The Seminary to Early Ministry (SEM) Study is a mixed-method, prospective study designed to provide high-quality empirical data on student formation in theological education. The study will use a series of surveys and in-depth interviews to track three cohorts of divinity school students from matriculation into the early years of their careers. As…

Faith-based colleges and universities in America have historically been described as "church-related." Unfortunately, this classification is too one-dimensional, revealing virtually nothing about how faith-based identity influences the mission, rhetoric, curriculum, or policies of institutions. Although scholars have advanced…

Despite the growing awareness of child abuse, little academic research examines religious abuse and trauma during childhood. This paper constructs an interdisciplinary and intersectional heuristic of childhood religious trauma and abuse (RTA) by weaving together psychological and theo-philosophical literature with Rebecca Nye's theory of childhood…

I have the rewarding experience of being an administrator operating out of a denominational leadership role in Christian education. I have served in this role concurrently for over a decade as a full-time professor of Christian education at a seminary. In this autobiographical reflection, I discuss how I define my roles in the church and academy…

How do race and lived experiences of this construct impact student theological understandings? We embarked on a joint pedagogical venture spanning two continents about race and theology with groups of students whose encounters with race and its impacts on theology were markedly different--including students whose lives and education have been…

This paper will examine why professors and religious educators who plan to facilitate discussions on sexual ethics or morality should also be prepared to teach "sex ed" content to their learners, who otherwise may have inconsistent or incomplete knowledge about the biological and emotional realities of sex and sexuality. This piece will…

Interfaith dialogue can encourage learning between members of different religions. Facilitators of interfaith dialogue must support, encourage, and challenge participants to engage with others in dialogue on a difficult and sensitive topic. I present findings from a qualitative case study conducted with an interfaith dialogue group located in the…

This forum essay offers reflections on the theme of the 2021 annual meeting of the Religious Education Association--"Gender, Sexuality, and Wholeness: Religious Education for Confrontation and Healing." Pondering the melancholy of violence inflicted upon racialized, sexualized, and queer bodies in the United States, the author invites…

Holistic sexuality education is needed in churches and seminaries to promote sexual inclusion and flourishing as well as combat sexual violence and trauma. The scholarly and pedagogical resources exist to do this work; we need an ethical commitment to integrate them across the curriculum.

A phenomenological study was conducted to understand how secular, Generation Z, college students have experienced Christian rhetoric. The study's findings revealed Christian rhetorical praxis lacked intellectual vulnerability, empathetic imagination and a willingness to engage in steeped embodied discourse. This article contends these elements are…

Most approaches to vocational exploration present challenges to people who have more than one central cultural identity. In this article, we begin with a framework for understanding hybrid cultural identity focused on the real-life experiences of hybrid people. We then identify three predominant approaches to vocation as well as the challenges…

Service learning and short-term missions represent one of the many habits disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The disruption imposed a break from routine that may also offer opportunities to push back on habits that hinder the flourishing of our students and our host communities. This article critically analyzes the practice of these trips to…

Death always brings questions for the living. How do we teach and learn in a context of death and pandemic? This essay recounts and reflects on experiences of "playing in the face of death" in a graduate-level adult learning community at the onset of COVID-19 in New York City. Play became a healing and holy act of pedagogical love and…

Christian universities are obligated by their mission to confront the climate crisis as the pressing existential issue of our time. In his encyclical Laudato Si', Pope Francis calls for the ecological conversion of the church and all of humanity. Ecological conversion entails an existential shift from a relationship with the earth marked by…

This study compares outcomes relating to religiosity in two different religion courses to identify possible differences in the outcomes received by students who took the course online asynchronously versus face-to-face. We also seek to identify whether students enrolled in the same online religion course report different learning outcomes based on…