What is Theological Education?
Theological Education is defined easily enough. It is the space where a student learns more about God. But there are several different ways to consider this easily defined pursuit. What theology is under investigation? What kind of education is employed? These considerations lead to a final resting point for the question at hand: to what end?
The kind of theology one teaches shapes both the content of the education and the method. J. Gresham Machen, in his book Christianity and Liberalism, illustrates that the liberal churchgoer cannot see the Bible (or even Jesus) as a final authority for their life. Instead, in the end, the authority for their spiritual lives is their personal experience (pp. 66-67). This kind of "theology," while popular today, is not theology at all. However, it certainly shapes the kind of content and method in liberal Theological Education. In an extreme example, the content and method would only cover the inner man and would be tailored to the "practical," "social," or "personal spiritual" concerns. However, WSI believes that the content of theology must concern the only true God (Isa. 44:6), not personal experience. The proper method of theological education follows from this, however, and it does not lose the personal experience. We study the one true God where he has revealed himself––the Bible––and this shapes our personal experience (Ps. 119:34).
"Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart." Psalm 119:34
The philosophy of education employed in theological education is equally important. The reason for this is that, whatever choices a school makes about how students will learn says something about what they believe about human beings. Are we computers? Is education merely an information download? Are we blackholes? Is education only valuable if it is entirely about us? Theology shapes the kind of education we pursue at WSI, as stated above. God has made us persons in his image, in his world, and for a purpose (Gen. 1:1, 26-28; cf. Matt. 28:16-20). More than that, he has called us to love him with our whole being as we study and proclaim the faith (Deut. 6:4-9). Therefore, our education seeks to be personal as we train students to be formed by God's word to know the faith, love the Savior, and serve the Kingdom.
The purpose of theological education at WSI is to aid the average Christian in their walk of faith. In the vein of St. Augustine, we help students order their loves properly by the Word of God so that all of life is an opportunity to glorify God and expand Christ's church by the power of the Spirit. It is like the sower in Vincent Van Gogh's painting, modeled on the gospel parable, throwing seed wherever he goes because he is equipped to do so; he is driven along not by the will of man, but by the ultimate sower, the Lord of heaven and earth.
