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PHOTO: J PHOTO:PETE LINFORTH, PIXABAY Pastoral Review Editorial Office Ashley Beck (Acting Editor and Reviews Editor) ashley.beck@stmarys.ac.uk Natalie K. Watson (Publishing Editor) Tel. +44(0)77 6674 4011 pastoralreview9@gmail.com Stephanie Bennett (Editorial Administrator and Marketing) Tel: +44(0)20 8748 8484 sbennett@thepastoralreview.org Amanda Davison-Young (Chief Executive Officer) Tel: +44(0)20 8748 8484 adyoung@thetablet.co.uk Malgorzata Chylinska Pequeno (Design and Production) mchylinska@thetablet.co.uk To subscribe or to manage your subscription Tel: +44(0)1858 438736 thetablet@subscription.co.uk One year: £27 (UK), £35 (Airmail) To advertise Lisa Smith (advertising manager) Tel: +44 (0)1903 534 041 lisa@ottwaymediasolutions.com Head Office 1 King Street Cloisters, Clifton Walk, London, W6 0GY, UK Tel: +44(0)20 8748 8484 publisher@thetablet.co.uk Editorial Board Ashley Beck, Amanda Davison-Young (Chair), Maureen Glackin, David Jones, John Lydon, Stephanie MacGillivray, Stephen McKinney, Káren North, Gerald O’Collins SJ, Thomas O’Loughlin, Paul Rowan, Peter Tyler, Natalie K. Watson © The Tablet Publishing Company Limited ISSN1748-362X www.thepastoralreview.org This issue of our journal appears ten years after the election of Pope Francis. His first teaching letter, Evangelii gaudium (‘The Joy of the Gospel’), appeared at the end of 2013; it is now commemorated each year in England and Wales on the third Sunday of September. In it he wrote: A theology – and not simply a pastoral theology – which is in dialogue with other sciences and human experiences is most important for our discernment on how best to bring the Gospel message to different cultural contexts and groups. The Church, in her commitment to evangelization, appreciates and encourages the charism of theologians and their scholarly efforts to advance dialogue with the world of cultures and sciences. I call on theologians to carry out this service as part of the Church’s saving mission. In doing so, however, they must always remember that the Church and theology exist to evangelize, and not be content with a desk-bound theology. (133) These words both encourage and challenge those of us engaged in theological education; but ten years on both education in general in the UK and theological education in particular are in a parlous state: beset by underfunding, bad industrial relations which have led to strikes, animosity from many politicians and journalists, and for theology (alongside other humanities) many redundancies, the pruning or closure of departments, and the disappearance of many fine institutions. The picture is very bleak indeed. In the midst of this, how do we feel valued in our charism by the Church? Of course, many are suffering in today’s Britain, and those involved in theological education are for the most part not among those suffering the most, but our capacity to serve the Church in the way the Pope intends is compromised. It is as if we don’t know our country any more: ‘O how could we sing the song of the Lord on foreign soil?’ What does it mean to be involved in education in a country where a politician who has been very inf luential in education can say ‘people in this country have had enough of experts’? The picture is not much better in other parts of the world: even in the United States, where the teaching of theology at university level is traditionally well resourced, the same pruning is going on.
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Editorial Education and confidence Ashley Beck PHOTO: ST MARY’S UNIVERSITY, TWICKENHAM means that everyone needs to have confidence in an era when religious belief is constantly questioned, where particularly in countries with a Christian background nothing can be taken for granted. It is true in relation to so many crises both in the life of the Church and in our world. All this should be of concern to the whole Church. The Pope’s words are clear – theologians have a service to carry out ‘as part of the Church’s saving mission’. Of course theologians get many things wrong, as the Pope realises, especially if we are ‘desk-bound’ – of course we are often desk-bound because of mushrooming bureaucratic tasks and cutbacks in administrative support. If academic theology is seen as divorced from the life of the worshipping Christian community, and if what we say is frankly unintelligible, then we are in trouble. But this does not make theology irrelevant: the search for truth and the necessity to oppose falsehood, is greater than ever. Good theology, rooted in Christian life, is needed above all to give the disciples of Jesus Christ confidence – not simply Church leaders, but all of us. The importance of mission and evangelisation So, for example, in the abuse scandals in the Church, panic and defensiveness leading to terrible decisions have their root in a bad theology of the Church. What is usually called a societas perfecta (‘perfect society’) model of the Church is really incapable of facing the reality of serious sinfulness within the community. If you see such a Church suddenly as being imperfect when you have always believed it is perfect, the whole edifice can collapse like a pack of cards. Or again, if you have an insecure theological grasp about the Church’s teachings about international relations, or about war and peace, you will founder and have little to say in the face of the rise of populist nationalism and the wars which this so often brings about. This is all made worse by a wilful ignorance, a dismissal of theology and theologians; people often glory in their ignorance and are not interested in learning more. For some clergy, the problem is compounded by a condescending and patronising attitude to laypeople. This may seem a rather gloomy way of marking the tenth anniversary of Francis’ election. But his call for theologians to be appreciated and encouraged not only offers some hope; marginalised or thrown out of institutional academic life, perhaps we will need to join with others in doing theology at the margins, open to innovative ways of teaching and learning, particularly with those who have been left out of higher education, those who juggle theological study with family life and an increasingly insecure work environment. In this our journal will play its part. April/May/June 2023 | Pastoral Review Vol. 19 Issue 2 | 5

