While many mainline denominations have lost membership, "enrollment in Protestant seminaries keeps growing, and a lot of it is due to the presence of women," said Chopp. While the entrance of older, so-called "second-career" students kept seminary enrollments high throughout the 1970s and 1980s, she added, the average age of seminarians is dropping again, and many of those younger students are women.
"Women are leading the way in theological education because they see it as more than a professional school or credential," said Chopp. Her insights are the result of a recently completed book titled Saving Work: Feminist Practices of Theological Education, which explores women's impact on seminaries and the church.
While men traditionally have enrolled in seminaries to pursue careers as pastors, women "come to theological education out of deep changes in their lives and cultures," Chopp explained. Although many women students intend to become pastors, others pursue careers both in and out of the church. "Women seeking theological education come for the space and time it gives them, and to gain valuable resources for living their lives," she said.
Chopp also credited women's presence with several recent changes in seminary education. She said that women are a major influence on:
* Seminaries' increasing emphasis on spirituality and spiritual formation. "Women assume, expect and demand that theological education be related to their own spirituality," said Chopp.
* The growing interest in community building. "Women see the community of the spirit as having priority," she said. Women tend to recognize that even proclaiming the gospel, the number one priority of most Christian faiths, depends on the existence of a loving, supportive Christian community.
* A renewed interest in human relationship to God. "In the writings of Aquinas, Bonaventure and Calvin, all we used to see was the emphasis on God's transcendence, but women scholars are bringing to the forefront the way these theologians wrote about God's relatedness," said Chopp. "There's a vitality to this work, a kind of living witness aspect of it that's exciting to see."
* The growth of non-ministry graduate degree programs. "Enrollment in M.T.S. programs (Master of Theological Studies) is increasing around the country," said Chopp. "There is a trend toward embracing the `learned Christian' model, which really has been led by women."
Chopp said that understanding the way women live their lives and relate to the world is essential in understanding how institutions will function in the future. "Women bring what they know to a situation, and it becomes transformed," she said. "The transformation is already occurring in many mainline denominations in which women are taking an active role."
"Downsizing is happening to every major institution, so of course it is happening in mainline denominations that have built large national and international organizations," said Chopp. "In this climate, the important questions are what are the alternatives in terms of vision, substance and approach. Some of the most exciting alternatives are being explored by women."
On a spiritual level, said Chopp, women have influenced the church to talk about God in more present and related terms. They have helped reshape the church's image as "a community of local belonging, of friends. People need to have a community to belong to, especially in an era of massive transience and constant flux of broad, extended networks."
Women also are very attentive to issues related to people's physical needs, said Chopp, which covers a whole range of concerns from health care to violence in society. "Traditionally it has been the women who have cared for people's bodies; as they have moved into the professions, they bring that care and concern with them."
For those who view with alarm women's increasing role and influence in the church, Chopp cited parallels with the women's suffrage movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries. "The first tactic was to talk about issues of justice and rights," she said. "What won the day, however, was that people became convinced that women could bring their kind of moral care and concern to the public order."
-- Elaine Justice
Editor's note:
The Great Teacher Lecture Series will feature Rebecca Chopp on "Creating Communities of Compassion" at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 28, in Cannon Chapel.