Max L. Stackhouse is the Stephen Colwell Professor of Christian Ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary. Tim Dearborn is dean of the chapel and associate professor of religion at Seattle Pacific University. Scott Paeth is a doctoral student at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Apologia is about contemporary theological education -- its current state and its future. While many current trends in seminaries and departments of theology bring important new insights to the study of religion, says Max Stackhouse, they also erode -- sometimes unwittingly -- the capacity to speak of God, truth, and justice with warranted confidence. Theology is thereby undermined in all arenas -- not only in academia, but in the life of the church and society.

This book not only exposes the frailties of several current ideologies, but also draws noted scholars from five continents and a seminary faculty into an interdisciplinary discussion of the most significant recent literature on theological education. The results are fresh proposals for the reconstructing of theological education on foundations that are contextually alert, globally concerned, and mission- oriented.

Apologia is a ground-breaking work, a book that begins and ends in dialogue, and points toward the ways in which Christian theology will have to redefine itself if it is to actively shape, and not merely reflect, the context in which we live.