Book Synopsis
The Guide of Spanish-Language Theological Resources is a compilation of more than 200 recommended resources by nineteen leading Spanish-speaking theologians. The Guide was created by Emmanuel Academies to aid Spanish-language theological programs in identifying recommended books or other resources to assist seminarians in their formation. The current edition reflects an intentional bias towards resources for pastoral candidates of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. Resources are each categorized within the curriculum subjects with the ATS-accredited Master of Divinity program offered by Kairos University in conjunction with Emmanuel Academies.
All revenues in excess of the cost of printing will be utilized to provide scholarships to our Spanish-speaking seminarians. The Guide was kickstarted by a Capacity Building Grant from Leadership Education at Duke Divinity and the Association for Hispanic Theological Education, with additional funding from Emmanuel Academies, Inc.
About The Author
EA was founded in 2017 to identify and equip pastors for tomorrow's Church in a sustainable way. Our founders had seen how challenged traditional seminaries were with their legacy institutional models, inability to foster and sustain innovation, and unsustainably high cost of facilitating pastoral formation. Rather than investing millions of dollars in building a seminary (systems, curriculums, faculty, time, etc.), we ultimately became an Integrated Partner with Sioux Falls Seminary (now known as Kairos University). This partnership allowed us to develop a unique and highly appropriate program for our seminarians without the burdens of a stand-alone accredited institution.
Our core program is our Master of Divinity program on the ATS-accredited Kairos Platform of Kairos University. Seminarians study and practice until they demonstrate mastery of targeted learning outcomes. Each seminarian is nurtured by an intentionally selected, three-person mentor team, including Faculty, Pastoral and Personal Mentors. Our program is highly scalable, very effective, customized to meet each student's needs, and affordable at a tuition rate of $300 per month. Though we have not intentionally recruited, more than 50% of our US-based future pastors are female and Latina.
Our demographically diverse student body, high numbers of Latino and Latina seminarians, and the vision of being in 'the South, facing South' helped us realize a significant need for more Lutheran theological education resources in the Spanish language. A comprehensive search could not locate a comprehensive listing of theological resources directly aligned with the Master of Divinity degree curriculum, primarily focusing on Latino/Hispanic Lutheran and Ecumenical Pastoral Formation. This need fueled our efforts to create the Guide.
We are excited about the future formation of pastors who are well skilled and trained to serve diverse communities and cultures. We strongly believe in equipping pastors within their own communities, in an economically sustainable manner, while leveraging the latest technologies and the optimal mentor teams for each seminarian.
We are thankful to all of those who are aligned with our mission and goals. Soli Deo gloria!