I consider them high-impact leaders in the field. The ten theologians involved in this consultation were chosen because they bring a diverse range of social and institutional perspectives, they represent the major branches of Christianity (Roman Catholic, Orthodox, mainline/Black/Evangelical Protestant, Pentecostal), and they are able to speak about trends in the discipline beyond North American theological academy. Making this project public is intended to elicit continuing critical and constructive discussion about the topics raised. It is more like a seminar, a series of related conversations, which together contribute to a set of broader, ongoing conversations about the nature, state, and future of the discipline. Neither is it a manifesto, which represents the interests of particular individuals or groups. It focuses on anglophone, academic theology, and it is weighted heavily (though not exclusively) toward the theology in North American, European, and Australian contexts, of the sort typically featured in Syndicate symposia. It does not provide a neutral, objective, scientific account of any of the questions it raises. The report is not a comprehensive sociological study. The Syndicate Report on the State of Theology and the three symposia organized in response reflect on the field of academic theology. At the conclusion, I will reflect more concretely what the future holds for Syndicate in light of what I have learned in this process. Those responses will be posted each Monday and Thursday in the coming weeks. For the second phase, I invited a diverse group of theologians to respond to different aspects of the report. This phase culminated in the report (below), which reflects my analysis and interpretation of the survey responses. Each participant filled out a detailed survey, which asked them to define theology, identify recent, dynamic work, and envision the future of field. In the first phase, I consulted with a small but diverse, ecumenical, globally representative group of theologians, who were grounded in their own specialty, capable of speaking more broadly about the field, and connected in some way to Syndicate. So far, the project has proceeded in two phases. The project is incomplete and open-ended by design. It was important to me to do all this in a way that could be made public in a relatively short span of time. The goal of the project was to identify some of the most important work currently being done in the field, to reflect on what it means to produce significant theological work, to consider the contexts in which theological work is produced, and to anticipate the challenges and opportunities that the discipline can expect to face in the future. In March 2019, I began organizing a multi-stage project meant to explore the state of theology as a discipline.
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