This article builds on the analysis offered by ATS Executive Director, Daniel Aleshire, who argued that for most of the twentieth century, in the mainline denominations throughout North America, there existed a social contract between theological schools and denominations. This social contract has now ended because the five assumptions upon which it was based no longer hold true, in whole or in part. Seven new assumptions are offered as the basis of a new social contract. The shift from the old to the new social contract is illustrated by examples from the Toronto School of Theology.

• Assumption #1: For most of the 20^th century, theological education in the mainline denominations meant preparing people (men) for designated ministries, primarily ordination.
• Assumption #2: During this time, the denomination was the primary recruiter for students to theological schools.
• Assumption #3: After recruiting students, the Churches sent those students to schools sponsored by the same denomination.
• Assumption #4: These theological schools were funded primarily by the denomination.
• Assumption #5: After completing the degree, the graduates were hired primarily by the same denomination.

While there is variability among denominations, I agree with Dr. Aleshire’s thesis that to a large degree these assumptions no longer hold true for theological schools and Christian denominations in Canada. Let us take each assumption in turn.

Today, most students in ATS member schools are not preparing for ordination. There are many people preparing for ordination but there has been a proliferation of degrees offered that do not lead to ordination (such as the Master of Theological Studies) and there are now many students in Master of Divinity programs who are not seeking ordination. This is especially true for women in Roman Catholic schools.

Candidates for ordered ministry must still be certified by their denomination at various places in the educational process. However, if students are not seeking ordination they have bypassed those structures and have typically not been recruited by formal churches processes. In order to sustain enrollment, theological schools are now involving themselves in active student recruitment through job fairs and attending conferences of various sorts. This is an additional cost in time or money or both.

If Churches are no longer the primary recruiter of theological students, then they are no longer in a position to direct those students to a particular school. That means theological schools are in direct competition for students. Competition is not a word used easily by leaders of theological schools but it is a reality nonetheless. Schools are in competition for students with other schools sponsored by their denomination. They are also in competition with schools of other denominations. At the Toronto School of Theology, the average age of students is about 38. Such students typically have families and partners with employment which makes them relatively immobile. The cost of giving up that employment is much greater then the cost of tuition so students look for educational opportunities close to home, even if that means they end up studying in an ecumenical environment. Younger students research their educational options over the Internet by searching websites. Successful schools have invested heavily in modern and frequently updated websites. This is also a new cost.

Financially, while denominations have been investing increasing amounts of money in theological education over time, they are taking responsibility for a smaller and smaller share of the school’s overall budget. Schools have to find new partners to pay the bills. Almost every theological school of my acquaintance either has a development officer or is looking to establish the position. This is also a new expense. They are looking to replace the denomination’s share with contributions from individual, corporate or foundation donors.

Upon graduation, candidates for ministry are hired by denominations through the ordination process. However, even if students are not preparing for ordination, they are still looking for alternative futures. They want help with those futures and they often look for employment rates after graduation as one of the criteria for selecting a school. Since schools have not traditionally invested in this activity apart from ordination, this is also a new investment of time and/or money.

What is the New Social Contract?

If these five assumptions no longer form a social contract between schools and denominations, what is the new social contract and what assumptions are the widely held foundation for it? Let me suggest some possibilities.

• A)   Theological Education will need to become much more flexible in its mode of delivery in order to attract students.
• B)   Ecumenical Theological Education will become the norm for theological schools rather than the exception.
• C)   While all Churches applaud the development of lay ministry, the support of designated ministries will always have priority in the allocation of church funds. Consequently, denominations will direct their financial resources increasingly to support educational programs leading to developing congregational leadership rather than educational institutions with more generalized mandates.
• D)   Theological Schools will receive a greater proportion of financial support from individual donors than from national church structures, decreasing the influence of denominations on the Schools.
• E)    Flexibility in programs and finances will be achieved through multiple partnerships with other institutions, congregations and donors.
• F)    Schools will develop specialized areas of expertise in order to distinguish them from other schools in the minds of prospective students and donors.
• G)   Denominationally sponsored educational programs will need to become more “modular” in order to take advantage of these specializations. The difference between a “modular” educational system and a “fragmented” one is that modules can be fit together in different combinations to make a coherent whole. Their “modularity” has been thought through in advance. A fragmented system is broken and one fragment will only fit with another in one way. It will only form a coherent whole if all the original parts are present in the original order.

