You know, Matt, it has been less than 1000 years that "theology" has been primarily the purview of those in universities. It seems to me that it is more than time to return it to where it is most needed -among the church's people, responding to their concerns and questions. Or, at the least, to recognize that many people have been doing lots of theology for a very long time outside academia. Maybe the time has finally come to pay attention to this reality. For example, consider how long female voices have actually been heard within academic theological circles - maybe 60 years? And yet which gender dominates the pews, classrooms, and church offices? Think they haven't been writing and teaching theology all along? They simply have not held positions of authority or power from which to do so, and forget about being published. This point holds true also, I believe, in response to your comments about Hispanic and other minority theologians. Higher education might be radically changing, but that does not mean that our theological work is over - far from it. Perhaps, however, it now has the opportunity to happen from a very different, and far more appropriate location.
I just noticed that in the original version of this, at one point I referred to Clooney and Flanagan's presidential addresses as "essays." That is now fixed in the online version. Unfortunately, I can't go back and fix it in the emails that already went out this morning!
You know, Matt, it has been less than 1000 years that "theology" has been primarily the purview of those in universities. It seems to me that it is more than time to return it to where it is most needed -among the church's people, responding to their concerns and questions. Or, at the least, to recognize that many people have been doing lots of theology for a very long time outside academia. Maybe the time has finally come to pay attention to this reality. For example, consider how long female voices have actually been heard within academic theological circles - maybe 60 years? And yet which gender dominates the pews, classrooms, and church offices? Think they haven't been writing and teaching theology all along? They simply have not held positions of authority or power from which to do so, and forget about being published. This point holds true also, I believe, in response to your comments about Hispanic and other minority theologians. Higher education might be radically changing, but that does not mean that our theological work is over - far from it. Perhaps, however, it now has the opportunity to happen from a very different, and far more appropriate location.
I just noticed that in the original version of this, at one point I referred to Clooney and Flanagan's presidential addresses as "essays." That is now fixed in the online version. Unfortunately, I can't go back and fix it in the emails that already went out this morning!
Thanks for this! Heidi does great work and I hadn’t seen that she took this on after these conferences. Very helpful summary and reflections.