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Hindu sacred scriptures are a rich interweave of cosmological revelation that is embedded in melopoeia (melodic poetry) and sung in designated meters during rituals, liturgical services, festivals, and personal prayers. Revelation is conveyed through enigmatic dialogues, debates, parables, anecdotes, legends, and narratives. These occur between mendicants and saints, kings and mystics, and sometimes fables that include the natural world. These narrative accounts appeal to the young and the old and influence the body-mind-sense complex. A growing body of evidence attests to the positive effects of music and storytelling in the classroom setting. Drawing from these data and Hindu understandings of sacred mantric sound and storytelling, I discuss my experiments with musical frameworks and storytelling in my classes at the Graduate Theological Union, the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, and Starr King School for the Ministry in California. I contend that the incorporation of parables, tales, legends, and narratives within a musical melodic framework, as is used in Hindu texts, is an effective means of imparting Hindu-Christian theological education.

The aim of this study is to investigate obstacles faced by Indonesian theological schools' lecturers in writing and publishing international journal articles. Using a thematic analysis technique, qualitative information from in-depth interviews with 18 lecturers was examined, and 216 lecturers' quantitative responses were examined using the Likert scale. The findings show that the lecturers have barriers particularly in terms of fluency, structure, diction, and writing techniques in writing English language journal articles. They encounter issues with research financing, publication costs, and journal article publication standards. It is proposed that in order to overcome these barriers, the lecturers should be guided and given training on how to use English, particularly while writing articles. In addition, their institutions should reconsider their policies on transfer of funding due to the barriers' existing policies pose to research funding and publication.

Theological education faces the task of forming leaders and scholars with the capacity for personal and social transformation. This effort requires a deeper understanding of habit formation as both problem and potential. Utilizing the example of how racism functions through embodied habits, this article emphasizes bodily awareness and repeated practice as necessary components for theological formation. In doing so, this approach integrates contemplative and embodied pedagogies and suggests ways to address the research gap in these areas, especially regarding the study and teaching of religion. The tools and resources of somatic abolitionism offer a way to rewire bodily perceptions with theological classrooms.

This article is about the death of a graduate school for spiritual formation and theological education. I ask what the death of this school can teach us about teaching theology and religion for the sake of student transformation and more loving pedagogies. I also ask how, when an institution dies, it can die beautifully. The underlying thesis of this article is that there is, alive in our classrooms (and ourselves, perhaps), a spiritual wound that can be named an experiential death of divine love--and that this wound is manifesting as unshepherded fear, rage, and discontent. I suggest that this spiritual wound be tended through skillful pedagogical tenderness, flexibility, and liberative co-creation with students to cultivate a presence of love and feed the spiritual hungers of our time. I also suggest that a school (and a teacher) dies beautifully when its death is allowed and free to become a scene of beautiful instruction.

This study aims to examine the relationship between personality traits and innovation skills among students in the Faculty of Islamic Sciences in Indonesia. Personal information form, Five Factor Personality Scale and Innovation Skills Scale were used as data collection tools. According to results it can be stated that there are significant relationships between the personality traits and innovation skills of students in the Faculty of Islamic Sciences. Agreeableness and self-discipline dimensions are prominent factors in students' personality structures that support their innovation skills. Differences were observed in terms of gender and age variables at students. The higher self-discipline and neuroticism-based personality traits of female students determined. In terms of innovation skills, significant differences were found among students in the Faculty of Islamic Sciences based on their gender. It was determined that male students have a significantly higher perception of innovation skills. It was found that newly enrolled students (18-20 age group) have higher neuroticism traits compared to their older peers. Regarding the educational level variable, analyses showed no significant differences in the sub-dimensions of neuroticism, self-discipline, agreeableness, and openness to experience based on the educational level. In addition, results indicate that all personality traits show a significant relationship with innovation skills. While there is an inverse relationship between neuroticism and innovation skills, the other personality dimensions (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience) exhibit a positive relationship. These results indicate the need for educational programs and support services to be designed to enhance students' personality traits and innovation skills. Additionally, considering demographic factors such as gender and age is important to understand students' individual differences and needs.