Another useful reference point for this discussion is a paper published by Francis Schüssler Fiorenza in 1988 entitled “Thinking Theologically About Theological Education”[2]. In that paper, Fiorenza maps three approaches to the discussion. The first takes the nature of theology or theological inquiry as its starting point. The second starts with an analysis of the church’s identity and mission. The third begins either with a theological or a professional conception of the practice of ministry. People familiar with the inner workings of theological schools will immediately recognize how these three starting points play themselves out in debates about curriculum and the deployment of resources.

As denominations begin reallocating their diminished resources it may be helpful to reflect on which of the three approaches to theological education they are taking. One of the issues not fully addressed by Fiorenza is the role of a theological faculty in the life of the Church and the Society apart from the staffing of a teaching curriculum. A theological faculty is an intellectual resource that plays many roles outside of the classroom. If Churches move to funding programs rather than schools, they no longer take responsibility for funding this intellectual resource. This leads to another question, namely, what role do universities play in the new social contract? As theological schools seek new partners or to strengthen existing partnerships, they will increasingly turn to Universities. In Canada, many Universities were started as Church Colleges or were founding members of the Federation. Consequently, the oldest theological schools in Canada are all physically present on University campuses. In some parts of Canada, such as Ontario, government funding for theological education is conditional on participation in University affairs. Universities are clear about trying to maintain a scholarly community of researching, writing faculty.

A special concern for Canadian theological educators is what we now recognize as the post-colonial environment in which we work. In a colonial situation, a colony exports raw, unfinished goods and imports highly processed goods. Theological textbooks are a highly processed good. In Canada, by and large, we import our theological texts. They come mostly from the US. But they also come from Scotland, England, Germany, France and Italy. Very few come from non-European, non-colonizing countries. Only a vibrant, highly educated, well supported community of theological scholars with a clear mandate to write and publish over time as well as teach, will have an impact in reversing the colonial pattern of importing theological reflection. Such a community of scholars is more likely to be engaged in researching and reflecting on the actual experiences of the People of God in this place.

Of course, the interests of modern Universities are not identical to the interests of sponsoring denominations. As schools move closer to Universities, they may move farther away from denominational influence. If schools are required to meet University standards, how will they simultaneously influence and be influenced by their Churches? Are there other ways for theological schools to partner with denominations other than through grants? There are already significant partnerships between schools and congregations through field work and internship programs. This may be extended through adjunct faculty who also work as pastors and congregation members who become financial supporters. Different assumptions about the nature of the Church will also affect whether the Church, which is influencing and being influenced by the School, is understood to be local, regional, national, international or transnational.

Graduate Education at the Toronto School of Theology

How does the changing social contract affect graduate education at the Toronto School of Theology? The Toronto School of Theology (TST) is the largest theological school in Canada. Comprised of seven members schools and four affiliates, it formally involves eight Christian denominations in cooperative, ecumenical theological education (Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran, Mennonite, Presbyterian, Reformed, Roman Catholic, United). It operates in a federation with the University of Toronto, Canada’s largest research university. It is among the five largest theological schools in North America and may be the largest ecumenical consortium where both Roman Catholics and Protestants study together. Over1400 students took classes at TST in 2002-2003. About 1100 of them were registered in degree programs, including 200 international students[3]. Over 350 of those 1100 students were registered in Advanced Degree programs[4].

Who Are TST Advanced Degree Students?

The average age of Advanced Degree students is fairly steady at 41 years but, like all averages, that masks a range of ages from 22 – 76. (The numbers that follow reflect the last 5 years) In the PhD and ThD programs, most are admitted between the ages of 28 and 33 years of age. Most Advanced Degree students are full-time except for the ThM program where full-time and part-time students are fairly evenly divided. The proportion of full-time to part-time students is rising in the PhD and ThD programs. It is rare for a DMin student to be part-time but it happens.

