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 […]
Want Flourishing? Start with Integrity and Trust
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 and Mission for All God’s People
Note: Excerpt from Whole-Life Mission for the Whole Church, ed. Mark Greene and Ian Shaw (Langham Global Library, 2021). Used by permission. Citations have been omitted. This project began in 2012 with a question: If the church inadvertently reflects the sacred-secular divide (SSD) in its practice, do the theological colleges that train the church leaders […]
Seminary Spotlight: Dallas Theological Seminary
About a year ago, the Hendricks Center was going through its normal routine. Little did we know that the word “normal” was about to become abnormal. The year of pandemic brought abrupt change. We could no longer pursue our usual community approach, in which we held personal, interactive meetings and conferences. I’m not telling you […]
Join Tom Tanner on Feb. 11 to Discuss the Future of Theological Education
If you enjoyed the catalytic conversation at Karam Forum 2021, either live or on video, we’ve got another treat for you! The Oikonomia Network will be convening three webinars this spring to keep exploring how we can live into a flourishing future in theological education. Our focus is how theological faculty and schools can pursue […]
Theological Education after Pentecost
Note: Excerpt from Renewing the Church by the Spirit (Eerdmans 2020) as part of the book series Theological Education between the Times. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. Citations have been omitted. This introduction lays out in brief the current global sociohistorical context within which anxiety about theological education is being felt, presents the theological […]
Swords and Ploughshares in a Divided Nation
So sorry, everybody, I didn’t get a chance to look at the news on January 6. I was busy listening to Dallas Willard’s two absolutely magnificent lectures at the first Oikonomia Network faculty retreat in 2013, just before he died, in which he explained why a social order that defines human flourishing as getting what […]