Formal Christian theological training/education is unsurprisingly diverse. This diversity in theological training encompasses: providers and beneficieries from different denominations of modern Christianity, curricula and contents, and aims. If one supposes that theological training is imparted within or in direct/indirect relations with communities of faith one is compelled to ask: What is ‘theological education’? Is this quest worth the effort?

The traditional approach of the academy to research requires the practitioner to locate their inquiries in an academic discipline, inevitably restricting the study to a limited aspect of the challenges of practice and requiring an objectivity that removes the researcher from the action. This paper describes a fresh response to this question – a Post-graduate Programme in Professional Practice. The programme, offered by the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, draws on work-based learning and reflective practice and facilitates a process of (...) critical inquiry and transformative action in the scholar-practioner's own context. (shrink)

This paper offers a descriptive and critical retrospective of an initiative of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies to create a co-operative international network of partnering institutions under the aegis of The International Fellowship of Mission Theologians. It focuses on the years 1997–2007.