MA and ThM students take between 2.5 and 4.4 years to graduate. DMin students take between 4 and 6 years to graduate though it can range from 3 to 11 years. The average for PhD and ThD is between 7.4 and 8.6 even though in the last five years we had 16 people take 10 years or longer to graduate.

In the MA and DMin programs the number of men and women enrolled is fairly equal. However, in the PhD and ThD programs there are twice as many men as women. In the MA program the ratio of men to women is 3:1.

Financing Graduate Education

One of the biggest challenges facing Advanced Degree students is financial support. In the old social contract there was some sense that Advanced Degree programs were either providing continuing education for clergy or preparing the next generation of teachers, intellectuals and theologians for the churches. On these assumptions relatively more financial support was available to students 50 years ago than is the case today. There were also many fewer students since most Faculty at Canadian theological colleges received their advanced degrees outside of Canada. Recently, the centrally and ecumenically coordinated offering of continuing theological education at TST has been eliminated due to financial constraints. These programs commonly require financial subsidy to survive and their cancellation reflects financial stress in the denominations more generally.

If Denominations are less able to finance the costs of educating the next generation of theologians, from where will that financing come? Two answers are development (which means find raising) and Government (which in Ontario means Universities). Governments also have financial challenges and in Canada, fewer Provincial Governments fund theological education than used to do so. The latest to end funding was the Government of British Columbia. In Ontario, the conflict over funding what was characterized as “sectarian” education was resolved in the 1970s by requiring theological schools to be associated with neighbouring Universities and requiring Universities to assure the Government that proper academic standards were being met. The Government may not have an interest in funding Christian education but it does have an interest in funding professional and graduate education. So, the funding of graduate education at TST is intimately connected to our relationship with the University of Toronto.

A few years ago the University of Toronto announced a policy of full funding for graduate students. This did not mean a full stipend for 16 years. It meant a modest stipend for 4 or 5 years. I have been surprised (and saddened) to discover that some graduate students came to TST thinking this guarantee covered students in our doctoral program because it was a conjoint degree with U of T. It does not. That doesn’t mean it should not. This guarantee is precisely the kind of support that is required if we want full-time graduate students to be really full-time and not pretending to be. My guess is, there is a relationship between the time to completion in a degree program and the need to find outside work in order to finance one’s education. Having said that, many departments at the University of Toronto were only able to meet the funding guarantee by significantly reducing the number of new doctoral admissions.

Placement of Graduates

Under the terms of the old Social Contract, the Denominations hired the graduates of their schools. In the absence of this assumption students now want to know what help they can get from their College in trying to find a job. Individual Professors and staff members can be helpful but we need to ask what a more focused effort might look like? Interestingly, Basic degree students pay a University fee which gives them access to the University of Toronto Career Centre. Advanced Degree students do not pay this fee and are not entitled to the Centre’s services. As we become more mindful of the competition among schools for graduate students, we are becoming more aware of the efforts other schools make to market their graduates.

The Role of International Students

Many people are surprised to discover how many international students are registered at TST. Many, but not all, are in an Advanced Degree program. International students have special challenges and I am not confident that we do a good enough job responding to them. First of all, many are working in their second or third language. Only recently have we begun to recognize their first language for language credit. They are far from home and may not have their families with them. They may have come from a more communal society and find themselves dropped into the market place of North American culture without the supports they normally rely on. We have not yet asked what community development among international students would look like.

While many of us in Toronto like to celebrate the ethnic and cultural diversity of this city, named by one United Nations Report as the most diverse in the world, there is more diversity among the local restaurants than there is among the faculty and administration of either TST or the University of Toronto. The presence of so many international students should remind us that TST has an important role to play in the development of the next generation of international theologians and church leaders. Our denominational identities provide us with extended families around the world. We could be much more intentional about establishing formal international relationships, including scholarship and exchange programs. 

These reflections on our changing social contract are meant to begin a discussion not end one. The new social contract is not immediately obvious, by its nature. It requires sustained analysis and reflection by all those participating in it. The more who are engaged in this process, the better it will be. I welcome feedback from others who are engaged in the same process.