The Duke Divinity School Bulletin, Vol. 26 (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from The Duke Divinity School Bulletin, Vol. 26 The topic, Ohjectives of Theological Education and Impediments, poses two questions: First, what are the objectives, and, second, what are the impediments? To the first question many of us presume to have a ready answer. The objectives of theological education, we have supposed, are to provide suitable training for those looking toward a ministry in the Church. Well and good, but, when examined, this answer, which seems clear and cogent, actually contains a nest of further questions. What is suitable training, what do we understand by the word ministry, and what do we mean by the Church? The point is that the meaning of none of these terms is immediately transparent. Their meaning changes through the inevitable alterations of time, practice, perspective, and usage. What the ministry actually is, how it is practiced, what its functions are in 1960, is quite changed from what it was, how it was practiced, what its functions were one hundred, or fifty, or even twenty-five years ago. Evidently, then, the suitable training for this ministry is not identical with what was suitable when both the conception and practice of the ministry were dift erent. Accordingly, in point of fact, the curriculum of theological studies has been greatly altered, especially in the past twenty-five or thirty years. In actual fact, the theological curriculum does plainly refiect changing conceptions of the ministry actually represented in the Church. But the word Church itself does not convey either a clear or a defined meaning that is generally accepted or understood. If this fact escapes us, it is because so much of the time we are content to use words without bothering ourselves about what they do or do not denote to others, and we often presume on a common understanding which does not exist. A great part of the task of education is to clarify the meaning of words. A great part of the task of theological education is to articulate, clarify, and exhibit the various denotations of words and phrases which are current in the ordinary church community, but are really understood by few. One of these words is the word Church. What is the Church? liverybody conjures up some image for the word, thinks he knows, but nol)ody can quite say what the Church is to the satisfaction of the rest. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.