In recent years, biographical interviews with former pupils have become important sources for boarding school history. This raises the question as to whether these retrospective sources can be combined with contemporary written material and how to go about that. This paper argues for a triangulation of written with oral sources and the related methods of historical biography research and reconstructive social research. The combination of data and methods turns boarding school history into an interdisciplinary project that poses new challenges for research. At the same time, it also offers a way to a deeper understanding of boarding school history and its long-term effects.

This article is devoted to studying the musical and educational activities of the Yekaterinoslav Theological Seminary in the context of Russian spiritual education in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Seminary's role in regional culture is considered in detail, with a specific focus on the development of music education and musical art. The extent of dissemination of musical knowledge by the Yekaterinoslav Theological Seminary is discussed. The role of Seminary musical education in preserving the traditions of church singing art is also studied. The connection between Seminary musical education and musical life is traced, as well as the emergence of secular musical art elements in the performance of sacred music in the concert repertoire of the Seminary choir, orchestra, and instrumental ensembles. Finally, the three most important functions of the Theological Seminary's musical and educational activities are formulated. This research is a contribution to the study of the process that supported Ukraine music education formation as a part of Europe.

Supporting a sustainable world in a situation of war is the background to this study. Additionally, interdisciplinarity forms a part of the dialogical ecosystem of searching for suitable solutions in a complex reality. For such purposes, in this contribution, the co-authors reflect on an actual instance of war. The first author provides a theological, socio-political and philosophical framework for an understanding, based in realism, of the relationship between theology and politics. The second author provides a first-hand case description from Riga, Latvia, of a politically-linked ecumenical project to assist Ukrainian refugees from the Russian invasion.

A key epistemological assumption in the ideologies of many of the groups termed extremist is that there is an unmediated access to a Divine Will. Driven by this assumption, and facilitated by several other factors, a range of coercive actions (including violence) to force others into submission to the perceived Will of God are seen as justified by some of these groups. A consideration of how religion is discussed in various contexts, from seminaries and schools to media and policy discourses, shows that this assumption about unmediated access to Divine Will is widely shared and that most children grow up socialized into it. In this paper, Farid Panjwani argues that challenging this assumption through educational settings can help young people acquire critical capacities that may lead to a critique of extremist narratives, thereby decreasing their attractions. In this regard, the paper draws upon a range of theoretical ideas, for example, the hermeneutical tradition (in particular the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer), as well as historical and textual examples, to make a case for a rethinking of religious education to develop more critical capacities among the students.

The aim of the study is to describe the national accreditation preparation experience in higher education through the sample of a Faculty of Theology affiliated to a state university. The case study, one of the qualitative research designs, was used in the research. A total of three people experiencing the accreditation process in a state university were determined as the working group. In the research, the participants stated that the accreditation studies have beneficial effects for the institutions and education. They also emphasised that they had difficulties in obtaining the documents during the accreditation preparation phase and that the uncertainty brought about by the new process was challenging. It was pointed out that the accreditation studies would keep the institutions dynamic and carry the quality to advanced levels.

Students, who are trying to complete academic activities in an educational environment, are objected to academic stress. Research results indicated that this stress can be reduced by the individual and psychosocial resources of them. So, this study aimed to determine the mediating role of grit and academic self-efficacy in the relationship between students' psychological need satisfaction and academic stress. The research was conducted on 967 college students who are studying at education, theology, and medical education faculty. We used serial mediation analysis to determine the mediator effect. Results demonstrated that there are statistically significant positive relationships between autonomy, competence, and relatedness, which are the components of psychological need satisfaction, grit, and academic self-efficacy, and negative relationships between academic stress. Mediation analysis results showed that the serial mediator effect of grit and academic self-efficacy was statistically significant in the relationship between autonomy, competence, relatedness, and academic stress. The research findings were interpreted according to the self-determination theory and positive psychology literature.

