Far too often, discourse on international theological education concentrates on questions of formal versus non-formal training modalities, viewing contexts mainly through a peaceful lens. And consciously ignoring the lens of Syria, Gaza, Israel, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, etc...
Yet for a growing number of seminaries, armed conflict raging outside lecture hall doors powerfully disrupts this debate… In Ukraine, seminary faculties and students daily confront the groans of Russian bombardment, the cries of terrified refugees, and the heart-shattering grief of civilians forever scarred. Our reality could not diverge more radically from the safe spaces enjoying the luxury of theorizing learning models...
For us, war's devastation sharpens the focus on outworking theology in action to meet desperate human need regardless of educational structures. Indeed, Ukraine's seminaries have largely abandoned ivory towers to directly bind national wounds alongside churches and aid agencies through theology-fueled frontline relief. Our calling is incarnating Christ amid brokenness, not earning certificates. We do certificates but as the second step…
So, while mode matters, contextual content, and competencies matter far more when ministry means survival. As Russian violence spills blood from Ukraine to Syria, and other forces spill blood from South Sudan to Myanmar and beyond Gaza, this disconnect between international theological education (that is rooted in a comfortable, peaceful life) dialogue and the priorities of seminaries ravaged by the war and armed conflicts can no longer stand.
A far fuller vision must emerge that integrates our witness and expertise, not just yours… with all respect... Our faculty and graduates serve courageously on the cutting edge of the armed conflicts and wars where parchment degrees fade behind character, wisdom, and skill to provide urgent spiritual care.
What curriculum can compare to comforting bombed and bereaved children? What methodology outweighs disciplining chaplains to retrieve mangled bodies or counseling victims of mass rape? What learning outcomes could be more timely than equipping refugee ministers to lead fellow displaced people to lasting hope? In the tears of anguish streaming from the eyes of the crushed, cognitive constructs of the comfortably safe seem hollow.
The season has come for the international community of theological educators to focus substantially less on formalities and more on the blood-stained contexts our colleagues endure. The war-afflicted worldwide need the former's collaboration in addressing acute challenges from pastoral PTSD to bereavement trauma to nurturing theology students losing concentration amid air raid sirens.
A peace-time paradigm alone no longer suffices. The world will be more and more engaged in armed conflicts… But my impression is that the majority of the theological educational community prefers to ignore realities: Ukraine, Georgia, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Gaza, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and some other countries torn by the armed conflicts…
May inspired theologians everywhere unite in constructive dialogue to refresh and reform international standards to ensure that seminaries embroiled in conflict equally inform major conferences and journal articles. For the armed conflicts continue spreading, and in their fires formal givens burn away, leaving chiefly the raw, redeeming reality of bearing each other's burdens.
Theological education must be recalibrated to serve a world cleaved by catastrophes that drown out all but the cries of human agony in the desperate need of the Good News and those who are capable of delivering that Good News in radically various aspects of our lives….
In the worst darkness, suffering seminaries shine light through steadfastly embodying the words of life our societies desperately require. The time has come to amplify our critical perspective… to include it in the discussion of formal\non-formal… Those laboring to sustain Christ's loved ones in the mouth of pain daily demonstrate that formally trained or not, nothing supersedes resolutely standing in the gap with divine presence and compassion...
As war's global wildfires rage, impact and intimacy eclipse arguments on educational templates. In saving and shepherding lives, Ukraine's seminaries reveal that above all, crisis contextualizes theological education's core by confronting teachers and learners alike with revealing opportunity to live the Gospel they profess. For within calamity's purifying flames, only the real endures…
And forgive me, friends, for sharing with you this pain of my heart about theological education… I do not know the right way to start a dialogue… what is the right way, by the way?
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