Being There: Culture and Formation in Two Theological Schools

by Jackson W. Carroll

This book offers a close-up look at theological education in the U.S. today. The authors' goal is to understand the way in which institutional culture affects the outcome of the educational process. To that end, they undertake ethnographic studies of two seminaries-one evangelical and one mainline Protestant. These studies, written in a lively journalistic style, make up the first part of the book and offer fascinating portraits of two very different intellectual, religious, and social worlds.

The authors go on to analyze these disparate environments, and suggest how in each case corporate culture acts as an agent of educational change. They find two major consequences stemming from the culture of each school. First, each culture gives expression to a normative goal that aims at shaping the way students understand themselves and from issues of ministry practice. Second, each provides a "cultural tool kit" of knowledge, practices, and skills that students use to construct strategies of action for the various problems and issues that will confront them as pastors or in other forms of ministry. In the concluding chapters, the authors explore the implications of their findings for theories of institutional culture and professional socialization and for interpreting the state of religion in America. They identify some of the practical dilemmas that theological and other professional schools currently face, and reflect on how their findings might contribute to their solution. This accessible, thought-provoking study will not only illuminate the structure and process by which culture educates and forms, but also provide invaluable insights into important dynamics of American religious life.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195114930
• ISBN13: 9780195114935
• Release Date: October 1997
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

How Theological Schools Actually Work

During the past year, I've had occasion to read several books on theological education. This book is by far the most interesting and suggestive of the lot. Repeated visits by the four co-authors to two campuses and careful observation of how students are shaped by the all the dimensions of campus life (included but most certainly not limited to classes)yields a compelling picture both of what actually happens at a theological school and of the role of such schools in religious communities. For anyone with even a passing interest in theological education.