Editorial

This themed issue on theological education and threshold concepts in relation to work with online and other tertiary students initially emerged from a conversation in early June 2015 between Peter Mudge and the then editor Nigel Rooms. Shortly thereafter contact was made with Jan Meyer and the individual authors, with dialogue ensuing about the nature of the issue and the expertise required. We are grateful for the enthusiasm of the two presiding editors for this issue over the past year and a half—Nigel Rooms and John Falcone. We also express our thanks for the commitment and interest of our authors who have bought us both challenge and inspiration as we have worked with them on their articles. Before embarking upon a brief description of those articles, first we include a brief overview of the recent historical intersection between threshold concepts and theological education, followed by some thoughts on the significance of this issue.

During 2013 and 2014, there were two gatherings of scholars and practitioners interested in the role and value of threshold concepts (hereafter TCs) within a wide variety of disciplines. The first had its genesis at the EARLI conference (European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction) in Munich, Germany (August 2013) and involved a group of TC scholars from New Zealand. Peter Mudge heard about this presentation and made contact with the presenters, who thereafter invited him to take part in a TC conference in Hamilton, New Zealand (November 2013) which was entitled: ‘Transforming disciplines: Emergent learning and threshold concepts (ELTC)’, at which Jan Meyer was also present as a keynote speaker. The conference featured papers linking TC theory to areas as diverse as dance, literature, economics, medicine, religious education and spirituality. At that conference, Peter was honoured to present the first paper ever published on links between TCs, religious education and spirituality. The paper, published in 2014, was entitled ‘“Crossing frontiers without a map”—the role of threshold concepts and problematic knowledge in religious education and spirituality’. Peter subsequently attended a second conference on TCs which was held in Durham, UK (July 2014). Its title was: ‘Threshold Concepts in Practice: The 5th Biennial International Threshold Concepts Conference’. He thereafter published several papers on TCs, religious education and theology under the auspices of the Sydney College of Divinity, NSW, Australia.

Given the above historical pedigree, the time seemed opportune for a collection of papers that specifically explored the juncture between theology and TCs. It has become increasingly apparent to those involved at the intersection between these two fields that there was a special affinity between the theoretical underpinnings of TCs and the practice and praxis associated with areas such as theology, ethics, biblical studies, practical theology, theology of disability, religious education, and spirituality, among many others.

This themed issue is significant and timely for a number of other reasons. First, while a number of books have been published on the relevance of TC theory to a wide variety of disciplines (e.g. Land et al., 2008; Meyer and Land, 2006; Meyer et al., 2010), very few publications have been forthcoming thus far on the specific links between theology and TC theory. Second, the proposed review process for this issue has the potential to generate a very beneficial transdisciplinary approach to topics where a genuine exchange between disciplines is possible to improve individual articles and to promote common understandings and insights across multiple articles. Most of the authors featured in this collection are from The Broken Bay Institute/The University of Newcastle, mainly due to recent conversations around TC theory and its applications at this institution. One author, Quentin Chandler, is from an overseas institution and has recently completed his doctorate on TC theory and practical theology. In addition, many of them are young and emerging scholars. Zachariah Duke has also just completed his doctorate on the theology of disability.

Third, such theology and TC links are part of an emerging concern and dialogue within and between a growing number of universities worldwide, such as Durham University, Anglia Ruskin University (both UK), The Universities of Newcastle, Sydney, Queensland, Western Australia, and many others (Australia), along with Elon University, North Carolina, USA, but to name a few. Fourth, the publication of this special issue has the potential to generate other articles on related topics as well as future correspondence and conferences related to TCs and theology. Fifth and finally, this issue has the capacity for exploring ways in which both lecturers and students cross or do not cross the TCs under discussion, and why this might be the case.

The intersection between theological education and TCs raises many theoretical, pastoral and practical questions throughout all the articles. The first article by Quentin Chandler is a case in point. His title is ‘Cognition or spiritual disposition? Thresholds concepts in theological reflection’, and explores the role of TCs in theological education. Chandler draws on a doctoral research project among students for licensed lay ministry in order to engage in a reflective conversation with a biblical text with these students. He proposes that exploration of habitus as a disposition of faith and spirituality might have relevance for TC transitions beyond theological reflection.

