Themes 

Some of our work is clustered around particular themes, chosen because they are already the subject of exciting work, and because we believe they have particular significance for the future of theological education. 

Each year, starting from 2017/18, we choose a new theme, and begin a three-year programme of activity surrounding that theme. We can, therefore, have three overlapping programmes running at once. 

Current and upcoming themes: 

• Theological education and mental health (start: 2022/23)
• Theological Education and the Climate Crisis (start: 2021/22)
• Learning for the Whole of Life (start: 2020/21) 
• Bodies and Pedagogies (start: 2019/20) 
• Theological Reflection (start: 2018/19)  
• Receptivity (start: 2017/18)  

Theological Education and the Climate Crisis

Our 2022 symposium met to discuss the roles that theological education can play in enabling churches and wider society to face the multiple overlapping crises, including the climate crisis, that form the environmental crisis. We met in St John’s College, Durham, to discuss

• the scale of the challenges facing us,
• the ways in which the environmental crisis might shape TEIs’ curricula;
• the changes in culture and practice that it might demand of TEIs, and
• the ways in which theological education and the churches might help foster deeper responses.

This was also the theme of our summer conference in early July 2023.

Videos

Some of the participants in the symposium recorded short videos after the event to capture some of the ideas they found arresting:

• Rebecca Watson on facing the uncertainty involved in the crisis.
• Robert Song on facing the crisis with honesty and integrity and without despair.
• Mark Powley on imagining creative responses across the TEIs.
• Ruth Newton on the environmental crisis as a ‘meta-context'.
• Martin Hodson on recognising the breadth of the environmental crisis.
• Margot Hodson on integrating environmental concern across the curriculum.
• Mike Higton on the role of feeling and imagination in our responses.
• Keith Beech-Gruneberg on connections with TEI’s work on racial justice.

If you want to get involved, please watch the videos to get a sense of our initial exploration of the theme, and then consider submitting a proposal for a seedcorn grant. If you have any other questions or suggestions about the theme, please get in touch with Prof. Mike Higton. See our Contact Us page for details.   

In relation to this theme, we have also been partnering with the Christian Ethics of Farmed Animal Welfare project. Information about resources for TEIs produced by this collaboration can be found here. You can watch the recording of a related webinar here:

• What have animals got to do with Christian ministry?

Learning for the Whole of Life

Our 2021 symposium met to discuss a range of topics under the heading ‘learning for the whole of life’, focusing on learning through the whole of life, and the learning of the whole church.
 
Learning through the whole of life:

• The importance of recognising that our students have already been learning, through their whole lives – and the dangers of infantilisation / deskilling where this is not recognised and celebrated;
• The possibilities for TEIs to be involved directly in in lifelong learning
• The need for TEIs to provide tools, habits and resources, for learning that will continue for the rest of someone’s life – including the nurturing of communities and networks that can sustain

Learning of the whole church:

• How can the learning of the individual student be understood in relation to the ongoing learning of the whole church of which they are a part – the whole learning life of the Body? How does it feed from and feed into that wider learning?

Videos 

Participants in the symposium produced a series of short videos exploring ideas that had struck them during our discussions:

• Nick Shepherd, ‘Learning Church’
• Shemil Mathew, ‘Interconnectedness’
• Ian McIntosh, ‘The Whole Body’
• Liz Shercliff, ‘Hearing Voices’
• Clive Marsh, ‘Safety and Excitement’
• Keith Beech-Gruneberg, ‘Growing into Maturity’
• Mike Higton, ‘There is No Start’

Bodies and Pedagogies 

Our third theme was ‘bodies and pedagogies’. There were two aspects to this theme. 

1. In theological education, the pedagogies we employ are always a form of work in or upon individual bodies. Explicitly and implicitly, our pedagogies work with people’s habits, dispositions, emotions, and memories; they shape people’s relationships, influence their stances towards one another, and play with their sense of identity. Our pedagogies are always, unavoidably, about much more than understanding and competencies. 
   
   
2. In theological education, the pedagogies we employ are always a form of work in or upon the Body of Christ in its life in and for the world. Explicitly and implicitly, our pedagogies work with the relationships that unite that Body, the gradients of power that affect how it moves, the cultures that influence its life. In particular, our pedagogies always, unavoidably, affect the forms of diversity and inclusion – and the forms of marginalisation and exclusion – that shape the Body. 

Our central question for this cycle, then, was about how the embodied pedagogies of theological education can help shape a richly diverse, welcoming, and inclusive church. 

The videos below provide a sense of our exploration of the theme:  

Videos 

For each theme, we gather an initial small symposium to do some initial exploration, and so in January 2020 a small group met to share existing work in this area, and to discuss some of the questions surrounding it. Several of the participants have produced short videos to express some of the ideas and questions that the symposium generated for them. 

