wfn.org | Emory receives $10 million for new doctorate program

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Sept. 24, 2002	 News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.	  10-71B{427}

By Elaine Justice*

ATLANTA (UMNS) - Emory University's Candler School of Theology has received
a $10 million grant to build an internationally recognized, model doctoral
program in practical theology and religious practices. 

The grant from Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. is expected to help
change the course of graduate education in religion and improve the training
of a new generation of ministers and religious leaders. The new doctoral
program represents a major shift in seminary education and addresses the
critical national shortage of faculty to train ministers, according to
United Methodist-related Emory.

"The program is designed to produce very quickly at Emory 40 new Ph.D.s - a
significant community of teacher-practitioners - who intend to teach in the
areas of religious practice or practical theology in theological schools
across the country," said Emory Provost Howard O. Hunter.

Those people will be in high demand because "the current supply of
well-trained scholars in the ministerial or practical fields - persons
equipped to teach and play leadership roles within theological school - is
inadequate," said the Rev. Russell E. Richey, dean of United
Methodist-related Candler School of Theology and grant director. "These
fields of study desperately need the renewal and strengthening that this
project envisions."

During the past year, Candler faculty and administrators have conducted more
than 100 interviews with denominational leaders, pastors, seminary deans and
presidents, as well as faculty in practice-related fields. Their findings
track closely with a recent study by the Auburn Center for the Study of
Theological Education, which found that more than half the faculty members
currently teaching in the practical fields are scheduled to retire by 2006.
The study also found an inadequate supply of people with doctorate degrees
to fill those vacancies.

"Every indication is that the need for such scholars will increase
dramatically in the near future," said Carl Holladay, C.H. Candler Professor
of New Testament and chairman of the grant proposal committee. "Significant
changes in American church life demand a new kind of pastoral leadership.
It's essential that tomorrow's pastors be taught by professors who can equip
them to serve in a perplexing and fast-moving world of many cultures, many
faiths, many competing values and many hungers. Recruiting and training
these professors are urgent concerns in theological education."

Each year for five years, the new doctoral program will admit eight
candidates who intend to teach in the areas of religious practice or
practical theology, such as preaching, pastoral care, worship, religious
education, ministry, administration or evangelism.
 
Emory faculty and administrators credit their success in the field of
religious practice and practical theology to strong ties among the school's
Ph.D. program in the Graduate Division of Religion, the Department of
Religion and Candler.
 
The study of religious practice is a focus of not only much of the religious
scholarship at Emory, but interdisciplinary inquiry as well. A faculty
survey two years ago found that some 300 faculty on campus have a stated
scholarly interest in the study of religion, and only a third of them teach
religion or theology. 

Faith communities also stand to benefit, said Steve Tipton, director of the
Graduate Division of Religion and professor of the sociology of religion.
"More diverse, better-educated communities of faith in our society have
grown hungrier for practical wisdom in shaping their worship and way of
life."
 
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*Justice is associate director of media relations at Emory University in
Atlanta.

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United Methodist News Service
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