Since the discipline of TCs embraces theory as well as praxis, it is appropriate that it should include a consideration of ethics. The second article by Daniel J. Fleming, ‘The Threshold of Conscience: A Radical Challenge for Education in Theological Ethics…and Beyond’, proposes that the phenomenon of conscience, in Catholic parlance theological ethics, functions as a challenging TC within that discipline at both a cognitive and affective level. Fleming then suggests a teaching intervention informed by TC theory that assists in overcoming such challenges and is designed to introduce students to the phenomenon of conscience.

It is equally appropriate that an exploration of intersections between TC theory and biblical studies should also prove a productive area of study. The third article by Rachelle Gilmour—‘The Exodus in the Bible's teaching and our teaching of the Bible: helping to reconcile faith and critical study of the Bible through Threshold Concept theory’, offers constructive methods for helping students to accept critical study of the Biblical texts via use of the Hebrew Bible's own teaching. Gilmour proposes that there are multiple traditions and interpretations of the Exodus in the Bible and that this biblical event functions as a threshold concept in its teaching. The author asserts that a review of the composite nature of the Exodus traditions reveals that they reflect some of the key TC characteristics of being transformative, integrative and troublesome.

It is important that TC theory, in some instances, is seen to engage with aspects such as a local national context, with student voice, along with the qualitative and quantitative data that buttress that voice. The fourth article by Peter Mudge is entitled: ‘“Tell me the landscapes in which you live and I will tell you who you are”—online theology students [trained and training teachers] crossing thresholds in religious education and spirituality against an Australian desert context’. Mudge proposes that in the crossing of certain learning thresholds, it is possible to identify a number of significant intersections between three key areas—stories of challenges encountered by sixty online students (of which forty nine are selected for analysis), the crossing of the Australian bush or desert landscape, and TC theory. The author examines two thematic clusters emerging from the research, those of liminality and the ‘stretching’ or education of online teachers. The article concludes that, apart from those two motifs, there are many others emerging from the research, all of which demonstrate an intersection between challenges, the Australian desert, and TC theory. These include the pedagogically related themes of lostness, risk-taking, isolation, terror, disorientation, and the possibility of adjusting one's view of ‘education’ and even one's worldview.

The fifth and final academic article, co-authored by Zachariah Duke and Peter Mudge, ‘“Dissolving boundaries”—an analysis of threshold concepts within disability theology’, explores a range of ideas linked to TCs and the experience of people living with a disability. The authors argue that certain thresholds need to be crossed by members of faith communities in order for a person living with a disability to feel as if they genuinely belong to a community. These thresholds (expressed as threshold transitions) include—from exclusion to inclusion, from disempowerment to empowerment, and from suspicion to hospitality. The article includes two related topics—a definition of disability within the discipline of theology, and Jesus as model for threshold crossing within the Christian tradition. It concludes with a list of suggested thresholds, and accompanying strategies, that members of faith communities need to cross in order for people living with a disability to feel that they genuinely belong to a particular community. This article in particular makes extensive use of the most recent volume on TCs by Land et al. (2016) entitled Threshold Concepts in Practice.

The final formal section of the special issue, a response by Richard Rymarz to the foregoing articles, provides an outsiders objective view of the value of TCs within the field of adult theological education. In his piece, Rymarz seeks to explore some of the intersections between theology and TC theory. What is emerging from this fertile ground and these articles in particular? Where is it taking the field of adult education theoretically and pedagogically? What provocative and practical questions is it raising? In so doing, the author endeavours to provide a critical assessment of the value of using TCs for the future development of theological education, and to consider where TCs and this issue's reflections sit within a theological framework. In addition, Rymarz asserts that at the heart of TC teaching is a pedagogical imperative. He concludes by focusing on some key examples of where TC theory can inform teaching—the notion of the Trinity, teaching about God, the relationship between religion and science, and ways in which TC theory might influence the development of religious education programmes.

Thank you once again to everyone who has ensured the professionalism, scholarship and relevance of this issue—the JATE editors, the issue editors, the authors, the institutions that have supported them, and the many colleagues who have offered helpful comments along the way and over various ‘thresholds’ that emerged during the revision of articles.