|
Release date: Sept. 17, 2002 Emory Receives $10 Million For New Ph.D. Program
"The program is designed to produce very quickly at Emory 40 new Ph.D.s—a significant community of teacher-practitioners—who intend to teach in the areas of religious practice or practical theology in theological schools across the country," said Emory Provost Howard O. Hunter in announcing the grant. The new Ph.D.s will be in high demand because "the current supply of well-trained scholars in the ministerial or practical fields—persons equipped to teach and play leadership roles within theological schools—is inadequate," says Russell E. Richey, dean of Candler and grant director. "These fields of study desperately need the renewal and strengthening that this project envisions." Richey's assertion is based on both quantitative and qualitative studies. Over the past year, Candler faculty and administrators conducted more than 100 interviews with denominational leaders, pastors, seminary deans and presidents, as well as faculty in practice-related fields. Their findings track closely with a recent study by the Auburn Center for the Study of Theological Education, which found that more than half the faculty currently teaching in the practical fields is scheduled to retire by 2006. The study also found an inadequate supply of qualified Ph.D.s to fill those vacancies. "Every indication is that the need for such scholars will increase dramatically in the near future," says Carl Holladay, C.H. Candler Professor of New Testament and chairman of the grant proposal committee. "Significant changes in American church life demand a new kind of pastoral leadership. It's essential that tomorrow's pastors be taught by professors who can equip them to serve in a perplexing and fast-moving world of many cultures, many faiths, many competing values and many hungers. Recruiting and training these professors are urgent concerns in theological education." The new doctoral program will admit each year for five years eight highly-qualified candidates who intend to teach in the areas of religious practice or practical theology, such as preaching, pastoral care, worship, religious education, ministry, administration or evangelism. The program will aim to recruit "students who have demonstrated capacity as outstanding practitioners themselves and as outstanding teachers of crucial religious practices," says Holladay. According to Richey, Emory is one of very few universities prepared to undertake this kind of initiative. He cites the Auburn study, which found that only five schools in the nation, Emory among them, "have a long-standing broad-based commitment to provide doctoral education in the practical fields." Emory faculty and administrators credit their success in the field of religious practice and practical theology to the strong ties among its top-rated Ph.D. program in the Graduate Division of Religion (GDR), the Department of Religion and Candler. Because of these working relationships, " Emory's approach to these fields is comprehensive and substantive," says Holladay. "Faculties across the board understand how graduate education in practical theology must take place with understandings of larger religious practices." The study of religious practice is a theme of not only much of the religious scholarship at Emory, but interdisciplinary inquiry as well. A faculty survey two years ago found that some 300 faculty on campus have a stated scholarly interest in the study of religion—and only a third of them are religion or theology faculty. Religious practice is part of the research agenda of several interdisciplinary ventures at Emory such as the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion, the Center for Myth and Ritual in American Life, the Halle Institute for Global Learning, and the Law and Religion Program, among others. At Candler, grounding students in religious practice occurs on many fronts. All Candler M.Div. students are required to engage in field-based learning as part of the school's contextual education program. The school's specialty programs such as Black Church Studies, or Women in Theology and Ministry have prominent practice components, as do its research efforts such as the Youth Theological Initiative. Students in the new Ph.D. program, like their counterparts studying for the M.Div., will be required to engage in field-based learning as part of their degree work. The partnership between Candler and the graduate program in religion is only one of several successful graduate and professional programs at Emory, such as the M.D./Ph.D and J.D./Ph.D. programs, says Hunter. Attracting substantial outside funding for such efforts, he says, "is further proof of their value to both academic and professional communities." Faith communities also stand to benefit, says Steve Tipton, director of the GDR and professor of sociology of religion. "More diverse, better-educated communities of faith in our society have grown hungrier for practical wisdom in shaping their worship and way of life," says Tipton. "This is the right moment, and Emory is the ideal place, to form scholars who can not only practice what they preach, but better understand how such practice both embodies tradition and transforms it. We're prepared to make the most of this opportunity." "The quality of theological education for ministry is utterly dependent on the ability of key doctoral programs to train new generations of seminary faculty who can truly prepare seminary students for pastoral excellence," says Craig Dykstra, vice president for religion at the Endowment. "Emory's commitment to developing a new doctoral program in practical theology and religious practices is extremely important for all of theological education and for Christian ministry in the United States." ###
|
|
||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
copyright 2001
For more information contact: