Inviting Undergraduate Students into Theological Reflection Meeting the Challenges of Teaching Theology within General Education Contexts

Abstract

When upper-level theology courses are taught within a general education program at colleges and universities, instructors are often challenged to invite students, some of whom are committed neither to the discipline of theology nor to Christian faith, into a style of critical reflection that largely depends on both of these commitments. In a reflective approach, we move back and forth in this essay as a student and teacher to respond to this challenge. From a teacher’s perspective, the first section argues for the need to cultivate theological thinkers, even in the relatively brief duration of a single course. In the second section, we together propose an option for a theological framework that invites students taking theology courses within their general education program to think theologically. From a student’s perspective, the third section proposes a constructive option for inviting students into theological ways of thinking in inductive ways.