This paper sets forth a proposal for an ecological pedagogy of embeddedness informed by place-based, challenge-based, and competency-based methodologies. While some theological institutions have begun implementing principles from competency-based models, theological educators have not adequately explored the resources within place-based and challenge-based systems. This paper will contribute to the literature on theological education in three distinct ways: first, this proposal will perform the oft-overlooked task of bringing these three pedagogical models into conversation with one another; second, this proposal will aim the outcomes and effects of the three pedagogical models toward the flourishing of the communities in which institutions are embedded; and third, this proposal will break new ground in its application of these three pedagogical systems to the context of a theological seminary.

The purpose of this study was to characterize science and non-science majors' mental models of nuclear power plants through their drawings. For this purpose, a total of 27 "Theology" and 26 "Science Education" college students were participated in the study. To collect data, students were first asked to state their decisions about the construction of nuclear power plant in the city they live, and then to think about nuclear power plants in their minds and draw the revived images on a paper. Data were analyzed through content analysis based on the SEE-STEP model. Findings revealed that religious beliefs and/or education may affect college students' reactions to nuclear power plants. That is, while most theology majors approached the construction of nuclear power plants positively, majority of science education majors did not. Theology majors referred mostly to economy in their drawings, while science education majors mostly to environment. Regardless of the program of study, on the other hand, the codes emerged from the drawings were mostly about environment, which was followed by technology, economics and science. Ethics was the least common subject area referred in the drawings of the students from both programs of study.

Canon law recognizes the pastor as the chief educational officer (CEO) of the parish school. However, recent studies demonstrate that seminaries do not prepare seminarians for work in or leadership of Catholic schools, and recent scholarship also demonstrates that an increasing number of seminarians lack the desire to lead a parish school. Our research study examined the post-seminary preparation of priests for leadership of parish schools. We also explored alternative governance models for Catholic schools. We conducted structured interviews with 10 national leaders to explore these two areas of interest. Our findings demonstrate that preparation of newly ordained and veteran priests for parish school leadership is woefully inadequate. Interviewees suggested that the pastor/principal relationship and school finance are two important topics that should be addressed in best practice preparation programs for school leaders. All 10 interviewees had difficulty imagining alternative governance models for schools in which the pastor would not serve as the CEO, but at the same time, some of the participants could see potential benefits of alternative governance models. Based on the findings of our study, we recommend that: (1) seminary programs include an initial introduction to the importance of Catholic schools for evangelization; (2) a new national model for preparing young and veteran priests for school leadership be developed and implemented; (3) existing best practices for alternative governance models be collated and promulgated; and (4) church leaders and stakeholders determine the best governance models for their schools and then prepare the appropriate people for leadership roles accordingly.

Background: The shifting identity of a first-year class over a decade in terms of demography and representation, inevitably led me to reflect deeply on what I teach them and how I facilitate the learning process. I had to pay close attention to decolonisation and contextualisation. The basic research question is: How does one reflect on the shifting identity of a first-year class and how does one decolonise a first-year module in Practical Theology and Missiology? Aim: To answer the research question by taking the following route. Firstly, aspects of the changed context and shifting identity will be discussed and secondly, attention will be given to what is meant by decolonisation, with specific reference to the curriculum. Thirdly, the focus will be on a proposed curriculum that uses a theo-dramatic approach. Fourthly, I reflect on the learning process (pedagogy) and how it also contributes to a shift in my own identity. Setting: The research is set against the backdrop of changes that took place over the last two decades in Higher Education in South Africa including the commodification of higher education, the lack of adequate financial resources and the #FeesMustFall movement. Methods: As the research design, a case study is selected for the study project. Results: The development of a new pedagogy. Conclusion: With this contribution I attempted to reflect, in the light of the changing profile of the class composition of a first-year module in Practical Theology and Missiology in terms of demography (BCI students), to what extent it also leads to a shift of identities.

