Vanderbilt University :: The Program in Theology and Practice


	Years One and Two Coursework Teaching Fellowship Colloquy Participation	Years Three and Four Exams and Proposal Teaching Apprenticeship Colloquy Leadership	Years Five and Six Dissertation Teaching Externship Public Presentation
Scholarship	Fellows do coursework for their areas of study. Included in the coursework are four seminars related to the Program in Theology and Practice: Practical Theology, Theological Education, and Religion in a Global Context Research in Theology and Practice – 4. Two elective seminars	Fellows take examinations set by their areas. Fellows complete a major research paper or minor examination on a particular topic in theology, practice, or practical theology. The exam or paper should grow out of the four seminars a fellow took for the program. It may serve as a minor doctoral examination if approved by the faculty in a fellow’s particular area of study. Fellows make dissertation proposals and begin writing.	After the fourth year students may apply to extend the fellowship for two more years. The Program in Theology and Practice has funding to support every fellow for a full six years, and we hope and expect to fund every fellow through completion of the dissertation. A financial award to support publication of the dissertation will be made to fellows who complete excellent dissertations by the end of the teaching externship.
Teaching	Fellows serve as Teaching Fellows for one semester in a course in the Divinity School, the Department of Religious Studies, or another department of Vanderbilt University. Fellows participate in Vanderbilt University’s program to prepare graduate students to be excellent teachers.	Fellows serve as Teaching Apprentices in a setting that features multi-disciplinary reflection on practice. Teaching Apprentices work as partners with faculty members in planning, leading, and evaluating a seminar. Fellows might do their apprenticeship in one of four settings: Supervised Ministry Seminar First-Year Colloquy Integrative Senior Seminar Global/Local Immersion Seminar (past seminars have traveled to Viet Nam, South Africa, and Nicaragua)	In the final years of study Vanderbilt coordinates and pays for a teaching externship in an area theological school. Externships give fellows a chance to develop good habits for combining teaching, scholarship and service. Externs will teach with reduced loads that allow them to complete their dissertations. Each extern will receive mentoring from an experienced faculty member of the school. Externs will also receive teaching and service evaluations from their deans.
Service Relationships Reflection	Fellows attend a monthly teaching and research colloquy. The colloquy gives fellows a chance to consider the meaning of theological education, reflect on teaching experiences, develop teaching portfolios, and present research in progress.	Fellows continue to attend the monthly teaching and research colloquy. Advanced students move into leadership roles in the colloquy.	Fellows present their research to a public beyond the academy through Vanderbilt’s Relevant Religion Program.

**This timeline represents a tentative sketch of a typical course of study.
Details may be revised, and individual fellows may move more or less quickly through the program.

1. Practical Theology, Theological Education, and Religion in a Global Context
This core seminar will bring together four faculty members, four people engaged in the practice of ministry, and the fellows in their first and second years of the program. It will be offered every other year. The seminar will consider contemporary issues in practical theology, the theory of practice, theological method, and the critical analysis of social and political contexts for religion and ministry. The seminar’s combination of scholars from many disciplines, ministerial practitioners, and doctoral students creates a unique environment for graduate education in Religion.

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2. Research in Theology and Practice
The second core seminar will extend the work of the first and will bring together the same participants: four people engaged in the practice of ministry, four faculty members from different disciplines, and the program fellows. This seminar will focus on a particular problem in religious practice, in congregational ministry, or in the interaction of ministry and the wider society. For example, the seminar might consider questions around how congregations respond to homeless persons. Such a seminar might bring together sociology, ethnography, history, psychology, biblical studies, ethics, homiletics, liturgics and theology to consider basic questions like “How did this situation come into being?” and “What does it mean to offer ‘help’ that someone does not want?” and “Who is my neighbor?” All three groups of participants will collaborate in interdisciplinary research for understanding and responding to the situation. The group will attempt to elaborate concrete proposals for addressing issues identified by the study. Papers arising from the seminar may be published in a series entitled Vanderbilt Studies in Practical Theology.

