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.

Theological field education, in which a ministry student steps out of the classroom and begins practicing with the supervision of a mentor, is a critical part of accredited ministry programs. Engage equips both students and their supervisor-mentors to engage in this important opportunity with energy and imagination, and it prepares students for the challenging work of integrating theory into real-world practice. Engage provides coaching from recognized experts in the arts of ministry: preaching, administration, evangelism, pastoral care, public ministry, leadership, faith formation, liturgical arts and more. Other chapters address themes such as race, gender, and ministry across faith traditions (or no faith tradition). The book addresses field education in a range of contexts—from churches to non-profits. Engage offers a valuable resource for students making the most of their transition from the classroom into real world ministry with all its joys and many challenges.

"Teaching Reflectively in Theological Contexts explores the dynamics, principles, contradictions and tensions of teaching within theological contexts. It offers practical suggestions on modeling pastoral leadership, building trust with learners, negotiating the dynamics of team-teaching, questioning received truth, teaching through discussions, working with diversities, and building a culture of reflective teaching." --

The reality of a radically changing world is beyond dispute. The notion of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a heuristic key for the world of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computing, big data, the internet of things, and biotechnology. The discussion of emerging technologies and the Fourth Industrial Revolution highlights urgent questions about issues like intention, function, risk, and responsibility. This publication stimulates further reflection, ongoing conversation, and eventually the production of more textured thinking. The conversation with technology and with thinkers on technology, holds the promise of a certain fecundity, the possibility to see deeper into human evolution, but also, may be, into the future of humankind.

The iGeneration has learned to adapt rapidly to technological change. Tech-savvy students multi-task with consummate ease, accessing email on smart-phones, researching assignments on tablets, reading a book on Kindle, while drinking a flat white and listening to iTunes in the background. How does the tertiary educational curriculum meet the learning needs of students whose attention transitions rapidly between mediums and messages? The complexity and pace of modern technological change has left the theological educational sector gasping, as it struggles to devise pedagogically engaging online distance learning materials in traditional disciplines and teach units with significant relational and pastoral components. The technological benefits are vast, the instant availability of information unprecedented, and the opportunities to provide theological education to groups marginalised by the tyranny of distance and time enormous. How should the theological sector address these challenges and opportunities? Although the benefits are massive, the media is replete with stories of the casualties of technological change, including cyber-bullying, internet predators, the psychic damage from trolls, addiction to gaming, and issues of body image, among others. How should the theological sector, drawing upon its scriptural and teaching heritage, come to grips with the deficits spawned by the technological revolution? What is the theological, pastoral, social and pedagogic responsibility of theology teachers in nurturing this new generation? Teaching Theology in a Technological Age draws together in an inspiring volume a series of cutting-edge essays from Australian, New Zealand and South African scholars on the learning and teaching of theology in a digital age.

We live in a wired world where 24/7 digital connectivity is increasingly the norm. Christian megachurch communities often embrace this reality wholeheartedly while more traditional churches often seem hesitant and overwhelmed by the need for an interactive website, a Facebook page and a twitter feed. This book accepts digital connectivity as our reality, but presents a vision of how faith communities can utilize technology to better be the body of Christ to those who are hurting while also helping followers of Christ think critically about the limits of our digital attachments. This book begins with a conversion story of a non-cell phone owning, non-Facebook using religion professor judgmental of the ability of digital tools to enhance relationships. A stage IV cancer diagnosis later, in the midst of being held up by virtual communities of support, a conversion occurs: this religion professor benefits in embodied ways from virtual sources and wants to convert others to the reality that the body of Christ can and does exist virtually and makes embodied difference in the lives of those who are hurting. The book neither uncritically embraces nor rejects the constant digital connectivity present in our lives. Rather it calls on the church to a) recognize ways in which digital social networks already enact the virtual body of Christ; b) tap into and expand how Christ is being experienced virtually; c) embrace thoughtfully the material effects of our new augmented reality, and c) influence utilization of technology that minimizes distraction and maximizes attentiveness toward God and the world God loves.

This book is an arresting interdisciplinary publication on Christian education, comprising works by leading scholars, professionals and practitioners from around the globe. It focuses on the integrated approaches to Christian education that are both theoretically sound and practically beneficial, and identifies innovative pedagogical methods and tools that have been field-tested and practice-approved. It discusses topics such as exploring programmes and courses through different lenses; learning challenges and opportunities within organisational management; theology of business; Christian models of teaching in different contexts; job preparedness; developing different interpretive or meaning-making frameworks for working with social justice, people with disability, non-profit community organisations and in developing country contexts. It offers graduate students, teachers, school administrators, organisational leaders, theologians, researchers and education practitioners a fresh and inspiring reimagining of Christian education perspectives and practices and the ramifications of their application to life-long learning.