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PHOTO: J

PHOTO:PETE LINFORTH, PIXABAY

Pastoral Review Editorial Office Ashley Beck (Acting Editor and Reviews Editor) ashley.beck@stmarys.ac.uk Natalie K. Watson (Publishing Editor) Tel. +44(0)77 6674 4011 pastoralreview9@gmail.com Stephanie Bennett (Editorial Administrator and Marketing) Tel: +44(0)20 8748 8484 sbennett@thepastoralreview.org Amanda Davison-Young (Chief Executive Officer) Tel: +44(0)20 8748 8484 adyoung@thetablet.co.uk Malgorzata Chylinska Pequeno (Design and Production) mchylinska@thetablet.co.uk

To subscribe or to manage your subscription Tel: +44(0)1858 438736 thetablet@subscription.co.uk One year: £27 (UK), £35 (Airmail) To advertise Lisa Smith (advertising manager) Tel: +44 (0)1903 534 041 lisa@ottwaymediasolutions.com Head Office 1 King Street Cloisters, Clifton Walk, London, W6 0GY, UK Tel: +44(0)20 8748 8484 publisher@thetablet.co.uk Editorial Board Ashley Beck, Amanda Davison-Young (Chair), Maureen Glackin, David Jones, John Lydon, Stephanie MacGillivray, Stephen McKinney, Káren North, Gerald O’Collins SJ, Thomas O’Loughlin, Paul Rowan, Peter Tyler, Natalie K. Watson © The Tablet Publishing Company Limited ISSN1748-362X www.thepastoralreview.org

This issue of our journal appears ten years after the election of Pope Francis. His first teaching letter, Evangelii gaudium (‘The Joy of the Gospel’), appeared at the end of 2013; it is now commemorated each year in England and Wales on the third Sunday of September. In it he wrote:

A theology – and not simply a pastoral theology – which is in dialogue with other sciences and human experiences is most important for our discernment on how best to bring the Gospel message to different cultural contexts and groups. The Church, in her commitment to evangelization, appreciates and encourages the charism of theologians and their scholarly efforts to advance dialogue with the world of cultures and sciences. I call on theologians to carry out this service as part of the Church’s saving mission. In doing so, however, they must always remember that the Church and theology exist to evangelize, and not be content with a desk-bound theology. (133)

These words both encourage and challenge those of us engaged in theological education; but ten years on both education in general in the UK and theological education in particular are in a parlous state: beset by underfunding, bad industrial relations which have led to strikes, animosity from many politicians and journalists, and for theology (alongside other humanities) many redundancies, the pruning or closure of departments, and the disappearance of many fine institutions. The picture is very bleak indeed. In the midst of this, how do we feel valued in our charism by the Church? Of course, many are suffering in today’s Britain, and those involved in theological education are for the most part not among those suffering the most, but our capacity to serve the Church in the way the Pope intends is compromised. It is as if we don’t know our country any more: ‘O how could we sing the song of the Lord on foreign soil?’ What does it mean to be involved in education in a country where a politician who has been very inf luential in education can say ‘people in this country have had enough of experts’? The picture is not much better in other parts of the world: even in the United States, where the teaching of theology at university level is traditionally well resourced, the same pruning is going on.

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