See our Vimeo page to watch the following videos: 

• Anthony Reddie, 'Going Deep' 
• Ian McIntosh, 'Stories and Voices' 
• Mike Higton, 'Shaping the Agenda' 

This theme was also the topic of the 2021 Theological Educators’ Conference. Videos of the plenary sessions for that conference are available on YouTube:

• Bodies and Pedagogies 1 – Introducing the Theme
• Bodies and Pedagogies 2 – Esther Mombo 
• Bodies and Pedagogies 3 – Class in Theological Education
• Bodies and Pedagogies 4 – Disability & Embodied Pedagogy
• Bodies and Pedagogies 5 – Louise Lawrence

Theological Reflection 

Our second theme was 'theological reflection'. There is a lot of talk of theological reflection in theological education, including around the Common Awards partnership. Yet there are multiple understandings of what the phrase means, how valuable it is, what methods are appropriate to it, and how it can be taught. It can have something of a 'marmite' effect on students: some can't get enough of it, others pull a sour face the moment they smell it. We asked how best theological reflection can be understood, practised, and taught. 

The videos provide a sense of our exploration of the theme.

Videos 

For each theme, we gather an initial small symposium to do some initial exploration, and so in the Autumn of 2018 a small group met to share existing work on theological reflection, and to discuss some of the questions surrounding it. Several of the participants have produced short videos to express some of the ideas and questions that the symposium generated for them. 

See our Vimeo page to watch the following videos: 

• Sarah Dunlop on training to be adaptable; 
• Sally Nash on reflection as a spiritual practice; 

• Frances Clemson on safety and risk; 
• Clare Watkins asking whether theological reflection is a thing; 
• Sarah Brush on a reflective church and reflective ministry; and 
• Keith Beech-Gruneberg looking beyond dichotomies. 

This theme was also the topic of the 2020 Theological Educators’ Conference. Videos of the plenary sessions for that conference are available on YouTube:

• Assessing Theological Reflection Helen Collins (July 2020)
• Theological Reflection as Vocation John Swinton (July 2020)

Other Resources 

Our conversations were shaped by various resources, including: 

• Pete Ward, Introducing Practical Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2017) 
• Gary O'Neill and Liz Shercliff, Straw for the Bricks: Theological Reflection in Practice (London: SCM, 2018) 
• Eeva John, Naomi Nixon and Nick Shepherd, 'Life-changing learning for Christian discipleship and ministry: a practical exploration', Practical Theology 11.4 (2018), 300–314 

Receptivity 

Our first theme was 'receptivity'. A lot of interesting work is being done at the moment in this area: that is, on moving away from models of theology, ministry, mission, and education which focus on the flow outward – the flow from the 'centre' and out into the world – and which instead think about what the church receives at and beyond the edges of its current life. 

The videos below provide a sense of our exploration of the theme:

Videos 

For each theme, we gather an initial small symposium to do some initial exploration, and so in the Spring and Summer of 2018 two small groups met to share existing work on receptivity, and to discuss some of the challenges that we saw the theme posing to the life of the church and the work of theological education. Several of the participants have produced short videos to express some of the ideas and questions that the symposium generated for them. (We also have a video from Ben Quash, who was unable to attend.) 

See our Vimeo page to watch the following the videos: 

• Al Barrett, talking about ‘radical receptivity’, and the renewal of the church from the urban margins; 
• Gabby Thomas, talking about the challenge of ‘receptive ecumenism’; 

• Ben Quash, talking about ‘found theology’, and the way experience in the world can open up more of the faith the church has inherited; 
• Shemil Mathew on the lessons we can learn from members of the Anglican diaspora; 
• Sanjee Perera on recepitivity - and the lack of it - in our liturgy; 
• Cathy Ross on receptivity in missiology – and about receptive placements; 
• Ken Farrimond on receptive mission, and the receptive Jesus; 

• Lynne Cullens asking how the church can embrace a broader range of people, including in its leadership; 
• Guli Francis-Dehqani on what receptive episcopacy might look like; 
• Liz Kent on deep listening and transformational learning; 
• Mike Higton on receiving more of our faith through inter-faith engagement; 
• Keith Beech-Gruneberg on discernment and responsibility; and 

• Mike Pears on receptive conversation. 

Other Resources 

You can find more of Al Barrett's reflections on his blog, and in an article 'Interrupting the church’s flow: hearing "other" voices on an outer urban estate’ from Practical Theology 11:1 (2018), 79-92. 

You can find out more about 'Receptive Ecumenism', and specifically about Gabby Thomas's project. 

You can visit the webpage for ‘Creative Conversations’, Mike Pears' and Cathy Ross’s project 'helping Christians to foster careful and thoughtful listening to voices of those who experience marginalisation, exclusion and deprivation through open-hearted attentiveness in order to become more aware of what’s happening in our communities’. 

Ben Quash explores the themes touched on in his video much more fully in his book Found Theology.