Teaching Critical Thinking and Praxis Theology As Critical Inquiry

Teaching Critical Thinking and Praxis Theology as Critical Inquiry .......... ii Theological Paul E. Capetz, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities Reenacting Ancient Pedagogy in the Classroom ................................ iii Marjorie Lehman, Jewish Education Theological Seminary Forming a Critical Imagination .... iv Published by the American Academy of Religion Karen-Marie Yust, Union March 2008 Vol. 2, No. 1 Theological Seminary and www.aarweb.org Presbyterian School of Christian Education Critical Thinking and Prophetic Witness, Historically- Teaching Critical Thinking and Praxis Theologically Based ........................ v Glen H. Stassen, Fuller Lawrence Golemon, The Alban Institute Theological Seminary Editor Social Theory as a Critical Resource ........................................ vi From the Editor’s Desk Paul Lakeland, Fairfield University Ethnography as Critical critical thinking in theological education. framework that he calls “incarnational trini - Theological Resource .................... vi First, critical thinking is done in relation to tarianism.” a horizon of interpretation (religious tradi - Mary McClintock Fulkerson, The next four essays explore how theological tion, sacred canon, or practice –context) that Duke Divinity School studies adapt discipline –based definitions of remains porous, changing, and adaptable. Contextualizing Womanist/ critical thinking. Lakeland explains how Second, critical thinking reframes linear social and critical theory reshape theology as Feminist Critical Thought views of time to bring past, present, and a reflection on faith praxis in a given context. and Praxis ...................................... vii future into new patterns of creativity. Third, Fulkerson discusses how the teaching of Rosetta E. Ross, Spelman College critical skepticism is accompanied by pas - ethnography reorients theological reflection sionate engagement with a tradition. In Critical Perspective in Biblical toward the contextual, local, and practical. other words, critical thinking is an essential Studies .......................................... viii Ross relates how womanist and feminist cri - component of a broader interpretive and Robert Coote, San Francisco tique helps deconstruct, broaden, and rein - ethical agenda in theological education. No Theological Seminary and the terpret existing theological practices and longer the “queen” of the sciences, theology Graduate Theological Union assumptions. And Coote employs communi - Larry Golemon is a Research Associate for has adapted to various roles in the academy: cations theory to describe “biblical criticism” Liturgical Theory as Critical the Alban Institute in Washington, D.C., from that of handmaiden to the transforma - as a public argument about its ambiguities Practice .......................................... ix and serves as coordinator for the Ecumenical tive potential in other disciplines, to that of and provisional meanings. Bruce T. Morrill, Boston College Project at Virginia Theological Seminary. a leader in the formation of personal and The Parish Context: A Critical He is a co-author of the Carnegie professional identity and ethics, to that of a The final four essays explore how critical Foundation’s study Educating Clergy , and siren who lures other discourses toward their thinking issues form and helps fund reli - Horizon for Teaching and is working on a cultural history of clergy inherent crisis, in the hope of metanoia. gious and professional practice. Morrill Learning Ethics .............................. ix education in Catholic, Protestant, and addresses the normative, pastoral, and ethi - Cheryl J. Sanders, Howard Jewish traditions in the United States for In this second issue of Spotlight on cal implications of a performative approach University School of Divinity Oxford University Press. Contact: Theological Education , scholars from a range to teaching liturgical theology. Sanders talks [email protected] . of institutions and traditions share their own Critical Reflection and Praxis in about congregational life as a resource for frameworks and teaching strategies for fos - Developing Ministerial Leaders ...... x ministers to learn ethical reflection and dis - tering critical thinking. The authors repre - Emily Click, Harvard Divinity USED TO TEACH a course in critical cernment. Click discusses how theory and sent Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish tradi - School thinking at Dominican University in practice enter a mutually critical and recon - tions, and they teach in free-standing semi - northern California, where my students structive relationship through effective field New Wine in Old Vessels: I naries, rabbinical schools, university divinity were introduced to the