Environmental justice, a phrase first used in reference to the activism of a community in Warren County, NC in the late 1970s, is a broad category of work at the intersection of caring for nature and caring for people. Residents of the majority black county sought relief from the impending designation of a landfill site in the county as a dumping site for toxic chemicals. This effort was supported by the NAACP and both local congregations and national staff of the United Church of Christ (UCC). Their efforts led to the first true national attention on what has become known as "environmental racism." In this article, I describe additional ways the UCC continued to play a key role in the environmental justice movement. I then describe the current effort to develop a certificate program in environmental justice by PATHWAYS Theological Education, Inc and the role wonder has played throughout all of these efforts.

A recontextualising approach in religious education has been adopted in the newly revised religious education curricula of the four dioceses in Victoria: the dioceses of Melbourne, Ballarat, Sandhurst and Sale. This approach requires a radical change to the teacher's role from knowledge transmission to one which supports students to grapple with their own identity formation in dialogue with the Catholic tradition. This article describes a collaborative research project undertaken by Catholic Education Office leaders of the four Victorian dioceses seeking to understand learning conditions and processes for leading teacher professional learning around a recontextualising approach. This study illuminates the description of recontextualisation in five criteria as proposed by Leuven Professor Pollefeyt (2017) by situating them in the practical context of teacher professional learning in Catholic schools. Using an Action Research methodology, the project engaged system leaders and teachers in Catholic schools in cycles of collegial dialogue and reflection on practice and theory to develop and refine understandings and classroom practices of recontextualisation. The findings challenge a system to consider how it intentionally positions itself in relation to the schools it serves.

A longstanding area of disagreement among theological educators has been whether the holistic formational goals of theological education can be adequately addressed through non-face-to-face learning modes. This study explored student perceptions of how their experience of studying theology in an asynchronous online context contributed to their holistic formation. Student participants were enrolled in one or more of 22 new online units of study which were developed and offered over three cycles as part of larger design-based research project. The study, initiated and conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, found a broad range of design elements contributed to five dimensions of student formation (theological understanding, personal dispositions, ministry dispositions, ministry skills, identity), suggesting that purposeful learning design can facilitate holistic student formation in online and distance learning contexts. Although this study examined learning design for holistic student formation in theological courses, the results may be of interest for other disciplines with similar holistic formational aims.

The Seminary to Early Ministry (SEM) Study is a mixed-method, prospective study designed to provide high-quality empirical data on student formation in theological education. The study will use a series of surveys and in-depth interviews to track three cohorts of divinity school students from matriculation into the early years of their careers. As a result, the study hopes to compile the most comprehensive longitudinal dataset on theological education to date, enabling researchers to better understand who attends seminaries, how seminaries form students, and how the training of future religious leaders can be improved.

Disciplinary Literacy (DL) is a pedagogical- and andragogic-centered academic discipline that has entered its third decade. DL seeks to observe and describe how scholars in a particular field cognitively approach and process what they do while those scholars read primary and secondary literary texts, examine material culture, perform experiments, read and write scholarly articles, and teach and evaluate students. Such observations and descriptions are then used to reverse engineer and backward design the curriculum, assessment tools, and strategies to increase students' success, retention, and graduation rates. Our article seeks to introduce (1) Biblical, Religious, and Theological Studies (BRATS) faculty to DL and (2) DL, post-secondary General Education, and secondary education faculty to BRATS. We will summarize (a) what DL is as opposed to (b) what the disciplines of general academic, developmental, and critical literacies are, (c) why they differ, and (d) what pedagogical and andragogic benefits DL offers. BRATS and General Education faculty can use DL to provide explicit, scaffolded instructional practices to help general education undergraduates interpret the Bible and other ancient, foreign literature critically, rhetorically, and historically more like BRATS faculty do. DL and BRATS faculty would then use the above to reverse engineer and backward design curriculum and strategies for secondary educators to adopt and implement. Suggestions for future research and for overcoming structural obstacles will be presented.

