Anxiety and Christian Higher Education

At some point I am going to write about anxiety that exists among the administration and faculty of Christian higher education institutions. Today is not the day. Instead, I am going to offer a brief synopsis of an "in progress" paper I am hoping to submit to a journal for publication.

The paper's thesis is as follows:

One of the least recognized and most concerning aspects of online theological education is that it nurtures chronic anxiety. In order to unpack this statement let me define chronic anxiety and it's systemic nature. Counselor and educator Peter Steinke highlights the etymological origins of the term anxiety as "wind" or "air", "choking" or "strangling" (Steinke, 2019). Notice the physiological link between the experience of anxiety and not being able to breathe. He describes someone who is chronically anxious as being unable to regulate their emotional capacities.

According to therapist Murray Bowen, when two parties are in a chronically anxious system, they look to triangle in a third party to alleviate the anxiety. This can be seen when someone has a disagreement with another person and later they talk to a third party about the conflict. It serves to transfer the anxiety, shifting it around to make it more comfortable for the anxious person.

While I don't have time to explain the details, the paper I am working on looks at technology as a third party that can be triangled in to the learning system. Before the move to online learning, students interacted directly with the teacher, other students, and the learning material. Now, computers, phones, and digital interfaces have been triangled into education.

While what I am suggesting may seem like a stretch, the research on people and their prolonged interaction with digital devices indicates growing rates of anxiety as one of the results. While the Internet is allowing more students greater access to Christian higher education, excessive uses of the Web also seems to produce heightened levels of anxiety.

 

My accepted paper abstract - Christian Education in a Secular Age

A few weeks ago I wrote about an abstract I submitted to the Christian Education in a Secular Age conference at Briercrest. I am happy to report that my paper proposal has been accepted! 

For those interested in a sneak peek of what I'll be saying in October, here's the abstract; it's been stripped of footnotes and bibliographic references.

Dredging The Shallows for Charles Taylor’s “Fullness”: Nicholas Carr, Human Flourishing, and Online Theological Education. 

We all see our lives, and/or the space wherein we live our lives, as having a certain moral/spiritual shape. Somewhere, in some activity, or condition, lies a fullness, a richness; that is, in that place (activity or condition), life is fuller, richer, deeper, more worth while, more admirable, more what it should be. (Charles Taylor, A Secular Age)

Does online theological education promote human flourishing? Human flourishing could be summarized by Charles Taylor as “a fullness, a richness” we come to experience in life. Taylor suggests this “fullness” is accessible “somewhere, in some activity, or condition”. The earliest forms of theological education, known as Paideia, involved culturing the soul toward “fullness”. The educational model introduced by the University of Berlin in the early 19th century changed things, downplaying Paideia’s focus on student character instead emphasizing the science of research. This prioritization of the intellect resulted in pedagogical shifts that eroded the concept of culturing the soul. In turn, this resulted in a Western educational evolution away from valuing character development instead nurturing the mind. The recent shift toward Web-based learning, hastened by the Pandemic, appears to further prioritize knowledge over
character formation. This leads to an important question: Can Taylor’s “fullness” be accessed online?

Internet education’s academic benefits are clear: learning has become more accessible, more engaging, and more creative. However, the Web’s impact on the quest for human “fullness” has a dark side. According to technology critic and author Nicholas Carr, the Web is not a place of “fullness” but of Shallows. Carr suggests Internet usage is making us more distracted and less able “to experience … empathy, compassion, and other emotions”. Additional research suggests Internet usage increases anxiety, lessens family communication, and has not yet provided the sort of character development that comes from embodied mentorship opportunities.

As the influence of online learning grows, Christian educators have an opportunity to discern and enact a theological response to online pedagogies. The doctrine of the incarnation provides a model of human flourishing that prioritizes the body as an educational medium. The incarnation, God becoming human, reveals the value of physical embodiment in relationship with others. For theological educators interested in student flourishing, consider enacting an incarnational pedagogy: Emphasize embodiment and social presence in learning while carefully discerning how technology enhances and diminishes embodied human “being” and adjusting teaching methods accordingly.

 

Pastoral Ministry and Technology

My network group, a gathering of pastors in my denomination, asked me to share some of my PhD dissertation findings with them. While my thesis focused on pastoral education I avoided addressing themes directly focused on congregational ministry. Rather than boring my network group with dissertation details, I thought it would be fun to look at some elements of congregational ministry and ask about the influence of technology. Here are some highlights:

How might technology itself affect our humanness?

