Bringing the Divinity School's curriculum under review for the first time since the mid-1980s, members of the committee conducting the review are aiming to update the curriculum for an increasingly diverse and interconnected global community.
The review began this past fall and is expected to take at least two full academic years before a new curriculum is in place. Divinity School Professor Richard Hays, who chairs the committee, said the group aims to submit a draft to Divinity School faculty next fall that, if approved, would be implemented in fall 2004.
Thus far, discussions have not led to decisions on specific curriculum changes but have focused instead on the direction of the curriculum as a whole, Hays said.
"There's a fairly widespread impression that we don't necessarily need a major revision of the curriculum and that we're doing a pretty good job as it stands," he said. "But it's a curriculum that's been in place for more than 15, maybe 20 years, and we thought it was time to assess what we're doing."
Senior Associate Dean for Academic Programs Willie Jennings, who is also on the seven-member review committee, added that the Divinity School has hired over a third of its faculty in the last six years, noting that schools often review their curricula when there is a significant change in personnel.
Jennings said the group will consider the challenges posed by an increasingly multiracial, multicultural, multiethnic reality as Christianity has globalized from a predominantly Northern European bent to one that has taken on African, Asian and American characteristics as well.
"We'll be doing a comprehensive review for what makes for a learned clergy in the 21st century," Jennings said. "In what ways is the church sensitive to the increasingly global aspect? How deeply ought one to have familiarity with other religious traditions while at the same time mastering one's own?"
The committee is scheduled to discuss various topics, ranging from the the role and effects of field education to the impact of new technologies and the use of doctoral students as teaching assistants in Divinity School courses, Hays said.
Although Hays said the committee is still in a general "fact-finding" mode, a more specific issue that has been brought to the table is that of entering students' differing levels of knowledge of the Bible. The current curriculum requires that students take one-semester introductory courses in the Old and New Testaments, but a number of faculty have raised concerns that one semester is not enough time to provide a firm grounding in the Scripture.
"There was a day when the typical divinity school student was a student who went to church, was active in a church youth group and in the college ministry, and then was just kind of handed off to us," said Divinity School Professor and Dean of the Chapel Will Willimon. "Then it changed so a very typical student was one who had a religious experience - maybe in a campus crusade group in college - but had never been in a church, or whose very little church experience was negative. But they felt that God was calling them to enter a divinity school."
Willimon said this change in the student population presented a challenge in the classroom, which at times led him to wonder if the Divinity School should take more responsibility for basic Christian formation before sending students to more advanced classes. Other faculty who shared Willimon's view have expressed a hope that the Old and New Testament courses will be extended to two semesters, Hays said.
Divinity School faculty members seem to agree that the curriculum is not in need of a major overhaul. Nonetheless, they offered different views of what they deemed the most pressing challenges that modern divinity students will face.
Peter Storey, a Divinity School professor of the practice, said the United States' current "adventures" with foreign countries necessitate a new attitude from the church. "The church will not have much useful to say to this culture unless it recognizes that this is the modern Roman empire, which needs to be held accountable for the way it relates to the rest of the world. The best way of doing that is to see it through the eyes of the rest of the world," he said.
Storey cited this as a reason why the Divinity School must maintain a commitment to teaching students how to engage with those outside the United States, particularly those living in poverty. He also said students must have a solid grounding in historical theology, scripture and the practice of the faith in the local church.
Divinity School Associate Professor Ellen Davis, a member of the review committee, agreed that students must be taught to look beyond their local ministries, although she contextualized her recommendation in what she called the unprecedented, contemporary ecological crisis. Davis also stressed the importance of teaching methods of critical Biblical interpretation and of interdisciplinary study between theology, scripture and history.
Willimon, who was on the review committee that evaluated the curriculum in the mid-1980s, said the review should address the fact that the school has become more denominationally diverse and that the role of the clergy has changed since he started teaching at the University in 1976.
He also noted that today's divinity students will be entering into ecclesiastical systems "in need of repair and change and transformation" and that the Divinity School will have to "prepare people not just to do a job but to better define the job."
Noting the national prominence of the Divinity School, Willimon cautioned that the new curriculum should continue to shy away from the "trendy, short-lived waves that have ravaged other divinity schools," sticking with a method that honors the tradition of the church and focuses on classical, Biblical and theological training.
Hays said he recognized that the committee had a lot to cover in a relatively short time span, but stressed that the process would not be rushed unnecessarily. "If we aren't able to have a proposal ready for the coming fall, we would just have to push the schedule back a year, which would mean implementing in the fall of 2005 instead."
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