This paper addresses a surprising phenomenon in the evangelical theological classroom. Evangelical theological students often approach theology as an exclusively analytic subject, failing to use imaginative criteria in "doing theology." Specifically, they fail to use their literary imaginations or what some call narrative imagination. The phenomenon is surprising because of the Bible's place as the central theological text for evangelicals. The Bible, in turn, is a literary text that aims at its reader's literary imagination. In this paper, I review how a creative writing assignment better positioned students to glean the Bible's theological teaching. That is, how a creative arts assignment helps students do theology imaginatively.

This study aimed to determine the level of self-awareness and personal responsibility among seminary students. It also investigated the correlation between self-awareness and personal responsibility. A qualitative approach was followed, whereby formators and seminarians were interviewed, to complement the main data collected by distributing instruments of self-awareness and personal responsibility. The participants were 36 students at the Seminary of Surya Wacana, Malang. The findings of this study showed that the majority of students have a moderate level of self-awareness (81%) as well as personal responsibility (78%). In addition, the data displayed a correlation between self-awareness and personal responsibility because it has a significant level of 0.01 < 0.05 with a moderate degree of correlation (0.426). Based on these findings, it was recommended that the focus of seminary formation should be the development of the seminary students who demonstrate self-awareness and willingness to take responsibility for the choice the make.

Despite the growing awareness of child abuse, little academic research examines religious abuse and trauma during childhood. This paper constructs an interdisciplinary and intersectional heuristic of childhood religious trauma and abuse (RTA) by weaving together psychological and theo-philosophical literature with Rebecca Nye's theory of childhood spiritual development. The paper argues that RTA distorts a child's relationship with God leading to lifelong effects. It describes how America's prejudice against children further facilitates religious trauma and abuse and outlines needed theological and structural changes from the perspective of religious education.

The American College of St Maurice at Münster in Westphalia was founded in 1867 to train priests for the Catholic missions in the United States. This paper outlines the history of this short-lived educational institutions (1867-1879), with particular focus on the 68 seminarians, who attended this theological seminary for their pastoral formation, accompanied by scholarly studies in theology and philosophy at the Academy of Münster. This educational concept and history of the American College is considered against the background of the scholarly dispute about the dogma of papal infallibility and the Prussian "Kulturkampf," that eventually led to the closure of the American College in 1879. Finally, attention is paid to the pastoral ministry of the alumni and the situation of the German Catholics in the United States. The alumni of the American College became a particularly sought-after group of priests, not only due to their religio-cultural background, but also with regards to their broader pastoral and academic formation that helped to meet the challenges ahead.

Languages have played a significant role in the shaping of theological and religious leaders. Historically consisting mostly of biblical and ancient languages, contemporary theological education includes the study of modern foreign languages for research and ministerial purposes. If written and spoken communication in a variety of languages is a foundational aspect of the theological classroom, why is it, then, that seminaries and theological institutions give little attention to theories and pedagogies of second language acquisition? This article seeks to expose theological educators to the most significant theory in the study of language pedagogy and provides a case study of a course taught to students in a seminary setting. In addition to scholarly studies, it relies on the influence of autodidactic polyglots, an indispensable source of experience and wisdom in the world of language acquisition. By improving practices around language instruction, the future of theological education can better engage with a multi-cultural and global society.

When you think back to your own experiences as a student, what was meaningful? Memorable? Had a lasting effect? Who are the teachers that stand out? And why? Throughout our lives, we have instructors both in and beyond the classroom, and upon intentional reflection, we can pick up on some qualities that make certain teachers more effective than others. Passionate, kind, humorous, and grace-filled teachers, who used wholistic, multi-modal, and multi-layered pedagogical practices, enabled us to learn in "thick" and lasting ways. This article examines wholistic, multi-modal, and multi-layered andragogic practices in theological education that lead to "thick," collaborative, and lasting learning. I argue that these practices should be embodied in theological education so that students can become not only story receivers but also fellow storytellers in their own journey of lifelong learning.

