News
Fagerstrom Releases 14th Book
Oct 23, 2009
Dr. Douglas Fagerstrom, president of Grand Rapids Theological Seminary (GRTS), recently released The …
Cultural Intelligence
Sep 19, 2009
Leading with Cultural Intelligence by Dr. David Livermore NOW AVAILABLE! How do you lead with cultural …
Philosophy of Education
The philosophy of theological education, out of which the curriculum is developed, views theology as a set of overlapping disciplines. In order to develop persons for ministry, there is a need to develop their knowledge as well as their skills. While teaching students preformed theological judgments, their skill in making such judgments must be developed as well.
All students must develop the knowledge and skill to be able to make judgments about the meaning of the text of Scripture (exegetical theology). Students must be able to put their interpretation of Scripture into the progressive flow of biblical revelation in order to see its canonical relationships (biblical theology). The church has had both Scripture and gifted persons for many years. It is important that students learn how the church has used Scripture to form its creeds, to defend itself against attack and to minister to each successive generation (historical theology).
Ministry demands the ability to relate all the teaching of the Bible on a topic into a consistent whole. The topical arrangement into a coherent relationship brings wholeness in understanding the Bible (systematic theology). The natural corollary of this is the ability to defend the faith (apologetics) and the ability to use the faith for moral judgments in culture (moral theology).
The capstone and one of the integrating features of theological education is ministry theology. All theology has as its goal the enactment of authentic ministry that is culturally appropriate. Theology, in all of its components, is a faith task of the church for ministry. Ministry can be enacted from multiple contexts, such as missions, education and evangelism.
This philosophy of theological education is expressed in the curriculum design of each degree program. What is covered in each class and how each class is sequenced is the product of implementing this philosophy into the curriculum.
