Concept Paper for the Exploration of Structural Re-Engineering of SEAGST for the New Era of Theological Education in Asia

Prepared by Dr. Limuel Equina and Dr. Huang Po Ho

Preface

Theological education is a part of the life and mission of churches in their particular situations. It derives from God’s creative and redemptive works revealed in human history and seeks to understand the significances of the Gospel in today’s world. Theological education equips people, men and women, to participate in the churches’ mission of witness and service to people in the different contexts of the world. In other words, “theological education is an intensive and structured preparation of men and women of the church for participation in the ministry of Christ in the world.”

Theological education can be seen in both broad and narrow senses. In a broad sense, theological education is not limited to professionals and specialized institutions. It involves the total Christian community reflecting on its life together in worship and fellowship, on its missionary commitment in the world, and on those aspects of its Biblical and confessional heritage and tradition that guide it in action. This inextricable mixture of reflection and involvement is hinted at by the phrase “doing theology”. In this broad sense, theological education is central to the life of the whole Christian community. In a narrow sense, theological education is concerned with the preparation and continued training of the professional leadership of the churches. Most of churches have established structures to enable this more formal education process to take place. With the rising of lay movements and the popularity of lay training extension programs implemented by many theological schools, no matter what the cause or the result, the concept of theological education, even that which is done inside of theological institutes, has been shifted or has widened its operation from what was previously confined to professional or clerical training to the task of equipping the whole people of God.

No matter how we define theological education, it is not an end in itself. It is linked to the life and mission of the churches. Thus, it is necessary to maintain a healthy tension between theological education and the total life of the churches. A Report from a Theological Education Task Force of the WCC noted that “theological education must have sufficient autonomy to perform its prophetic task and at the same time a sufficiently close relationship with these same churches so that it does not lose its ability to communicate with and serve these churches as they move in mission.”

The Challenges Facing the Theological Education in Asia

The rapid increase of member schools of ATESEA in the last fifty years indicates the growth in number of the theological schools in the region. The quality of theological education in this region has also been upgraded. The South East Asia Graduate School of Theology (SEAGST) was opened 40 years ago (1966) in cooperation with and on behalf of member schools of ATESEA to conduct programs of advanced theological studies at the masters and doctoral levels. It grants the degrees of Master of Theology (M.Theol) and Doctor of Theology (D.Theol). This theological union model of an advanced theological institute was established to develop theological workers and faculties in higher degrees because at the time most of theological schools in the region were not yet ready to implement higher degree programs independently.
It is however, 40 years later today, with the great improvement of general (secular) education in most societies in Asia, theological education is not excluded from this trend of progress. Some member schools of ATESEA have begun to confer their own M. Theol. degree, and some are even tempted to offer D. theol degree program. These phenomena indicate in one side the progress and improvement in the quality of theological education in the region, and in the another side, the dissatisfaction of the current union model of advance theological education implemented by SEAGST.
Another Concern is the public credibility of theological education and theological degrees in the secular societies of Asia. Theological education was the pioneer of western style education in many countries of Asia. However, it is unfortunate to note that theological education has been gradually marginalized in Asian societies. This is because of the popularity of the graduate programs offered by the government and the influence of secular ideologies and academic orientation of the concept of education.
Thus, most theological schools and their degrees are not recognized by local governments in Asia. In recent years, some countries have started to take into consideration of including theological (religious) education under their governmental education system, which of course requires a surrender of some parts of its autonomy and distinct[ion] character of theological education, such as the stress of spiritual dimensions. The new trend of educational development demands a thoughtful reflection and responses from the theological educators in the region.

Threats and Opportunities of SEAGST in Its New Phase

With the rapid transformation of Asian societies, the church’s role and mission in the society are severely challenged. The decline of Christian witness in the contemporary Asian world can be seen through the laments of many ecumenical organizations in the region regarding the loss of a dynamic and prophetic message and the shortage of insightful leadership that the churches provide to societies. All these have to do with theological nurture and leadership development.
As mentioned in its purpose, when SEAGST was founded 40 years ago, it was meant to carry two important missions of theological education for the region, namely, to stress on the development of Contextual theologies in Asia, and to integrate the then still young and limited experiences and resources of theological education in the region, thus SEAGST, a consortium model of theological education was established. However, with the changing circumstances, we are challenged to reshape our way of doing theological education, with an understanding that a phase of mission has been fulfilled and new demands are given.