Although the goals of consensus-based decision-making (CBDM) and the academic theological classroom are quite distinct (most notably that in the classroom, there is no need to come to a group decision), both share the aim of honoring all voices and perspectives and ensuring that marginalized voices and experiences are elevated. It is an important tool for all to consider, particularly due to its benefits for students from different cultural backgrounds who may experience various forms of systemic inequality. This paper considers the strengths as well as limitations of CBDM-related practices for facilitating conversation in a theological studies classroom, with specific emphasis on the speakers' list--a common CBDM tool.

Much knowledge production, both academic and non-academic, is driven by a need to simplify the world in order to enable people to navigate the complexities of everyday life. Such simplifications not only risk offering less reliable representations of the world, they can also turn into disruptive and harmful images of the world. In this article, students and teachers in the field of religion and theology are encouraged to value scientific research as a form of knowledge production that complicates things. In an age in which scientific knowledge is constantly contested and in which it competes with other forms of knowledge production (including problematic ones such as fake news, conspiracy theories, stereotyped representations of religion and religious others, and poorly executed journalism), it is important for students to understand that complicating things is a key step in developing reliable knowledge on religion and the (ir)religious other. This article, written for students starting out in the field of theology and religion and for those who teach them, explains how complicating things takes shape in scientific research by discussing three basic elements: (1) not taking things at face value, (2) understanding science as knowledge "production" and reflecting on science as production, (3) and realizing that there is no absolute certainty.

This article reflects on the role of the academic dean in theological education in relation to faculty of color. Drawing on research related to faculty of color in higher education and theological education, the article explores issues and responses to the challenges faced by faculty of color in predominately White institutions, and maps potential responses and strategies.

This article follows the movements of educational imagination articulated by the late scholar of religious education Maria Harris to offer musings on academic leadership that attempts a decolonial turn for enduring change in theological education. With stylistic and thought experimentations, the essay identifies challenges besieging administrative leadership amid a global pandemic, shifting institutional and cultural landscapes, and enduring legacies of colonial, racial, and gendered regimes. Harris's educational esthetic and theories of learning and change leadership frame insights for a decolonizing and diasporic consciousness for today's religious educator who administers and leads with educational imagination.

Do religious educators as administrators make for better agents of change? As more religious educators come into administrative positions in theological higher education, this article probes the religious educator and change. The article begins by examining religious education and its aims. It then offers different change theories and subsequently problematizes them as the article argues that community is foundational to change for religious educators of color and female religious educators. The article continues by introducing metaphors to speak of the religious educator and concludes with reflections as to why religious educators in administration present a persuasive possibility for change.

This contribution offers a reflection on the theme of religious educational leadership (REL) at a time when the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is gripping society. The main question that guides the contribution is: How does one practice REL in theological education during COVID-19 and its accompanying measures? In answering this question, the author reflects on his own experiences as a rector on a theological faculty in Belgium and brings these experiences into conversation with the literature on the role of normativity in religious education (RE). This contribution presents a number of normative positions and discourses in leadership at the time of COVID-19 and invites the reader to reflect on the issue of normativity in their own practices of bridge-building leadership.

I have the rewarding experience of being an administrator operating out of a denominational leadership role in Christian education. I have served in this role concurrently for over a decade as a full-time professor of Christian education at a seminary. In this autobiographical reflection, I discuss how I define my roles in the church and academy as one vocation. I spend my life juggling time and resources so that both roles are served at the highest level. I discuss in the paper how each of the roles intersect and inform one another.

Mathematics was considered to be a universal language that God used to write the book of nature. Many of the greatest mathematicians (such as Descartes, Leibniz, Euler, Cantor) saw their mathematical work as a way to have a clearer insight into the existence of God and His infinity, as well as to glorify His name. This paper explores the mathematics-theology relation in the works of some of the greatest mathematicians from the fifteenth century to the present day. It also discusses how this information could be used to introduce the investigation of the reality of mathematics as divine language in the mathematics curricula of Catholic universities and colleges. At advanced levels, students need to understand Mathematics not only as a secular subject of technical utility, but also as a rich culture in which ideas of transcendence can be explored.