Who is my Neighbour? Theological Education in the Global Village of the 21st Century (Responses)

Abstract

Chukwuemeka Anthony Atansi’s keynote address offered a series of reflections on how the Igbo theological anthropology of the neighbour can enrich theological education in diverse contexts such as Montreal. The Igbo theological anthropology of the neighbour offers a relational understanding of the neighbour, a relationality which comprises a crucial component of Karen Finch’s response, one which argues that good pastoral education in today’s polarized world strongly resembles good ecumenical formation. For Finch, ecumenical formation is about relationality and the dialogues that this relationality provokes, and she argues that, when approached with openness and transparency, such dialogues can be truly generative for pastoral education.

Alyson Huntly’s response offers a series of reflections about the state of theological education in Quebec, reflections which also highlight relationality, or, more precisely, the need for Western institutions, hitherto predominantly white, to re-evaluate and re-envision how they relate to – and thereby dialogue with and learn from –  the “Others” who now represent a majority demographic in Quebec’s theological colleges, many of whom come from the Global South or formerly colonized nations. This, she argues, represents the path to renewal for theological education in twenty-first century Quebec.