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1. Supervised Ministry Seminar

The Supervised Ministry Seminar is required of all M.Div. students at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Students work 8-10 hours per week in some form of ministry. They gather each week with a faculty member for reading and reflection. The Supervised Minsitry Seminar is run through Vanderbilt’s office of Field Education.

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2. First-Year Colloquy
All M.Div. students at Vanderbilt are required to take a first-year colloquy that introduces theological education, considers the work of ministry, and begins to build bridges between theology and practice. Vanderbilt Divinity School is committed to forming “the minister as theologian,” and this colloquy is one of the places that work begins. Fellows in Theology and Practice will play an active role in helping to lead the class.

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3. Senior Seminar
After a year-long field education placement, Vanderbilt’s M.Div. students pick one issue from their placement to consider in more depth. They work together in seminars led by core faculty members from across the Divinity School. Students bring together multiple disciplines as they reflect critically on some concrete issue in the practice of ministry. The seminar serves as a capstone to a curriculum that seeks to form the “minister as theologian.” Fellows in Theology and Practice will play an active role in helping to lead the class.

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4. Global/local immersion seminar

Since 1999, students and faculty from Vanderbilt Divinity School have embarked on a series of Global Perspectives trips. The trips are designed to enhance theological education through immersion in different but connected cultures. Each trip is followed by a semester-long seminar of interdisciplinary reflection on the experience. For one person’s reflection on the recent trip to Viet Nam, follow this link.

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Monthly teaching and research colloquy
The teaching and research colloquy provides the essential connective tissue for the program. It is like a salon, a good coffee house, or the pub next to the library in a university town. It offers a site where fellows can come together as an extended cohort for conversation, integration, and reflection. The colloquy will consider topics like the purposes of theological education, good practices for teaching, and the vocation of a theological educator. The colloquy will also consider particular issues that arise from the research of individual students. Fellows will present case studies from their teaching experience and examples of work in progress. One hour of graduate credit will be awarded for satisfactory participation in the colloquy each year, up to a total of three hours of credit.

Too often graduate education isolates students. Isolation tends to make students miserable, slow down their writing, and form them in ways that block the collaborative thinking practical theology requires. This social, intellectual, practical space at the center of the program helps to overcome isolation. It combines academic work, practical reflection, and social interaction. It creates a forum in which advanced students can pass on what they have learned. It crosses the line between work and leisure.

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Teaching externship

The externship offers a set of unparalleled opportunities that serve as a kind of capstone to the program. Fellows in their final years of study will be placed in seminaries and theological schools within driving distance of Nashville. Fellows will teach at schools like Memphis Theological Seminary, the Interdenominational Theological Center, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and the School of Theology at Sewanee.

Fellows will teach about one course per semester. They will teach courses closely related to their major areas of research. Fellows will engage in limited service activities, participate in the life of the institution in appropriate ways, and work to complete their dissertations. Each fellow will be supervised and mentored by an experienced faculty member of the school. The dean of the school will provide a teaching and service evaluation. The president or another officer will help the fellow understand the culture and mission of the school. Occasional workshops at Vanderbilt will provide opportunities for all the externs and their advisors to come together to think through the vocation of the teacher in a theological school.

The externships offer fellows a chance to be immersed in the practice of teaching for ministry. Fellows get to practice teaching with a reduced load, a supportive mentor, and structured reflection. They learn at a new level how to combine teaching, research, and service. Working beyond the Ph.D.-granting institution, they develop a wider network that can help with job placement and with a lifetime of academic work. After completing the externship, fellows will be uniquely well-prepared as teachers for ministry.

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Relevant Religion program

Vanderbilt Divinity School and the Scarritt-Bennett Center work together to sponsor the Relevant Religion series of public presentations. Faculty members from Vanderbilt and other schools lead classes for the whole Nashville community. For more information and sample courses, please see the Relevant Religion website.

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