course on the synoptic gospels. The aim is to develop understanding about the gospels in their setting and enable students to preach and teach handling units and texts from the synoptic gospels.

With regard to the synoptic problem, I would teach the less well-known and less well accepted solution of the priority of Matthew then ask students to learn about the traditional view on the priority of Mark. Then I would assign students to refute one position with the help of the other.

Out of selected passages for detailed exegesis, I deal with only half of them in class, describing the particular technique and the information needed for the task, what tools to use, what books to refer to. At the very beginning of the course, students would have been told that they would be examined from out of the units not dealt with in class.

On understanding redactional purposes and methods of the synoptic evangelists, if I dealt with Matthew's redactional perspectives and emphases in class, the students could be asked to either write essays on Mark and Luke or be examined only on that which has not been "lectured upon" in class. In this way students will imbibe methods of study and the skills development of the kind described above will also take place.

In conducting examinations, we should be careful not to examine students merely on their ability to remember. Questions should be elaborately worded in order to make clear what is expected. Choices should be limited to internal choices, i.e., each question must test a particular skill and the alternative should not be a simple recall question. It should also test the same skill. There should also be plenty of opportunities to analyse and reflect upon current affairs and draw out theological and missiological implications.

Conclusion

What I have tried to suggest is that theological education should be clear on the theological basis upon which we seek to erect the edifice. Seeking to re-read the Bible, review traditional theology, and learn to reconstruct history from the people's perspective will assume that students learn to analyse society and become aware of the communication environment in which we live. I have also tried to describe how we try to go about these tasks in our own seminary.

I am, however, conscious that, while the basic affirmations should be accepted by all, how exactly we translate that into a structure for doing theology will differ from situation to situation. Therefore I have not described our story as an exact model for replication. If it has provoked an interest in becoming innovative in order to become relevant and missiological in orientation, my task will have been achieved.