This book offers a close-up look at theological education in the U.S. today. The authors' goal is to understand the way in which institutional culture affects the outcome of the educational process. To that end, they undertake ethnographic studies of two seminaries-one evangelical and one mainline Protestant. These studies, written in a lively journalistic style, make up the first part of the book and offer fascinating portraits of two very different intellectual, religious, and social worlds. The authors go on to analyze these disparate environments, and suggest how in each case corporate culture acts as an agent of educational change. They find two major consequences stemming from the culture of each school. First, each culture gives expression to a normative goal that aims at shaping the way students understand themselves and from issues of ministry practice. Second, each provides a "cultural tool kit" of knowledge, practices, and skills that students use to construct strategies of action for the various problems and issues that will confront them as pastors or in other forms of ministry. In the concluding chapters, the authors explore the implications of their findings for theories of institutional culture and professional socialization and for interpreting the state of religion in America. They identify some of the practical dilemmas that theological and other professional schools currently face, and reflect on how their findings might contribute to their solution. This accessible, thought-provoking study will not only illuminate the structure and process by which culture educates and forms, but also provide invaluable insights into important dynamics of American religious life.

Being There: Culture and Formation in Two Theological Schools (Religion in America)

Religion & Spirituality

Carroll, Jackson W.

Aleshire, Daniel O.

Marler, Penny Long

Wheeler, Barbara G.

Christian Books & Bibles

Oxford University Press

This helpful book provides the link between theories about learning and human development and the tasks of pastors. Daniel Aleshire shows that paying attention to people can be the source of knowledge about the congregation and the basis for ministry, education, and Christian nurture.

Faithcare: Ministering to All God's People Through the Ages of Life

Westminster/John Knox Press

Earthen Vessels is a thoughtful, conversational essay illuminating the broad contours of theological education today. Rather than using a historical or analytic approach to discuss theological education in North America, Daniel Aleshire uses what he terms “appreciative inquiry” to identify the strengths of theological schools at their best.

Earthen Vessels: Hopeful Reflections on the Work and Future of Theological Schools

Religious Studies

Eerdmans

What should theological education become?&nbsp; Theological education has long been successful in the United States because of its ability to engage with contemporary cultural realities. Likewise, despite the existential threats facing it today, theological education can continue to thrive if it is once again reinvented to fit with the needs of current times.&nbsp; Daniel Aleshire, the longtime executive director of the Association of Theological Schools, offers a brief account of how theological education has changed in the past and how it might change going forward. He begins by reflecting on his own extensive experience with theological education and then turns to reviewing its history, dating back to&nbsp;the seventeenth century.&nbsp;Amid this historical survey, he uncovers an older model of the field that he believes must become dominant once again--what he calls&nbsp;formational&nbsp;theological education--and explores educational practices that this model would require. The future of theological education described here by Aleshire would return seminaries to their original role as places where a "deep, abiding, resilient, generative identity as Christian human beings" is fostered within emerging Christian leaders. This, he argues, more than professional preparation, is what theological education must be most essentially about.

Beyond Profession: The Next Future of Theological Education (Theological Education between the Times (TEBT))

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Books by Aleshire, Daniel O.