NASHVILLE, Tenn. ñ A landmark $10 million grant from the Lilly
Endowment Inc. to Vanderbilt University Divinity School will be used to
produce a generation of professors better prepared to teach students
called to the ministry.
The grant by the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment is the largest ever
received by Vanderbilt University Divinity School and marks the
beginning of a move by the school and the Graduate Department of
Religion to address a nationwide shortage of practical theology
professors and the need for young scholars in theological education to
address their fields to the practice of ministry.
"Vanderbilt faculty and staff worked long and hard to formulate this
path-breaking new program," said Craig Dykstra, the Lilly Endowment
vice president for religion. "They studied all the relevant literature,
surveyed and interviewed scores of church leaders and practicing
ministers, and reflected deeply on how to be a faculty of
scholar-teachers whose work can significantly strengthen the church’s
ministry.
"Through this project, Vanderbilt will play a crucial role in reshaping
how future seminary professors are trained and have a powerful impact
on the education of new generations of ministers."
Vanderbilt will use the funding to create the Program in Theology and
Practice, which will produce more and better teachers for theological
schools.
"Graduate education in the United States is geared to the development
of research knowledge and skills in isolated fields," said James
Hudnut-Beumler, dean of Vanderbilt University Divinity School and the
Anne Potter Wilson Distinguished Professor of American Religious
History. "While this has produced tremendous advances in scientific
knowledge, there’s a need for developing scholars to think through how
their knowledge will be put to use. For future theological faculty,
that means thinking more about the practice of ministry."
Ministers face a wide variety of challenges when they begin their
careers. People who have little or no history with organized religion,
addicts among the homeless who repeatedly seek money but don’t seek to
change, the joy of teaching people to reach across generations, and
congregations sharply divided over politics or modes of worship are
some of the challenges that await new clergy.
The Program in Theology and Practice is designed to do a better job
preparing future professors to help clergy respond wisely to these and
other unforeseen circumstances that can make or break their careers.
"The ultimate beneficiaries will be the congregations and members of
religious communities whose leaders are shaped by a program that has no
parallel in higher education today," Hudnut-Beumler said.
"This is a momentous event in the history of Vanderbilt Divinity
School, and also a great challenge. The Lilly Endowment is placing a
lot of trust here, and we in response plan to produce a generation of
mentors for the
ministry."
Plans call for the first class in the new program to begin study in the
fall of 2006. The program will add up to a year to the Ph.D. curriculum
for students who participate.
Goals for the program include attracting 50 new graduate students in
teaching for the ministry and involving 25 divinity school faculty
members and 20 area clergy in an innovative curriculum. Vanderbilt will
partner with at least
eight seminaries in the region as part of the program.
Founded in 1937, the Lilly Endowment is a private family foundation
that supports its founders’ wishes by supporting the causes of
religion, community development and education.
The Vanderbilt University Divinity School is one of the original
schools of Vanderbilt University, which was founded in 1873. It is one
of only five university-based nondenominational divinity schools in the
United States.