I started by familiarizing the pastors with the works of some theorists: Joseph Weizenbaum, Martin Heidegger, and Marshall McLuhan.

Weizenbaum suggests that computer technology has a way of making us think it's alive. His work reveals the human emotional/relational dynamics active in the use of technology.

Heidegger states that technology changes the natural ways of being and functioning. He highlights the way technology challenges nature to bring forth rather than uncovering what is present naturally. This challenging changes creation and ultimately leads humans to become more machine-like.

McLuhan promotes the idea that media changes our perception of reality. Technologies, such as media, create an environment where we no longer deal directly with “what is” but “what is” mediated by technology.

Technology and Pastoral Ministry

The Bible

Let’s think about the Bible, a significant source of authority for evangelicals. When the New Testament letters were written it was an oral/aural culture where speaking and hearing we the predominant modes of communication and learning. With the written word and literacy increasing, Christian faith became more interior, more individualistic. People could hear and see the words of scripture. The Bible could be held by an average person. It was contained

Now, what is the Bible in a digital world? Some things to consider:

The hearing and reading of Scripture is mediated by a computer. Are words on a screen the same as words on a page? Are words spoken by the digital bot the same as words spoken by the pastor or small group participant?

How are the Scriptures contained if there are no leather covers or pages to turn?

What is the role of memorization in spiritual formation? The Web is making memorization not only unnecessary but illogical? What does it look and feel like to meditate and study scriptures on a screen? McLuhan talks about media extending and amputating. What is extended and what is amputated when biblical texts are read and heard online? What effect is this having on our formation as people, as churches, and as pastors.

Recommendations: Find creative ways to get people holding Bibles, turning pages, memorizing, and reading to each other. These are tangible ways to engage the body and nurture a way of being together and hearing human voices.

 

Preaching

Let’s think about preaching, an important mode of communicating the scriptures.

How does a sermon compete with Tik Tok? Should it? Preachers haven’t had to compete for space online before but now it seems like online videos need to be entertaining.

In terms of learning and entertainment, Neil Postmen writes,

…television’s principal contribution to educational philosophy is the idea that teaching and entertainment are inseparable. … But no one has ever said or implied that significant learning is effectively, durably and truthfully achieved when education is entertainment. Education philosophers have assumed that becoming acculturated is difficult because it necessarily involved the impositions of restraints.” (Amusing ourselves to Death, Postman, p. 146)

How do preachers preach to a congregation they cannot see? We imagine our people in preparation, but now we must imagine them in the delivery.

Preaching has always been a communal event, that is no longer the case when we watch pre-recorded messages from our homes.

Recommendations: Beware of preaching to entertain, try preaching to yourself knowing others will hear it (rather than preaching to others as the primary objective). Tell stories and use Zoom to connect with people. Make it a spiritual practice to remind people to turn their cameras on.

 

Fellowship and Community

Let’s think about fellowship and community. If following Jesus is about an enculturation into the church (or perhaps a more missional posture might be baptizing and forming the whole world, person by person, community by community, into the image and likeness of God) then we have to take seriously the role technology plays in making us more methodical, distracted and less empathetic. If God revealed himself as a human being, what does that mean for the kind of culture in which we are meant to be participating?

Recommendations: Place limits on yourself. Model a life of balance, enjoy the best of what our gadgets offer but set them aside as well. For the time being I have decided not to get a watch that tracks me steps, etc. I don’t want to be competing with myself and getting rewarded by my watch. Tech longs for my attention but so does the living God. I must live a balanced life.

Emmanuel Bible College alumni profile

I'm honoured to be featured in my alma mater's monthly e-newsletter. Special thanks to EBC's talented Director of Messaging and Communication, Kaija Hutteri for her masterful editing. Unfortunately, the most important aspect of my EBC days was sadly omitted: the Football Committee!

