Churches under threat as theological education suffers
The Head of the Department of Religion and Human Values of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Rev. Prof. Eric Nii Bortey Anum, says the future of churches is under threat.
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That, he said, was due to the lack of priority given to theological programmes in educational institutions.
“We must be mindful that there is no future for the new churches springing up if theology is given less attention and relegated to the background in our educational institutions,” he said.
According to him, theological programmes were aimed at training students for pastoral work, but unfortunately, many training institutions were now giving more priority to science and business programmes.
Rev. Prof. Anum was speaking at the 6th Ghana Association of Biblical Exegetes (GABES) held in Accra last Tuesday.
The three-day conference, which was on the theme, “The Bible and health”, brought together theological scholars to share ideas on the study of the Bible in the Ghanaian context.
Priority on theology
Rev. Prof. Anum said, “many institutions are currently focusing on business and science courses because of their focus is on generating more revenue.”
He said the rate at which theological programmes had been neglected had resulted in some theological lecturers being laid off in some institutions.
“The lecturers are being made redundant mainly because theological classes are getting small, requiring the services of few lecturers,” he said.
He, therefore, urged educational institutions to give priority to theological programmes to help inculcate in the people Christian ethics and values which would guide them in every sphere of their lives.
“We achieve this priority by investing in the purchase of theological books and hiring more lecturers to teach the courses,” he stated.
Theological expansion
Rev. Prof. Anum further stated that revenue generated from science and business programmes could be used by the educational institutions to expand theological programmes.
“Churches in the country are expanding and this underscores the need for the expansion of theology in our schools,” he added.