Theological Education and Mission in Estonia: Dialogue in Theory and Practice

Abstract

Estonian baptistic communities face a missiological problem. They lack the ability for a meaningful dialogue with the rapidly changing society. As a result, churches tend to distance themselves from the wider community and create Christian echo-chambers in the midst of a ‘hostile’ world, becoming alienated from their culture and society. This results in a missional disability as far as touching the lives of people and serving the society goes in a highly secularised and hyper-modernised Estonia. This article presents an attempt by the Estonian Free Church Theological Seminary to face this missional challenge by creating a master’s programme ‘Theology and Society’, using dialogical and problem-based learning methods in the educational process, to prepare future Christian leaders.