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Abstract

Theological educational has classically been associated with educating pastors for local church ministries, non-pastoral ministries and theologians for higher education. In this article I postulate that the role of theological education goes beyond these practical ministry perception to the shaping of societal images of God expressed through the orienting system.

In the first part of the article I argue that one's faith formation is closely related to one's development of God's image. This is not an isolated process, but an appropriation of God's image disseminated through nurture by one's immediate family and society at large. The proliferation of all these experiences are what I refer to as the orienting system - the context which presents God's image through all forms of life expressions including art, music, oral stories and proverbs, sermons, written opinions, nature, observed events, and shared experiences. It is these that are integrated into one's life experiences to form an image of God. And it is one's God image that determines how one interprets and cirnunvents life experiences, as manifest in critical situations. The question explored in this paper is the role that theological education plays in the formation of God's image expressed through the Orienting system.

DOI

10.7252/Journal.01.2012S.06

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