The following issues are decisive to the future development of theological education in Asia and the structural re-engineering of SEAGST:
1. Faculty development is a key issue for reshaping theological education (or any kind of education), particularly to the SEAGST restructuring. We owe a great deal to our predecessors for their wisdom in establishing SEAGST when theological education in this part of the world needed strengthening in many aspects. SEAGST has functioned to provide faculties to member schools of ATESEA and to consolidate contextual theological education and movements in the region. However, this important research and faculty development mechanism of ATESEA also faces a crisis of losing its integrity and particular theological character that was a founding tenet of SEAGST. Our recent effort to organize a regional faculty team from both within and beyond the region is an attempt to strengthen this capacity.

2. Quality control: the privilege of the area setup for SEAGST degree program is that it encourages theological studies carried out in one’s own language. This actualizes the contextual orientation in diverse Asian contexts. However, when the regional senate constituted by the area deans of different areas are not able to assess the outputs and outcomes of its students, quality control has largely fell into dependence on area determination. The operation has against the original setup of the academic quality control mechanism.

3. The problem of survival: More important is the problem of historical status and mission of the organization. As mentioned above, when SEAGST was founded, most theological schools in this region were not yet ready to offer advanced degree programs. The area-union arrangement of a theological institute like SEAGST was necessary and desirable. But the findings of recent accreditation visits indicate that many of the ATESEA member schools appear now to be desirous (regardless of their ability and readiness) to start their own advanced degree programs. Some participating schools of SEAGST now offer their own degrees which are parallel with those granted by SEAGST. This phenomenon has not only caused a waster of resources and called into a question of their participation in SEAGST programs. This in return also means a question to the existence of SEAGST.

ATESEA/SEAGST must develop a plan and strategy to help each area of SEAGST and member school of ATESEA to upgrade capacities and abilities to gradually manage their own advanced degrees. Meanwhile, SEAGST should concentrate its energies and resources on the D. theol. program. When the time comes that many ATESEA member schools are able to offer their own D. theol. programs, an independent SEAGST center may be needed. Eventually SEAGST will become a distinguished and experimental theological school for advanced study of Asian theologies. Therefore in view of the above considerations, there is an urgent need for structural transformation and re-engineering of SEAGST in order to prepare the future of theological education in Asia. The sooner this is done, the better it would be for theological education.

A Consultation on the SEAGST Future Development

Considering the challenges facing the institution and also the mission of theological education to be carried out in the new era for the region, the Excom of ATESEA which is acting as board of SEAGST has resolved in its recent Singapore meeting, to launch a series of research to explore the possible development of SEAGST in order to meet the demands and to respond to the challenges of the present. As such an international consultation on the SEAGST is proposed.

In this consultation, inputs from our traditional ecumenical partners and resource persons who are distinguished in theological education from the different continents will be considered, if not incorporated in the total planning process.

It is proposed that the consultation be held on July 26-29, 2008 in Sabah. Below is the tentative program and schedule of the proposed consultation

Consultation on the SEAGST
July 26-29, 2008

Proposal

This is a proposal to hold a three-day consultation on the future shape of the SEAGST that serves as the flagship of the Association for Theological Education in South East Asia (ATESEA) in the latter’s vision of a theological education that is contextually and theologically meaningful in Asia and earns global respect.

The Reasons for the Consultation

The purpose of the consultation is two-fold: first, to re-examine the role of the SEAGST in the promotion of theological education in Asia, and second, to look into the possibility of setting up a campus for SEAGST which serves as the center for research and studies.

Theological education in Asia is challenged by the issue of contextualization. This challenge has been addressed seriously by SEAGST when it revised its curriculum for M.Theol and D.Theol programs thus creating a theological education that is fundamentally Asian. Moreover, a more concrete approach to contextualization is the adoption of the Guidelines for Doing Theologies in Asia (GDTA) which was recently approved during the ATESEA Golden Jubilee Celebration last November 27, 2007 in Singapore. The GDTA provides the context from where one can proceed in the construction of a framework for doing Asian theologies.

With this, it is important to review the role of SEAGST in the promotion of Asian theology that will earn international recognition.

Second, there is a challenge of looking for a special campus for SEAGST. If the SEAGST were to gain an international status for quality education, it should consider the possibility of establishing its own campus. The campus will not necessarily become the administrative office of the SEAGST. Primarily it will serve as the campus for research and seminars for all SEAGST students and other SEAGST related programs.

Participants

The consultation will include the participants from the following institutions: the senate members of SEAGST, and representatives from the Foundation for Theological Education in South East Asia, the Ecumenical Theological Education/WCC, the Evangelical Mission Work (EMW), the Satri, BTESCC India, the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (UBCHEA) and resource persons invited by the planning committee from different continents. The total numbers of participants are expected to be around 20-25.

Prepared: Jan. 1, 2008