Alumni Profile Jason Mills Bachelor of Theology in Christian Ministries (2000) Jason Mills felt God’s call to pastoral ministry after a missions trip to Jamaica as a teenager. Emmanuel Bible College seemed like a natural choice, as his youth leader and several pastors he knew had been students.  “EBC offered me leadership opportunities and mentors,” says Jason, who served as residence advisor, worship team leader and student council president during his time at Emmanuel. “I learned many leadership lessons through failure. I would not have survived my first years of ministry without Olu Peters. He mentored me beginning in my third year at EBC and helped me find my first pastoral role.” Jason says that a number of faculty members had a lasting impact on him. He recalls Bob Tees demonstrating the power of stories in forming community while reading C.S. Lewis around a campfire at student life retreats. He credits Virgil Gingrich with teaching him to “preach to inspire faith” and instilling in him the merits of staying active and healthy as a pastor. Jason served in several ministry positions after graduating, including as co-pastor of Calvary EMC in Owen Sound and Blue Mountain Community Church in Thornbury and both worship pastor and lead pastor of Hanover Missionary Church. Jason’s wife, with whom he had the opportunity of co-pastoring, is now the chaplain at the Collingwood General & Marine Hospital. His daughter begins her third year at Tyndale this fall, and he enjoys running with his teenage son. “My family is amazing,” says Jason. “God has truly blessed me!” Today Jason is finishing up his PhD in theological studies from the University of St. Michael’s. His dissertation examines the challenges of teaching virtues while educating pastors online. He also serves as a reservist military chaplain and is working on a research project that focuses on soldiers who feel their life is without meaning.

Family Happiness

Last week I perused Family Happiness by Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy seems to have a knack for capturing the emotions and interpersonal dynamics of maturing love. Family Happiness is a short story narrated from the perspective of Marya, a young woman, as she grows up. The first half of the book is filled with the tension of love's beginnings while the second half of the book grapples with love's complexities and perseverance. 

Near the end of the story, after living through an assortment of love's triumphs and tragedies, Marya listens as her husband, Sergey, wrestles them free from their past:

"Don't let us try to repeat life," he went on. "Don't let us make pretences to ourselves. Let us be thankful that there is an end of the old emotions and excitements. The excitement of searching is over for us; our quest is done, and happiness enough has fallen to our lot. Now we must stand aside and make room–for him, if you like," he said, pointing to the nurse who was carrying [their son] out and had stopped at the veranda door. "That's the truth, my dear one," he said, drawing down my head and kissing it, not as a lover any longer but an old friend. 

There's something beautiful about Sergey's assessment of life. There is a conscious turning away from excitement toward happiness in the latter part of it. Richard Rohr describes this stage as "a bright sadness and a sober happiness". I don't think I'm not there yet. But I hope to be. Right now it seems strange to think of my wife in these terms. A friend? Certainly. An old friend? Not quite. Maybe there will come a day. Here is my takeaway from Sergey: I will try not to repeat life; instead, I will step aside and make room for my children as they learn to embrace the emotions and excitements of love's beginnings.

Christian Education in a Secular Age

Last month I wrote a blog post about how I was reading Charles Taylor's A Secular Age for a conference paper proposal I was writing. Last week I submitted the proposal and I hope to hear back by the end of the month about whether it will be accepted. If accepted, I'll be presenting the full paper at Christian Education in a Secular Age, an online conference hosted by Briercrest Seminary. 

In an interesting twist, after submitting the proposal I received an email from one of the conference organizers who noticed my focus on pastoral education. She put me in touch with one of her colleagues who was looking to collaborate on a round-table discussion about clergy resilience and the implications for pastoral education. After an email exchange, I agreed to join Margaret Clarke, assistant professor of marriage and family therapy at Briercrest, and Beth Fisher, a PhD candidate a researcher involved with Wycliffe's Wellness Project in a roundtable discussion at the conference. I am humbled and honoured to be at the virtual table with these two researchers. We are going to meet at the end of this month for some initial planning and brainstorming. I look forward to seeing where the conversation leads.

Theological Education Between the Times

In the coming months I'm going to review a book called Beyond Profession by Daniel Aleshire. I have not read it yet so I will refrain from making comments until I do. It is one of seven books in a series of writings focused around the theme, Theological Education between the Times (TEBT). Actually TEBT is not just a book theme, it's a project. Organized by Candler School of Theology at Emory University as a way to "reason together about the ends of theological education ... and to do this work in diverse communities that respect difference and resist domination" (https://tebt.candler.emory.edu/about), the project was launched in 2014 out of a recognition that the world was changing and theological educators needed to wrestle with the shifts.

Some good books have already been written, before the TEBT series, dealing with the future of theological education. Looking Forward With Hope edited by Valentín (I wrote about it here) and Disruption and Hope edited by Wheeler are two worthy contributions to the the future of theological education.

One of my favourite chapters in Valentín's book entitled "The Change We Need: Race and Ethnicity in Theological Education" was written by Willie James Jennings. Jennings woke me up to issues of "a centred white male subject" in most theological schools. I'm thrilled to see that Jennings has written one of the books in the TEBT series called After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging. That will certainly be on my "to read" list once I am finished with Beyond Profession.