How can we prepare future leaders to see justice as essential to discipleship, and discipleship as essential to justice? That will be our focus at Karam Forum this November 18-19. Chris Brooks, Jennifer Powell McNutt, Gavin Ortlund, David French, Michael Wear and more will help us draw on the wells of theological knowledge as we prepare future […]
Surprised by Satisfaction: Faculty Find a Calling in Dual Roles
“I spent twenty-plus years in what I call Teach, Write and Otherwise Leave Me Alone Mode. And it was wonderful, and I would have been perfectly happy to continue in that mode for the duration,” said Scott Rae of the Talbot School of Theology in our April 15 webinar about faculty taking on dual institutional […]
Preparing Students for the Gig Economy
Maybe they will thank me someday. I sound like a mother talking about her children, but I’m a professor talking about my students. Last semester, some of them complained about the unit I assigned them on working in the gig economy. They said it was irrelevant to their ministry. It may have seemed so then, […]
Success Is Creating Value, Not Making Money
The vision of the Economic Wisdom Project is summarized in twelve “elements” that provide starting points for thoughtful, biblically informed understanding of contemporary opportunities and challenges. For a handy guide to the twelve elements, download this one-page summary, taken from our EWP vision paper “A Christian Vision for Flourishing Communities”: Below is an excerpt from the paper “Twelve Elements of Economic […]
Theological Education in Diaspora
Note: Excerpt from Attempt Great Things for God (Eerdmans 2020) as part of the book series Theological Education between the Times. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. Citations have been omitted. Our era is one of rapid and widespread dispersion of people. Numerous people groups are migrating, relocating or being displaced from their countries of […]
Seminary Spotlight: Covenant Theological Seminary
Covenant Seminary helps its students explore their calling in a variety of ways. Skills are important to equipping our students for their callings. But character is more important. For a clear justification of this approach, consider what what happens when character is neglected. At its national convention this year, The Gospel Coalition invited Mike Kruger […]
Join Karam Fellowship Today as We Launch the Second Decade of Our Community
Folks, there are days when the Oikonomia Network has news to share, and then there days when it really has news to share. Today is the latter! First things first: Karam Forum 2021 registration is officially open – register today! Chris Brooks, Jennifer Powell McNutt, David French, Michael Wear and more will lead us in […]
“For Not Only a Surviving Future, But a Flourishing Future”
“We are all undergoing major reengineering and transformation at our institutions, to try to navigate for not only a surviving future, but a flourishing future,” said Barry Corey, president of Biola University, in our March 25 webinar on the future of theological education. Corey, Dean Abson Joseph of Wesley Seminary and Professor Ellen Marmon of […]
A Modest Proposal for Evangelical Theology’s Reckoning with Race
Note: Excerpt from Reckoning with Race and Performing the Good News: In Search of a Better Evangelical Theology (Brill 2020). Reprinted with permission. Citations have been omitted. Evangelical theology has not emerged in a contextual vacuum. As revealed above, a crisis within evangelicalism itself and by implication within evangelical theology stems from the inability or […]
Imagining Christian Teaching
Note: Excerpt from Transforming Fire (Eerdmans 2021) as part of the book series Theological Education between the Times. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. Citations have been omitted. I am hardly the first person to notice tensions between Christian traditions and university classrooms. Two hundred years ago, they were familiar enough to teachers who wanted […]
Work as Creative Service that Earns Success
The vision of the Economic Wisdom Project is summarized in twelve “elements” that provide starting points for thoughtful, biblically informed understanding of contemporary opportunities and challenges. For a handy guide to the twelve elements, download this one-page summary, taken from our EWP vision paper “A Christian Vision for Flourishing Communities”: Below is an excerpt from the paper “Twelve Elements of Economic […]
Seminary Spotlight: Criswell College
The big news at Criswell College this year is twofold, and the two stories combine in our vision of whole-life discipleship. First, the college was blessed to open its first-ever residence hall. And that building serves as a launchpad for our second piece of big news: Criswell 360°, a four-year undergraduate common student experience where […]
Join Karam Forum on Nov. 18-19 – Live in Ft. Worth, or via Zoom
It’s . . . it’s . . . it’s alive! That’s right – Karam Forum returns! We invite you to join the gathering of ON colleagues you know and love when Karam Forum gathers in Ft. Worth this November 18-19. Chris Brooks, Jennifer Powell McNutt, Gavin Ortlund, David French, Michael Wear and more will help […]
“I Have Never Felt More Hopeful about Theological Education”
“I’ve been involved in theological education for forty years,” said Tom Tanner of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) in our February 11 webinar on the future of theological education. “My first ATS meeting was in 1980. And I have never felt more hopeful about theological education.” He shared several surprising facts from ATS data […]
The Next Future of Theological Education
Note: The author was executive director of the Association of Theological Schools from 1998 to 2017. This excerpt is from Beyond Profession (Eerdmans 2021) as part of the book series Theological Education between the Times. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. Citations have been omitted. For a bishop, as God’s steward, must be blameless; he […]