FROM THE DEAN Why Study? William Cahoy, Dean
But obtaining the credential is not the most important reason for study. Most of our students have more internal motivations. Whatever the market may be saying, they know, often from experience, that they will be more effective in their ministry, be able to serve the people of God better, and follow their vocation more fully with a strong theological education. Many are also driven by a deep and powerful desire to understand the faith they profess: the ways of God in the world, in their own lives and the lives of others. These are inspiring individuals of strong faith willing to sacrifice and do the hard work of graduate theological study – those late nights of reading and writing – to prepare themselves to serve the people of God.
The end of the academic year is a particularly intense time of study as students spend long hours preparing for final exams and presentations, writing papers, completing portfolios and more. Some students are doing this full time for three or four courses. Others are wedging study for one or two courses into fulltime job and family obligations. In the midst of all this stress, hard work, and too little sleep, it’s natural to wonder why. Why study? Especially when we hear stories of parishes moving from graduate-educated, professional lay ecclesial ministers to volunteers. The volunteers surely have strong faith, good hearts, and a desire to serve, but they have no formal theological education. If that is enough to minister effectively and pass on the faith to the next generation, why study?
However, the question of why study theology goes beyond individual students to the church as a whole. How do we value serious, sustained theological study for our pastoral leaders? We recognize its importance for the work of priests and so we require it for ordination and pay for their education. When it comes to lay people or ordained deacons stepping up to do the work formerly done by priests or religious, the message is less clear. It is almost as if the life of faith is the one area where knowledge and expertise don’t matter.
The answer to that question is as varied as our students. Most immediately, we study to get a good grade and make progress toward a degree, which can make a job or ordination possible. And, we are proud to say, in the two years we have formally kept track of this for the Department of Education, all of our graduates seeking work either got a job or went on for further study. A Saint John’s degree makes a difference.
This is a dangerous message. The challenges to the Christian life in our secular, religiously diverse age, awash in fundamentalisms of all sorts, are enormous and growing in complexity. We need pastoral leaders who can help us deal faithfully and responsibly with this complexity. In a world where even a past governor in this state can say that religion is for the weak-minded, we should not provide further evidence for such an indictment. We need pastors, lay ecclesial ministers, and teachers who are well-educated, unafraid to listen to the world and the signs of our times, and able to respond thoughtfully and with integrity. Educated leadership strengthens the community. We are faced with foundational critiques from a pervasive secularism and an invigorated atheism claiming the mantle of reason and science. Along with this is the increasing complexity of the issues we face as people of faith: beginning and end of life, sexual orientation, inter-faith marriages, care for the environment, worker justice in a global marketplace, and on and on. To address all this responsibly we need more than platitudes. We need pastoral ministers in our parishes, hospitals, schools and elsewhere who are prepared to help us think through such complex issues faithfully, thoughtfully, and with integrity because they can draw on the deepest truths of the Gospel and the church’s long tradition of giving life to the Gospel in the time and place we are actually living. This requires a nuanced understanding of both the world and the Gospel. This is why we study. This is the mission of the School. It is the work of our students. It is manifest in the graduates we are sending into the world and the work we report here. 10