Proleptic Pedagogy: Theological Education Anticipating the Future

Could we have imagined how much theological education would change in the new millennium? Shifting needs of students, classrooms, and churches have demanded constant revisions of the curriculum, course design, classroom technology, and pedagogical strategies.

Saint Paul School of Theology felt the tide of change within our own walls and designed a project called ''Proleptic Pedagogy'' to address three distinct pedagogical challenges for the future of theological education. First, instead of fitting new technologies into old pedagogies, how are teaching and learning transformed by shifting needs of students who are ''digital natives,'' ''digital immigrants,'' or distance learners? Second, instead of reactive strategies, what pedagogy proactively eliminates ''accommodations'' because courses are designed with flexibility and openness to diverse learning styles, disabilities, and needs? Third, instead of engaging student diversity with the tools of the 1960s, what new teaching and learning strategies anticipate future student racial and ethnic demographics and interracial educational experiences?

This volume of essays narrates our classroom stories, teases out pedagogical issues, examines pedagogical literature, reflects on theology of pedagogy, and constructs pedagogical proposals--with an open invitation for other theological educators to join our conversation about the future of theological education.