Learning for Future Complex Tasks: Learning Approaches in Norwegian and Dutch Curricula of Theological Education

In this article, we forefront and analyse different approaches to learning in higher theological education. In a society of increasing pluralization and democratization, the knowledge base of theology is in change. A constitutive feature of the expertise of future clergy may be simply to learn. In this article we examine the conditions for learning in the curricula of higher theological education. Learning is here not studied as an outcome of education. Here we study the conditions for learning created by how content, methods/tools and relations are combined in the curriculum. The material of this analysis is curriculum texts from the education of Protestant pastors at the MF Norwegian School of Theology (MF) and from the Protestantse Theologische Universiteit (PThU) in the Netherlands. The findings show that the two countries emphasize different learning approaches, and that the two curricula in differing degrees are oriented towards acquiring and creating new knowledge. We argue that the learning approaches in theological higher education establish quite different conditions and trajectories for how future pastors learn and handle knowledge. These learning trajectories can affect core activities of future pastors, which is to theologize.