It's an honor, a privilege, and a somewhat daunting prospect to take on the editorship of our Journal. As I understand it, adult theological education is about training Christian ministers, both lay and ordained; it's about how to teach in church and in school, online and beyond; it's about helping believers and teachers to become more thoughtful and discerning even (especially) about their own learning process.
I want to express my sincere and deep gratitude to Nigel Rooms, the outgoing Editor. Nigel, you have done outstanding work in cultivating the conversations that JATE represents.
These conversations are more urgent than ever. For several years, a book by Willis Jenkins has been much on my mind. The Future of Ethics: Sustainability, Social Justice, and Religious Creativity (Georgetown, 2013) won the American Academy of Religion's 2014 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion. Jenkin's thesis is pointed and unsettling: like every other tradition, Christian ethics has proved “incompetent” to the challenges of climate change, pollution, and global economics. These problems are too complex, too intergenerational, too interactive. Our powers have outstripped our religious traditions. We need the spirit / Spirit to raise up “something new” (Isaiah 43:19).
Our teaching lies at the intersection of cultures, races, and ecologies; of economies, polities, and different religions; a nexus that – please God – is pregnant with saving possibilities. JATE applies solid scholarship to this nexus, as the current issue richly exemplifies. By bringing together pedagogical theory, Christian tropes, and teacherly creativity, this discussion of threshold concepts helps us think anew how to shape our curricula. Thanks to guest editors Peter Mudge and Jan Meyer, and to all the contributors.
Let's keep the conversation going. May we find what we need.