Perspectivas

Methodists, Viera adopts and promotes a few aims to guide the renewal of theological education today. These are: develop a dynamic spiritual life; engage in mission work that fosters diversity and adapts the Christian message to honor diverse peoples and cultures; work with a transformative agenda for social justice in solidarity with poor and marginalized people; and form well educated religious leaders capable of thinking critically and creatively to address the issues and signs of the times. The fate of Christianity and theological education depends on presenting “a compelling vision of abundant life, of compassionate life to a violent and fragmented world.”

systems, and relationships that “dress up people with identities” that produce death and oppressions in today’s world. With Evangelical and metaphorical language, she calls to “take off” the “clothes or identities of social systems that dress us with clothes-identities that are contrary to God’s ways, and to let God “to dress us up with Jesus Christ,” as Godself did in the incarnation. Theological education, at its best, challenges the dehumanizing clothes-identities of social systems and helps us to wear Christ or priestly clothes congruent with God’s reign and its “integral freedom – emotional, physical, social, economic, political, and religious.”

context of the Pacific School of Religion to invest in those whose very marginality has sharpened their ability to innovate. Making the case that there is an extensive need for spiritually rooted leadership in the world, he reframes the financial and enrollment challenges of schools as being less about resources and more about access. He weaves voices from Scripture, history, academy, and culture to ask “Amid all the uncertainty God will continue to raise leaders that can bring about God’s dream and vision for the world. What role will we play? Where will we invest?”

pastoral, and human formation, and as a holy place, where the world meets to encounter and extend the reign of God.” The embodiment of this dream will require several efforts: first, the reaffirmation of its “SCJ charism and Dehonian spirituality” in its life and purpose”; second, the clarity to name the expected core ways of being and working of those graduates connected to the spiritual, intellectual, pastoral, and human formation aims; third, administrative practices that are collaborative and based on the principle of subsidiarity; fourth, the creation of new administrative structures and educational programs.

anchored its hope in future possibilities.” He calls on the community to rise to the challenges and seize the opportunities of this moment. He highlights the intentional connection between theory and practice that marks the school’s curriculum, which gives rise to the core leadership skills which “theological education contributes to our civic lives equipping religious communities, lay members, and religious leaders with a moral vision necessary to justice-making work in the world and lives of service in the public sphere.”

exploring the rich use of the phrase “let it be” or “let it be done”—Fiat in Latin—in the New Testament. The gathered community, and through them the broader church, are challenged to be willing, like Mary, to bear Christ to the world, to mirror Jesus’ willingness to embrace the grief of the world, and to pray each day as Jesus taught us, “thy will be done.” Acknowledging the particularly challenging moment marked by pandemic and crisis, a faithful vision emerges “not because we’re so impressive in our faithfulness but because we know God will always be faithful to us.”

institutional and financial crisis during the COVID era. The author reaffirms the history, role, and mission of the seminary as a school for and of the church for the formation of ministers and ministry committed to the liberating power of the Gospel, and as a forum for open dialogue and research. He calls for unity between the Seminary and the Church, and as well as between Christians of different orientations. He discusses the renewal of academic programs, educational technology, and the aspiration for a research center. Finally, the author expresses humbly his collaborative leadership style and requests support in fulfilling a call to become a president-pastor for the Seminary.

to Pentecost. Ultimately, the author longs “for our academic and vocational formation to be known for cultivating a Pentecost vision of God, the church, and the world.” Can there be a new Pentecost at Duke Divinity School?  It is possible if all in the school commit to affirming the Spirit’s winds for a) affirming the goodness of human diversities, b) connecting learning and scholarship to the lives and struggles of people in the many peripheries and margins in the world, and c) raising our students high as the “sails” where the Spirit blows during this age of COVID pandemic.

their “scribal” task of balancing the new and the old. He states that “the great temptation of theological education is to focus on one or the other: the old at the cost of the new, or the new at the cost of the old.” Challenging the community to move beyond the binary of nostalgia and novelty, he articulates the work of theological educators at a time of great disruption as being scribes of the kingdom who take the conjunction “and” seriously drawing on the wisdom of tradition and embracing the possibilities of change.

characterized the seminary since its foundations, that is, its vocation to be and to serve at the margins. It is a vision and practice of ministry and theological education grounded in Jesus’ liberating and affirming ministry to marginal and poor people. “My unrelenting hope and vision for Garrett-Evangelical is that… we are a community unapologetically claimed and identified by the Spirit of Jesus… we will equip leaders to grow and thrive in spreading hope at the margins and wherever distorted versions of humanity and themselves grip people. Garrett is called to be both a mirror so that distortion can be exposed, and also the bearer of the gift of wholeness and flourishing that Jesus promised.”

this wonderful, great university called Cornerstone University, is to have a Cornerstone graduate in every household of America.” He delineates a vision and the qualities needed to achieve this goal and its impact. He calls the university and seminary to show “great moral courage proclaiming and defending… The faith of Jesus and the gospel;” “to be a beautiful community that mirrors the kingdom of God” in accepting diversity in hospitable ways; to be committed to “truth and not ideologies” and to practice holistic spiritual formation.

Martin Heidegger, “We ought to be keenly aware of our (Dasein) “being there” of our place as prophetic voice amid unjust systems of exclusion and oppression.  He uses the term immigrant imagination to exhort the community to ponder what it means to find a place of belonging in our world, especially when at times it is indifferent, self-preoccupied, and unhospitable.  To be aware of this place, Austin Seminary, and to listen to the wisdom of the apostle in Ephesians, who invites us to be rooted and established in love so that we may be empowered to grasp another model of dimensionality, not measured solely in numbers, but on how wide and long and high and deep is the love of the one we seek to emulate in all forms of service. Calling the seminary to teach new generations of Christians and listening to the faith of Millennials, Gen Z’s, Gen Alphas, and those who will follow, in whatever form that faith is emerging should start to inform Austin’s curriculum now. He exhorts the seminary to plant seeds that will sustain people in the continuum of theological learning which begins before seminary education and continues after they leave the classroom. Making Austin a place of cultivation, a widening place seeking out special gifts for service within the church and helping them discern such passions that may signal a vocation for ministry.  

both locally and in communities abroad in new ways.  Making Columbia an institution where all feel welcomed and included, where candid conversations and vigorous debates can be had. Harnessing the power of the institutional human and financial capital in collaboration with civic partners, foundations, government agencies, and corporations to create and learn new knowledge, invest collaboratively, and apply resources to critical needs. It requires an approach that spans multiple disciplines, a mindset that embraces collaboration, and, yes, the funding and philanthropic support necessary to succeed.

decreasing interest in all types of organized religion.  He is mindful that these are real and can’t be ignored, and he calls Drew University to reflect as Easter approaches how millions are still preparing in the season of Lent and how even the so-called Religions Nones are deeply committed to values like tolerance, and engaged in serving communities, work in social, economic, environmental justices to build vital healthy, stable, and caring societies. He points to research that shows that the vast majority of the world’s people will continue to identify with a religion. He then references the late Eduardo Galeano (1940-2015, an author, poet and journalist from Uruguay, and the mural art with the wording, “Somos lo que hacemos para cambiar lo que somos” (We are what we do in order to change what we are) as well as Micah chapter 6, and begs the question, “Now what?”  Will Drew University revisit its mission and vision and be creative and take courageous action to advance justice, peace and love of God, neighbor, and the earth? He responds by saying, “Yes, we can do this because we have this within us collectively.”