basic tenets of logic education. Finally, Cohen explains how Enabling Students to Enter schools, and undergraduate departments. and rhetoric. I assumed that learning to map sacred texts must be engaged critically an Age-Old Conversation .............. xi Because theology is an advocacy –based, various truth claims, identify false argu - around their original context and their his - Norman J. Cohen, Hebrew Union practice –oriented discipline — much like ments, and marshal persuasive ones would tory of interpretation in order to be “recon - College-Jewish Institute gender or culture studies — and because it apply to any field of study or profession textualized” for one’s spiritual and profes - of Religion is often taught in professional contexts of these students entered. While I continue to sional life. forming religious leaders, we have invited believe that, in time I realized that most these authors to reflect on the use of critical I hope theological educators will find new The AAR Theological Education fields of study follow their own disciplinary thinking and praxis in their own teaching. conversation partners here around the shape Steering Committee (John J. logic of what constitutes “critical thinking.” and importance of critical thinking in their Thatamanil, Chair) sponsors Literary critics in the English department The first four essays explore critical thinking . scholarship of teaching, and I hope others in Spotlight on Theological Education had their own criteria, religious studies pro - as an interpretive practice aimed at recon - It appears in Religious Studies News the academy will come to appreciate the fessors in the humanities had another, and structing existing theological traditions. Each and focuses on issues of concern to diverse and complex role that critical think - practice –oriented fields like nursing still author argues that existing traditions must be theological education. ing takes on in theological studies. another. While many of these definitions analyzed and reconstructed against a horizon Editor converge around developing what Stephen of interpretation that is both vital and inte - Bibliography Lawrence Golemon Brookfield (1987) calls “reflective skepticism” grative. Capetz discusses the importance of The Alban Institute about inherited knowledge, how a discipline subjecting one’s own beliefs to a Socratic Brookfield, S. Developing Critical uses the critical –reflective moment varies examination in relation to the long history of Thinkers: Challenging Adults to Explore Spotlight on Theological Education is published by the widely. Is critique the scalpel for a thorough theological interpretation. Lehman examines Alternative Ways of Thinking and Acting. American Academy of Religion deconstruction of inherited texts? Is it the how Talmudic dialectics generate a dialogical San Francisco: Jossey –Bass, 1987. prerequisite for a fresh reinterpretation and pedagogy around the social construction of 825 Houston Mill Road Foster, Charles, Lisa Dahill, Lawrence engagement with a tradition? Or, is it the knowledge. Yust describes the role of critical Suite 300 Golemon, and Barbara Wang Tolentino. Atlanta, GA 30329 basis of an informed intervention around an thinking in the formation of religious imagi - Educating Clergy: Teaching Practices and Visit www.aarweb.org ethical or practice situation? nation and engagement. And Stassen builds Pastoral Imagination . San Francisco: historical and ethical criteria into a theological In the Carnegie Foundation study Educating Jossey –Bass, 2006. Clergy (2006) , we identified several marks of Religious Studies News Theology as Critical Inquiry Paul E. Capetz, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities point lies in the interpretation of a received than exegesis of texts and the endeavor to explain what Thomas Aquinas says about tradition, not in a purely rational effort to appreciate multiple perspectives. Students grace and merit. He makes many distinc - understand the nature of being. also have to learn how to analyze the tions that can easily baffle the uninitiated. Theologians thus spend a great deal of cogency of theological arguments. Some of When, however, the scholastic form of his their energies in the exegesis of and com - these arguments, of course, are strictly argument is clarified, and students learn mentary upon classical texts, beginning exegetical. If a theologian has defended an how to read an article of the Summa with the Bible and moving from there to argument by appealing to a particular exe - Theologiae , his ideas become really quite the various kinds of literature that consti - gesis of a biblical text, to what extent does simple to comprehend. So a lot of my tute the theological traditions of the this argument stand or fall upon the cor -

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