The Motif of Hospitality in Theological Education

Davina Hui Leng Soh

Description

These are exciting times in theological education as old models are being reassessed and teachers and schools are looking for guidance on how best to do the job and how to profitably relate to students in the ministry of teaching. Increasingly, the motif of hospitality is being used to guide our thinking and practice, but it needs a careful assessment if it is to be of maximum use to theological education today.
This book provides an integrated biblical, theological, and educational rationale to inform theological educators of the place of hospitality in enhancing their quest to create more effective learning environments for the holistic formation of students. Dr Davina Soh explores key elements of hospitality such as inclusion, presence, care, and reciprocity, which when combined, can deliver the best possible educational experience for theological students and transform an entire institution.

Informations

• Publié par: Langham Creative Projects
• Date de parution: 14 décembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783682225
• Langue: English

Extrait

The subject of this work is how the practice of hospitality could transform theological education. While much has been written about hospitality in relation to higher education in general, its relation to theological education is relatively rare. Davina Soh’s distinctive contribution is in showing that the hospitality metaphor is firmly grounded in both the Old and New Testaments and that this biblical concept has a significant bearing on the way theological education is undertaken. The work could not have come at a more appropriate time when many theological institutions, especially in the Majority World, are seeking to play catch-up with the West, and in their relentless pursuit of academic excellence, are encountering the same danger of ending up as soulless institutions.
Rev Simon Chan, PhD
Retired Earnest Lau Professor of Systematic Theology,
Trinity Theological College, Singapore
Davina Soh’s book is a comprehensive, deep, and useful investigation of the motif of hospitality as a marker and model for good theological education. It successfully traces the motif from its inception, through higher and theological education scholars and then presents a carefully constructed biblical exposition as a conversation partner to her historical material and as a base for her critique. Her subsequent discussion and application to practice, with an eye to the South East Asian situation, will be vital for contemporary practitioners and future scholars in this region of the world, and also for theological educators globally. She has advanced scholarship in the subject of theological education and modeled best practice.
Graham Cheesman, PhD
Honorary Lecturer in Theology,
Queen's University Belfast, UK
Teaching at university level is currently hostage to market-oriented objectives which tend to reduce teacher/student interaction to authoritarian knowledge transfer. Davina Soh’s book has the potential to breathe new life into the relationship by its exploration of the concept of hospitality. Expertly drawing on a variety of research-based disciplines and careful biblical exegesis, she develops a coherent picture of how educative relationships can be enriched by attention to the marks of authentic hospitality. While she is particularly sensitive to the needs of disempowered and multicultural students, and has a special interest in applying her research to Asian educational models, all educators stand to gain from a close study of this book.
Brian V. Hill, PhD
Emeritus Professor of Education,
Murdoch University, Western Australia
Davina Soh’s work provides a vital academic contribution to the area of hospitality from a non-Western perspective. The study covers extensive secular and biblical research in the area of hospitality in higher education and theological education. It also includes suggestions on the practice of hospitality within and outside the classroom context.
Hospitality in theological education is a new concept to many educators and will challenge how we do the teaching/learning process for the spiritual formation of students. This research will benefit Christian educators as they learn to extend hospitality to foreign students in a global world where theological institutions are populated by international students.
Ng Tjoh Dju, PhD
Adjunct Faculty Member,
East Asia School of Theology, Singapore
Davina Soh’s book is a “game changer” in evangelical theologies of higher education since, if implemented, it will have implications not only for how evangelicals are educated theologically, but will shape lifelong learners, ministers, missionaries, and servants with dispositions that will be inclusive of, vulnerable to, and reciprocal with the many different types of others in a radically pluralistic world. This is thus a dangerous book – don’t read it unless you are committed to a reign of God that will feature those from many tongues, tribes, peoples, and nations of the world.
Amos Yong, PhD
Professor of Theology & Mission,
Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California
Author of Hospitality and the Other: Pentecost, Christian Practices, and the Neighbor (2008)

The Motif of Hospitality in Theologial Education
A Critical Appraisal with Implications for Application in Theological Education
SOH Hui Leng Davina
Series Editor
Riad Kassis
ICETE Series

© 2016 by SOH Hui Leng Davina
Published 2016 by Langham Global Library
An imprint of Langham Creative Projects
Langham Partnership
PO Box 296, Carlisle, Cumbria CA3 9WZ, UK
www.langham.org
ISBNs:
978-1-78368-121-1 Print
978-1-78368-223-2 Mobi
978-1-78368-222-5 ePub
978-1-78368-224-9 PDF
SOH Hui Leng Davina has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the Author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher or the Copyright Licensing Agency.
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-78368-121-1
Cover & Book Design: projectluz.com
Langham Partnership actively supports theological dialogue and an author’s right to publish but does not necessarily endorse the views and opinions set forth, and works referenced within this publication or guarantee its technical and grammatical correctness. Langham Partnership does not accept any responsibility or liability to persons or property as a consequence of the reading, use or interpretation of its published content.

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Contents

Cover


Abstract


Acknowledgments


List of Abbreviations


1 Introduction


Research Statement and Hypotheses


Assumptions and Delimitations


Chapter Outline


2 The Motif of Hospitality in the Literature of Christian Higher Education and Theological Education


Groundbreakers for Hospitality in Education


Hospitality as a Key Concept in Christian Higher Education


Hospitality as a Key Concept in Theological Education


Summary


3 The Motif of Hospitality as Reflected in Contemporary Educational Research and Practice, and Higher Education Literature


The Emotional and Relational Dimensions in the Teaching-Learning Process


Hospitality as a Key Concept in Higher Education Literature


Parallel Practices of Hospitality in Contemporary Higher Education Educational Practices


Summary


4 The Biblical Basis for the Motif of Hospitality in Theological Education


God as Host


Jesus as Guest-Host


The Early Faith Communities as Hosts


Summary


5 A Critical Dialogue towards the Application of the Motif of Hospitality in Theological Education


Hospitality as a Cluster Concept


Constitutive Element 1: Inclusion


Constitutive Element 2: Presence


Constitutive Element 3: Care


Constitutive Element 4: Reciprocity


Summary


6 Conclusion


Research Statement, Hypotheses, and Findings


Significance, Limitations, and Areas for Further Research


Endword


Bibliography


About ICETE


About Langham Partnership

Endnotes
Abstract
Over the past four decades, educational professionals have explored the metaphor of hospitality in an effort to re-envision and re-conceptualize higher education. However, the existing discourses on hospitality in education have not fully explored the metaphor from a biblical perspective. This research thus provides another perspective and voice for the concept of hospitality in higher education – more specifically, theological education – by presenting a biblically informed metaphor of hospitality interpreted by an Asian female theological educator living in Singapore.
Taking an interdisciplinary conceptual approach, this dissertation establishes the viability of hospitality as a practice in theological education for teachers to create a hospitable teaching-learning environment that facilitates the holistic formation of students. It accomplishes this by first examining how hospitality has been proposed by the professionals in the educational arena to address the perennial ills and challenges in Christian higher education, theological education, and higher education. Its interpretation of the biblical metaphor of hospitality then provides the conceptual framework to approach the application of hospitality by teachers in theological institutions seeking to form their students holistically. Instead of working with a single definition of hospitality, this research uses the cluster concept to define hospitality and identifies the constitutive elements of hospitality as inclu