Theological Education Mission Statement
Theological Education, the journal of The Association of Theological Schools and The Commission on Accrediting of ATS, is devoted to the distinctive concerns of graduate theological education in North America. The journal supports the mission of the Association and the Commission by providing those concerned with theological education—including administrators, faculty, and independent researchers—with scholarly discourse and reports on issues and trends, research findings and resources, and models of critical analysis and effective practices in graduate theological education.
ATS Mission Statement
The mission of The Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada is to promote the improvement and enhancement of theological schools to the benefit of communities of faith and the broader public. The purpose of The Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools is to contribute to the improvement and enhancement of theological education through the accreditation of schools that are members of ATS.
Format of the Journal: Theme Focus and Open Forum
The theme focus section of the journal contains articles that have been solicited by the editors or the Editorial Board. These articles address current topics and issues in theological education, identified areas of the Association’s work, and/or reports of work undertaken by ATS projects.
Unsolicited submissions are generally considered for publication in the open forum section. These articles may focus on any of a variety of subjects related to graduate, professional theological education in North America. The open forum may also include articles drawn from presentations at ATS leadership education events and other Association venues in order to make them more widely available.
Submission Guidelines
Theological Education invites submissions of articles that are consistent with the journal’s purposes as enumerated in its mission statement. Unsolicited submissions are reviewed by at least two members of the journal’s editorial board, who make recommendations to the editors regarding their publication. The editorial board will not consider articles that are being submitted simultaneously to other publications.
1. Recommended length of articles is 3,750 words (approximately 15 double-spaced pages).
2. Follow Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed., using one-inch margins, left justification, and endnotes. Convert footnotes to endnotes.
3. Write in the third-person form when possible.
4. If quoting Scripture, include the Bible translation with each reference.
5. The American Heritage Dictionary and the Canadian Oxford Dictionary are the references for preferred spellings.
6. Provide a paragraph abstract of approximately 80 words at the beginning of the article.
7. Add a short (2–3 sentence) paragraph at the end of the article identifying the author(s), institution or relationship to the project/topic, position held, and/or other information relevant to the experience of the writer(s).
8. Submissions should be emailed to editors@ats.edu.
Responses to prior articles are encouraged and are published at the discretion of the editors. The suggested length for a reader response is 1,500 words; responses may be edited for length.
Author’s Checklist
1. The audience for Theological Education includes people from multiple academic disciplines and diverse religious traditions, who share in common their work as theological educators. Have you written with this audience in mind?
2. Does the article contribute significantly to current interdisciplinary discourse about theological education?
3. Does the subject matter represent new ideas or experiences that colleagues at other theological schools can incorporate into their teaching or administration?
4. Will the article spark useful debate on the topic?
5. Is the article well-written with a clear focus and well-developed/supported arguments?
6. If applicable, does the article make accurate use of the data available from ATS and other sources?
7. Does the article conform to the submission guidelines listed above?
Copyright Notice
The journal, Theological Education, carries the following copyright notice, which grants permission for reproduction and distribution of articles for educational purposes among ATS member schools. Authors whose articles are accepted for publication must agree to this policy. Requests for other uses must be sought from the author(s) themselves.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by means of any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act, or in writing from the publisher.
Permission is hereby granted without charge for the reproduction and distribution of this work, or any of its parts, for educational purposes by the faculty or administration of member institutions of The Association of Theological Schools, provided that no fee or compensation is charged for copies, use of, or access to such information beyond the actual cost of reproduction or access, and that the copyright notice is included intact.
Requests for permission for all other uses of any part of this work should be made to the author(s).
The journal is indexed in the ATLA Religion Database and is available in electronic form in ATLASerials (ATLAS), both produced by the American Theological Library Association, 300 S. Wacker Drive, Suite 2100, Chicago, IL 60606-6701; email: atla@atla.com; website: www.atla.com.