How Do we Keep it Real? Authentic Assessment and Religious StudiesPosted on June 13, 2014 by Nathan LoewenIt seems to me that a change in pedagogy towards authentic assessment and outcomes-based instruction demands the conception of clear lines between religious studies and professional lives in contemporary society. But to answer that, I need to determine how might religious studies teaching authentically assess learners….
Theology of Mission in the Classroom: Embodied Cultural Contestations?Posted on April 25, 2014 by Robert SalerWhat does theologizing about mission mean for the seminary classroom?I would suggest that it means that discussions of theology and mission need to take a cue from history courses and emphasize that culture, like the history of the church, is not a peaceful stream of predictable events but a contested series of contingencies, complex theologies, and variegated worldviews. We must “complicate” talk of culture in the classroom with the same rigor with which we complicate the theological discourses native to our seminaries.
The Problem/Mystery of Preaching: Part 3—Postmodernism, Secularism, and PluralismPosted on February 20, 2014 by David LoseThere are three dominant ways of describing the changes that have shaped and continue to influence our culture and world over the last half century: postmodernism, secularism, and pluralism. My guess is that we all have at least a passing familiarity with these terms and wouldn’t dispute that they are central elements of our current culture and world. But getting a handle on the challenges they present is another matter altogether. It’s one thing to say we live in a postmodern world, but it’s another to allow that knowledge to shape our preaching so as to respond to that world.