America’s Changing Religious and Cultural Landscape and its Implications for Theological Education

America’s Changing Religious and Cultural Landscape and its Implications for Theological Education Ammerman, Nancy T. This essay explores the changes in American culture that have made the very notion of religious communities and religious leadership an increasing challenge. Gathering, sustaining, and leading a congregation requires different assumptions and skills than when ATS was founded. Despite the difficulties, however, religious communities are essential, both to the faith and spiritual lives of their participants and to the well-being of the communities in which they are located. This article was provided to OpenBU by the author for open deposit. The publisher's copyright notice states: "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 addressed to the author(s)."