Teaching the World: Foundations for Online Theological Education

by Timothy Paul Jones, John Cartwright, Gabriel Etzel

More and more seminaries, Christian universities, and Bible colleges are opting to train future ministers and missionaries online. What happens when the movement toward online education is shaped by pragmatic or financial concerns instead of Scripture and theology? Ministry training can be reduced to a mere transfer of information as institutions lose sight of their calling to shape the souls of God-called men and women in preparation for effective ministry. How might online ministry training look different if biblical and theological foundations were placed first? Teaching the World  brings together educators from a wide range of backgrounds and from some of the largest providers of online theological education in the world. Together, they present a revolutionary new approach to online theological education, highly practical and yet thoroughly shaped by Scripture and theology.

208 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2017

About the author

Timothy Paul Jones is an American evangelical scholar known for his work in apologetics and family ministry. He serves as the C. Edwin Gheens Professor of Christian Family Ministry at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Jones has authored influential texts defending the historical reliability of the New Testament and has promoted a model of “family-equipping ministry,” which balances family discipleship with age-specific church programs. His apologetics have evolved from evidential to presuppositional approaches, emphasizing the role of the church’s moral witness and care for the marginalized. He has been recognized for books such as Misquoting Truth, How We Got the Bible, and In Church as It Is in Heaven, the latter promoting multiethnic church communities. Jones is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society and has been praised as a leading voice in engaging both secular critics and intra-faith debates. He and his wife Rayann have four adopted children.

Reviews

[Shane Williamson · Rating 3 out of 5]

2023 reads: 30

Rating: 3 stars.

Some insights here and there. The volume would have been more helpful if more time were actually given to discussing online education as a practice. I think the authors could have assumed the theological presuppositions. All in all, though, it was just too generic to be of any help. The arguments and applications are true of many things.

The unexpressed assumption throughout is that the seminary is an extension of the church, not recognizing that only the latter has the authority to do what they consider as ideal practices: accountability, spiritual formation, ministry effectiveness. Without church discipline and the elements, no institution can enforce or sufficiently expect such "results." The authors call for greater integration of church and seminary but this seems to be an afterthought instead of something baked into the thesis.

[Nicholas Abraham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book fairly assesses online theological education and it makes a case for its value. Several years on from its publication, much has changed. The authors make the claim that online theological education is solid if it’s grounded in a local church context, which can be true if the local church context is conducive to formation and learning for the student; some contexts are not. All in all, some of the book’s conclusions about online education are dated given the speed at which things have changed even during the pandemic.