Sustainable Theological Education: Part 1

I’ve been learning a lot about soil lately. Two years ago, find I successfully planted my first backyard garden, a 4×10 raised bed, and became familiar with soil types, fertilizers, compost, and optimum soil conditions. This year, I’ve been sharing notes with my friend who is in the process of buying a hobby farm and I’ve learned about soil health, crop rotation, and soil ecology. And over the past 5 months, I have been studying and writing a book on Matthew 13 and the parable Jesus told about soil.

There is some Metaphorical Dirt under my Fingernails

In the familiar parable about the sower and the seed, Jesus highlighted the reality that the same seed, which he explained was the “message of the kingdom,” would fall on different soil and would grow differently. It is a simple and easily understood comparison. When Jesus explained what the parable of the sower meant, he compared his audience to these soils and suggested that something similar is taking place whenever the message of the kingdom is heard. Each individual has comparable “soils” upon which the seed is landing and unless the seed is snatched away, it has the ability to grow in the hearts and minds of every individual. But that growth will not look the same for every person.

But I am convinced that the growth of the seed was a secondary point for Jesus and that his primary point, revealed by his reference to Isaiah 6:9-10, was to help people understand the important role the soil played in their ability to understand and perceive the message.

The Soil was His Focus

In fact, four types of soils were highlighted for the role they played in first, receiving the seed and second, supporting the seed as it grew. The soil was a comparison for two key moments in the interpretive process. First, the moment someone hears the message there is a response and reception of the message. This response/reception can be positive, negative, or neutral but there is always a response. Second, the type of growth the message will experience and the story you tell yourself about the message is heavily influenced by the makeup of the soil, your makeup. It is the soil that influenced the level of understanding, the level of perception, the type of growth, and the production of fruit.

Our response to the message, the conclusions we make about the message, and how we apply the message are influenced by our interpretive makeup. And that was the point Jesus was making. He was challenging people to consider the soil by recognizing where the seed had just landed in their hearts and minds, by acknowledging how they had received the seed, and by considering how the seed will respond in their lives.

The parable contains a call for awareness, a model for personalizing faith positions, and a challenge to understand what evidence can persuade us to believe.

Consider the Soil

I have been placing this challenge to consider the soil at the forefront of my teaching and writing these past four years. The awareness and level of connection for my students has been remarkable as I challenge them to consider how they “feel” about what they just heard and explain what that might mean in terms of these four soils and types of growth that may follow. This awareness has given them the ability to explain their interpretations but more importantly, they can recognize and understand why someone else is growing differently or hasn’t responded to the message as they have.

For many of us, our primary goal as educators is to sow the seed as clearly and effectively as we can so that our students realize exponential growth. Those who contribute to and read the Seminarium blog are a testament to this desire and goal. I would like to suggest that understanding the unique properties of the soil will assist us as we sow the seed but more importantly, provide the foundations for students to develop healthy understandings and expressions of their personal faith.

Sustainable theological education considers the soil – thinks carefully about, bears in mind, pays attention to, and reflects upon the makeup of the soil so that the audience can recognize where the seed had landed, acknowledge how they have received the seed, and understand how the seed will respond to the soil in their life.

“Sustainable” Theological Education

Let me explain what I mean by “sustainable” theological education by returning to the soil metaphor.

A revolutionary concept of soil was developed by Russian geographer Vasily Dokuchaev in the late 1900’s. Instead of viewing soils as more or less static storage bins for plant nutrients, scientists began to suggest that soils are independent natural bodies, each with unique combinations of climate, living matter, parent matter, relief, and time. This development of “soil science,” the study of soil as a natural resource on the Earth, reversed the almost universal attempts to look upon the soil merely as a producer of crops and began to recognize the soil as a natural body worth in and for itself of all the study that could be devoted to it.

Ghandi once said “to forget how to dig the earth and to tend to the soil is to forget ourselves.” Soils sustain life, affect climate, and impact the environment. Healthy soils equate to healthy people. This approach now understands, applies, and responds to the unique properties and the complexities of soils providing the foundation for sustainable healthy farms, communities, the environment, and future livelihoods.

I have been challenging myself to take the same approach to religious, denominational, theological education. People are not static storage bins where beliefs are placed. They are independent natural bodies with histories, experiences, time, education, and perspectives. Personal beliefs are the products of our values, motivations, loyalties, commitments, character, and choices. Beliefs are not developed or produced in a classroom, rather, they should be discovered, understood, and applied.

Rather than telling people what to believe, a more sustainable approach to the study of faith and beliefs would be to help people understand why they are persuaded to believe in the first place. But this means getting some dirt under our fingernails. The reality is that the seed will fall on different soil and we have to be prepared to understand, adjust, and respond to the variety of values, motivations, loyalties, commitments, character, and choices of students.

What’s Your Composition?

Just because people hear the same message, doesn’t mean they understand it. In fact, they may never understand it or accept it. But we can help them understand why they are not persuaded. Just because people see the same thing, doesn’t mean they perceive it. In fact, they may see something entirely different and refuse to see anything else. But we can help them recognize what they naturally miss. Just because you see some people grow, doesn’t mean it is sustainable. In fact, most students regurgitate answers for marks even when they don’t understand or agree. But we can help them understand their reluctance or acceptance of the message and personalize faith positions so that they move beyond an “issue-based” approach to beliefs (i.e. here is my stance on this issue) to a more sustainable “methods-based” approach to beliefs (i.e. here is what persuades me).

Focus on the soil changes our approach and expectations. What have we offered our students in the area of personalized hermeneutics? When we consider the soil, we can then move to help students discover their soil “composition” and work with them to tend those soils.

Note: For more on this theme check out Schultz and Schultz’s The Dirt on Learning, Group, 1999.

Photo Credit: “Touch Healthy Soil” by NRCS Soil Health – CC by 2.0