Engaging Technology in Theological Education

We live in a media culture, surrounded by ever-evolving digital technologies. While state schools and secular organizations have embraced the new teaching tools and models for learning that technology affords, religious institutions have struggled with how and why to do the same. All that we can't leave behind: Engaging technology in theological education is a breakthrough book that invites religious educators to both engage and adapt their pedagogy to incorporate new media and technology. Drawing from her expertise as a seminary professor and consultant to religious institutions on the use of technology in teaching, Mary Hess invites professors, pastors, seminarians, and anyone interested in religious education into critical reflection on ways of engaging technology to enhance learning and serve as critical interpreters within communities of faith.

Mary Hess is one of the most innovative and interesting voices working in theological schools today. Her insights both surprise and enlighten. She understands the pedagogical potholes and possibilities that technology presents for seminary education. Reading her work will change the way I teach., Mary Hess has produced an engaging set of reflections on popular culture, viewed through the lens of an educator. In the tradition of Brookfield and Palmer, she both respects and queries her subject and invites the reader into her reflections. Her analysis draws the reader into her reflections rather than merely declaring her conclusions. A spirited book!, Philosophically deep and culturally diverse and relevant...seminary faculties have in Hess’s book a series of wonderful discussion starters about the 'why-to' of technology for theological education., A thoughtful analysis on the ways in which media culture can, and ought, to be used in the seminary context. In the process of explaining her rationale for a distinctly modern approach to theological education, she makes a variety of practical points as well, that would certainly prove helpful to those wishing to adopt her methodological and theoretical propositions., Mary Hess’s essays probe deeply the most crucial questions about technology in theological education. She makes the compelling case that responsible theological education must engage digital culture—not in an instrumental how-to way but in an adaptive one—if we are to remain faithful to the life of Jesus Christ. The conversation is unquestionably two-way: mass mediated popular culture produces, circulates, and contests meaning, but Christian faith provides critical tools and practices by which contemporary meanings are tested for adequacy as God continues to reveal Godself for our time. Being the outstanding teacher she is, the author does not merely set the issues before us but effectively frames them with pedagogical insight, suggestions, examples, and implications rooted in the essential practices of our teaching and learning. Through this invitation into sustained reflection about our processes of meaning-making through digital cultures, and her persuasive argument for its significance for the life of the church, Mary Hess clearly succeeds in giving back to the communities that have nurtured her. This book is a must-read for those who are committed to quality theological education and the preparation of leaders for the church.

Mary E. Hess is assistant professor of educational leadership at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota.