As those coming forward for ministerial training change and diversify, is the way we learn theology changing too? ↵
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Integrity
within our training institutions has often been assumed and granted to
white, male, or those from the middle or upper classes. This has come at
the expense of the faith truths, beliefs and perspectives offered by
women, people of colour, indigenous theologies and the working classes,
whose testimonies have often been ignored or marginalised by the
dominant discourses that have been deemed more trustworthy as a
consequence of the way in which imperialism has enabled knowledge and
religion to be constructed and controlled. ↵
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Yet
theological education also has a potential to challenge these norms. It
holds the potential to challenge oppressive cultures, theologies and
pedagogies. ↵
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Relying
on feminist, black, indecent, and postcolonial theologies, Trust in
Theological Education will deconstruct dominant models of theological
education, by incorporating ethnographic research, alongside educational
theory, liberation theology and radical exegesis’. It will demonstrate
theological educations potential to change, and be transformed in order
to enable those who have been excluded and marginalised to become
speaking subjects and agents for systemic change.
Eve Parker is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in
Theological Education at Durham University. She is the lead on Diversity
and Inclusion for Common Awards.