Ecumenical Theological Education in the Context of World Christianity

Theological education is facing a number of advances and setbacks. Among the advances are the globalization and transformation of Christianity, the evolution of communication tools, and the striving for formal theological education by groups that customarily shunned it as well as a generalized awareness for the contextuality of theological education. Setbacks can be seen in the reconfessionalization of theological education in many parts of the world and the end of significant ecumenical initiatives as well as the continuous difficulty of guaranteeing sustainability both to models of theological education and to the institutions that offer them. Mindful of these trends, this article seeks to provide a panoramic analysis of theological education in the context of an ever-growing diversity of Christianity and to offer reflections and proposals on what is needed for a sustainable ecumenical and contextual theological education today.