Becoming a Pastor Theologian: New Possibilities for Church Leadership (Center for Pastor Theologians Series)
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
The roles of pastor and theologian have gone their separate ways.
Throughout much of the church's history, these two roles have been deeply intertwined, but in our contemporary setting, a troubling bifurcation between them has developed. The result has been a theologically weakened church and an ecclesially weakened theology.
The Center for Pastor Theologians (CPT) seeks to overcome this divide by assisting pastors in the study and production of biblical and theological scholarship for the theological renewal of the church and the ecclesial renewal of theology.
Based on the first CPT conference in 2015, this volume brings together the reflections of church leaders and academic theologians to consider how pastoral ministry and theological scholarship might be reconnected once again.
The contributors consider several facets of the complex identity of the pastor theologian, including the biblical, public, and political dimensions of this calling. In addition, the essays explore the insights that can be gained from historical examples of pastor theologians—including John Calvin, John Henry Newman and Dietrich Bonhoeffer—as well as the essential role of Scripture within the ministry of the pastor theologian.
This is a Logos Reader Edition. Learn more.
- Addresses the identity crisis that many pastors face in relation to being pastors and theologians
- Seeks to put the calling of the theologian back into the identity of the pastor
- Approaches the theme of the pastor theologian from various angles, and provides historical examples from leading pastor theologians
Part I: The Identities of the Pastor Theologian
- The Pastor Theologian as Biblical Theologian: From the Church for the Church
- The Pastor Theologian as Political Theologian: Ministry Amidst the Earthly City
- The Pastor Theologian as Public Theologian
- The Pastor Theologian as Ecclesial Theologian
- The Pastor Theologian as Cruciform Theologian
Part II: The Pastor theologian in Historical Perspective
- Pastoral and Theological Leadership in Calvin's Geneva
- Thomas Boston as Pastor Theologian
- The Pastor Theologian as Mentor: The Legacy of John Henry Newman
- The Ecclesial Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Part III: The Pastor Theologian and the Bible
- The Pastor Theologian and the Interpretation of Scripture: A Call for Ecclesial Exegesis
- The Pastor Theologian in the Pastoral Epistles
- The Female Ecclesial Theologian
- The Pastor Theologian as Apologist
- The Pastor Theologian as Giver of Wisdom
- John as Pastor Theologian: 2 John as Creative Theological Ecriture
Top Highlights
“Theology is the project of seeking, speaking and showing understanding of what the triune God is doing in and through Jesus Christ for the sake of the whole world, and this is far too important to be left to academics.” (Page 41)
“First, preaching fosters biblical literacy, biblical-theological competency and canon sense.” (Page 47)
“Second, it helps you sift your theological priorities” (Page 73)
“‘Public’ means having to do with people in general or in community. Pastors are public theologians because they work in and for local assemblies of the people of God for the sake of people everywhere.” (Page 41)
“The church is one but exists in three locations: in heaven, triumphant; on earth, militant; in particular earthly places, habitant.” (Page 38)
There was a time when the word pastor meant something. That this term has now become so vacuous is not primarily the fault of the ambient culture but represents instead a crisis of vocation. So here we have, none too soon, a collection of stout essays calling for a new generation of shepherd-teachers—ecclesial theologians who do their work in the best tradition of the Church Fathers and the Reformers, in the light of eternity and pro Christo et ecclesia.
--Timothy George, founding dean, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University, general editor of the Reformation Commentary on Scripture
A clarion call for pastors to embrace their vocational identity as theologians! Pastors will surely benefit from the encouragement and challenge these essays offer, but because the authors celebrate the different callings of other members of the church, all those who come 'from within the liturgical and common life of a local congregation'—be they full-time academics or laypersons in other fields—will (re)discover ways to think about and support theology from the church, for the church.
--Amy Peeler, assistant professor of New Testament, Wheaton College
This passionate set of essays comes at a crucial time for the church. God's people are starving for biblical and theological nourishment. Many pastors long ago abandoned their theological duties, and many theologians work in a way that is lost on the people of God. Who is left to shape Christians with the knowledge of God and his Word? Many thanks to Wilson and Hiestand for this clarion call to pastors to lead their people once again, not so much as CEOs, therapists, or entertainers, but as those who want to help them know the Lord.
--Douglas A. Sweeney, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School