Ecclesial Theology Posts
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November 30, 2009
Taxonomy of the Pastor-Theologian, Part 5: The Pastor-Theologian as Ecclesial Theologian
Having discussed the reigning models of the pastor-theologian (local, popular, academic), the SAET’s vision for the pastor-theologian begins to emerge—the pastor-theologian as ecclesial theologian.
The pastor-as-ecclesial-theologian marks a new path. The ecclesial theologian is as church centered as the local and popular theologian models, and is as intellectually rigorous as the academic theologian model. The ecclesial theologian is a pastor who writes robust, biblical, ecclesially centered, theological reflection …
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November 27, 2009
Taxonomy of the Pastor-Theologian, Part 3: The Pastor-Theologian as Popular Theologian
Moving beyond the local theologian model, we arrive at a more objective definition of the pastor-theologian—the pastor-theologian as popular theologian. In this model, the pastor-theologian is a pastor who actually writes theology—an objective function not typical of most pastors. Bridging the gap between the professional theological community and the local church, the popular theologian translates academic theology “down” to other pastors and the laity. Many pastor-theologians of this variety have post-graduate degrees, read widely in theology, and serve as significant (and necessary) voices in contemporary evangelicalism.
The writing ministries …
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November 22, 2009
Taxonomy of the Pastor-Theologian: Part 1
I’ve been reading The Power to Comprehend with All the Saints: The Formation and Practice of the Pastor-Theologian. The book is a collection of essays written by the group of pastors who were part of the (now disbanded) Pastor-Theologian Program of the Center For Theological Inquiry. The CTI’s Pastor-Theologian program was, in many respects, a mainline version of the SAET. The book has a number of robust essays that, …
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November 9, 2009
Doug Sweeny On the Professor as Researcher and the Pastor as Theologian
At the close of the ‘09 SAET Symposium, our Senior Theological Consultant, Doug Sweeney, offered the following proposal regarding the future relationship between academic scholars and pastor-theologians:
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“We will not always need academic, systematic theologians to do all the heavy theological lifting for God’s people. We are not often explicit about this, but systematic theology, insofar as it is distinguished from biblical, historical, philosophical, psychological, and intercultural theology, is the work … -
October 18, 2009
Vanhoozer’s Ten Theses and the Pastor-Theologian as Evangelicalism’s Default Public Intellectual
Michael Bird posted these ten theses from Kevin Vanhoozer’s paper entitled “Interpreting Scripture between the Rock of Biblical Studies and the Hard Place of Systematic Theology: The State of the Evangelical (Dis)union,” delivered at Gordon-Conwell for the Renewing the Evangelical Mission conference. These have been floating around the blogosphere, but they’re worth posting again here, particularly the closing observation he makes regarding pastor-theologians.
1. The nature and function of the Bible are insufficiently grasped unless and until we see the Bible as an element in the economy of triune discourse.2. …
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October 4, 2009
Who Cares What Calvin Thought? (The Church, That’s Who)
Despite their comments earlier in the book, Bradley and Muller acknowledge the difficulty of achieving total objectivity in historical studies, and indeed, affirm the importance of having a sense of involvement in and with the events of history. “Objectivity in historical studies does not, and cannot, exist if it is defined as an absence of involvement with or opinion about the materials.”
This is more reasonable, even if out of step with their earlier comments. But what the right hand gives, the left hand takes away. Bradley and Muller go …
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August 21, 2009
Piper and Wright as Ecclesial Theologians
I read John Piper’s book, The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright a number of months back, and am now finally reading Tom Wright’s book length response, Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision.
There’s a lot that could be said here (and I may say some of it later), but I’ll say this much now: both Wright and Piper have produced fine examples of ecclesial theology. I don’t agree fully with either theologian’s treatment of Paul, but it’s clear that both men are writing as …
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August 14, 2009
Reformation 21 Article
The kind folks over at Reformation 21 have posted my article, “Ecclesial Theology and Academic Theology: Why We Need More of the Former.”
The article briefly recounts the founding of the SAET, and is my latest attempt to flesh out a distinction between academic theology and ecclesial theology. If you read it and have thoughts, I’m interested to hear them.
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May 25, 2009
Writing vs. Reading: A Few Thoughts on the Piper/Carson Lectures
I’ve finally had a chance to listen to the Piper-Carson event hosted by the Henry Center. In as much as the title of the event—The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor—intersects with the mission emphasis of the SAET, I was particularly interested to hear what the good doctors had to say.
I won’t summarize the content of the lectures beyond stating that Piper’s talk was primarily directed toward pastors, and Carson’s talk was …
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March 14, 2009
McGrath on Pastoral Ministry and Theology
Alister McGrath on the historic connection between theology and pastoral ministry, from his book Historical Theology:
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly that Christianity does not occupy its present position as a global faith on account of university faculties of theology or departments of religion. There is a strongly pastoral dimension to Christianity, which is generally inadequately reflected in the academic discussion of theology. . . This academic bias is, however, a recent development. Puritanism …
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Welcome
Welcome to saet-online.org, the online home of The Society for the Advancement of Ecclesial Theology (SAET). The SAET is an organization dedicated to assisting pastor-theologians in producing biblical and theological scholarship for the renewal of orthodox theology, for the renewal of the church.
Operating within the historic evangelical tradition, the SAET believes the contemporary bifurcation between the pastoral calling and theological formation has resulted in the loss of a distinctly ecclesial voice in orthodox theology. The SAET seeks to resurrect this voice...(continue reading)SAET Bloggers
Recent Posts
- David Rudolph on “Paul’s Rule in All the Churches”
- Stephen Witmer on Sin
- Eternity Bible College Now Offering Online Classes
- Ecclesial Theology and SBL
- Pastor-Theologians and Academic Theologians: Toward a Healthy Division of Labor, Part 3
- Ecclesial Theology as the Foundation of Popular Theology
- Spring Gathering of the Second Fellowship
- Piper on PhD’s
- Matt Kim, New SAET Fellow
- Dr. Jeff Hubing, New SAET Fellow
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