{"id":4583,"date":"2022-02-12T21:19:12","date_gmt":"2022-02-13T04:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/?p=4583"},"modified":"2022-02-12T14:19:26","modified_gmt":"2022-02-12T21:19:26","slug":"are-theological-schools-ethical-communities-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/are-theological-schools-ethical-communities-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Theological Schools Ethical Communities?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are Theological Schools Ethical Communities? <\/span><\/font><\/strong>
\nBy William Brackney,
\nProfessor, Acadia Divinity School, Nova Scotia<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Theological schools, especially  <\/span>Baptist seminaries, should be living ethical communities. Not only  <\/span>should all Baptist seminaries have  <\/span>required courses in Christian ethics,  <\/span>but seminaries should give evidence at  <\/span>every level of practicing ethical behavior. What exactly does it mean to  <\/span>be a practicing ethical community?  <\/span>One can take a cue from the school  <\/span>of character ethics. Certain traits are  <\/span>valued and undergird all decisions and  <\/span>behavior.<\/o_p><\/span><\/p>\n

These include: equality of persons; freedom of conscience; voluntary assent to confessional statements;  <\/span>democratic decision-making; shared  <\/span>governance; healthy collegial interaction; transparency in administration;  <\/span>pastoral concern within the community; protection of human rights; the  <\/span>practice of grace and civility; and an  <\/span>overall allegiance to the lordship of  <\/span>Christ. The Christian ethicist understands that all of these characteristics  <\/span>have their root in Scripture.<\/o_p><\/span><\/p>\n

The ethical dimension asks different questions than the classic disciplines in seminary curricula. Biblical  <\/span>scholars probe with analytical tools  <\/span>the content and meaning of texts;  <\/span>theologians and historians synthesize  <\/span>ideas into propositions and interpretations.  <\/span>Ethics is different even from pastoral care methodologically; these colleagues seek to understand behaviors  <\/span>and prescribe therapies and means  <\/span>of achieving wholeness. In contrast,  <\/span>the Christian ethicist is asking, “As  <\/span>a Christian, informed by Scripture,  <\/span>endowed by the spirit of Christ, how  <\/span>do I conduct myself? What is the right  <\/span>pathway?”<\/o_p><\/span><\/p>\n

If the seminary is a model community in which students observe,  <\/span>critique, and imitate ethical behavior for ministry in the churches, and  <\/span>some degree of social transformation,  <\/span>it is imperative that the theological  <\/span>school be a beacon of ethical praxis. <\/o_p><\/span><\/p>\n

Moral behavior is observed and critiqued constantly in the larger community and is often out of sync with  <\/span>ethical expectations, that is, with  <\/span>well-thought principles or systems of  <\/span>action that portray biblical norms or  <\/span>Christ-like images. Often, Baptists,  <\/span>being a “people of the Book,” fall back  <\/span>into strict rule-ethics and this produces not-so-subtle examples of insensitive ethical coercion.  <\/span>Many Baptist seminaries forego  <\/span>teaching Christian ethics in the basic  <\/span>degree programs, for fear of being  <\/span>accused of taking controversial positions that might be unpopular with  <\/span>the constituency. Or they are unfamiliar with how a Christian ethicist  <\/span>works.<\/o_p><\/span><\/p>\n

This denies the seminary student—and the faculty—the opportunity to practice making decisions or  <\/span>to cultivate an “uneasy conscience,” to  <\/span>use Roger Crook’s phrase. An uneasy  <\/span>conscience is not moral relativism,  <\/span>but a continual revisiting of data and  <\/span>issues to make certain one’s positions  <\/span>are valid. It’s a dynamic process, a  <\/span>continual learning experience. Baptists provide a unique blend  <\/span>of factors in their ethical quest, many  <\/span>assets of which pertain to trust, freedom, partnership, human rights and  <\/span>the lordship of Christ. Ironically,  <\/span>some Baptist theological educators  <\/span>and boards of trustees seem more  <\/span>inclined toward an Episcopal style of  <\/span>administration, a presbyterial form of  <\/span>governance and an exclusively rulebased ethics. If this is the character  <\/span>of the theological seminary, there is  <\/span>little wonder what kind of leadership  <\/span>devolves to the congregations. <\/o_p><\/span><\/p>\n

Rightly understood, Baptistsensitive ethics derives from Scripture,  <\/span>a personal relationship with Christ, a  <\/span>sense of acting within a community  <\/span>(that is, congregation) and within an  <\/span>evangelical tradition. In understanding the application of the teachings  <\/span>of Jesus to ethics, one finds a blend of  <\/span>rules (the Commandments), principles (“Love your neighbor”) and character formation (“Let this mind be in  <\/span>you which was also in Christ Jesus”).<\/o_p><\/span><\/p>\n

Baptists, as believer-priests, must  <\/span>enjoy the liberty of the Spirit’s working in individual lives. This leads  <\/span>inevitably to freedom of conscience,  <\/span>toleration of other’s positions and collegiality in working together. The theological school community, like the monastery of old, can  <\/span>provide a unique laboratory to create  <\/span>a Christian community. In this community those responsible for teaching  <\/span>ethics have an important role to play.  <\/span>He or she continually raises questions  <\/span>and possible alternatives. An ethicist  <\/span>reflects on texts and offers comments  <\/span>from his or her expertise. By the nature  <\/span>of the task, ethicists bring to bear a  <\/span>wide range of evidence and learning to  <\/span>inform teaching and praxis. An ethicist works hand in glove with biblical  <\/span>scholars, theologians and historians.  <\/span>Hopefully, those in other disciplines  <\/span>have a high regard for the integrative  <\/span>discipline of ethics. <\/o_p><\/span><\/p>\n

In an era characterized by an information explosion, new questions, new  <\/span>and daunting technologies, a proliferation of possible moral alternatives and  <\/span>throngs of second-career students with  <\/span>“life experience,” theological educators  <\/span>would do well to reinforce the role of  <\/span>ethics in their learning communities.  <\/span>Baptists in particular. <\/o_p><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published in  <\/span>www.EthicsDaily.com (12\/08\/09) and  <\/span>is reprinted with permission. <\/o_p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are Theological Schools Ethical Communities?  By William Brackney, Professor, Acadia Divinity School, Nova Scotia Theological schools, especially  Baptist ...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10,125],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4583"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6502,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4583\/revisions\/6502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}