Today's student for the priesthood is more than a little wary of his theological mentors. If I read him correctly he feels that his theological formation is not meeting his own needs; nor is it preparing him to meet the needs of his contemporaries. The objections are valid enough to warrant some exploration, if only because they are troubling the whole theological world and not The classical theological simply one faculty or another. The student complaint is models of Christianity that he is packed aboard an seem alien and remote academic express scheduled for all the proper historical to today' s student of stops, then dropped off in the theology. middle of nowhere. He is impatient of history, of theological thought that was addressed to people of another GEORGEJ.DYER time, another place. The world about him clamors for his involvement and his theology seems deaf to the clamor. And so he hurries from the classroom to the "real world" of the apostolate. Finally, his theological notebooks closed, he faces moments of anxiety, self-doubt, loneliness. Theology becomes an insulated chamber in his life to which he repairs at scheduled moments of his day, searching with a melancholy perseverance for "answers." If this description of the contemporary theological student
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