TEEnet is pleased to announce the publication of Theological Education by Extension: Accounts from the 20th Century. The book is a collection of accounts of the experiences from early TEE practitioners in the 20th century. The accounts were compiled by the editorial team, comprising Patricia J. Harrison and Volker Glissmann. Patricia’s own involvement with TEE goes back to the early years of that movement. She first learned about TEE from one of its main founders, Dr Ralph Winter, and, since then, TEE has been an important part of her ministry. She has helped establish, and worked in a TEE programme, written a number of TEE courses, and trained TEE facilitators and course writers in many countries. Volker has been involved in TEE first as the Executive Director of Theological Education by Extension in Malawi (TEEM), then as Programme Developer for the TEE College in Johannesburg, South Africa. He lives in Malawi, where he continues to develop TEE courses, particularly for grassroots audiences. Volker is a founding member of TEEnet (Theological Education by Extension Network).
The early 1960s witnessed the development of an extension experiment at a Guatemalan theological seminary, which gradually took shape, ultimately leading to the emergence of both a vision and an approach to theological education. Today, the outcome from the experiment is known as Theological Education by Extension (TEE). Theological Education by Extension: Accounts from the 20th Century is a collection of accounts and experiences from various early TEE practitioners who implemented, in their own contexts, a new approach to extending theological education.
The book is a collection of 25 individual stories and experiences of those who have been involved, in one way or another, in implementing TEE in its early years. It is a testimony both to the ingenuity, creativity, and flexibility of these early TEE pioneers and to the versatility of the TEE movement.
The accounts collected cover TEE programmes, both independent ones and those linked to theological colleges, in Africa, Asia, South America, Australia and Oceania. The TEE programmes encompass a range of contexts, including individual, ecumenical, and denominational programmes, and in a few cases, accounts from practitioners who served in the same programme over a period of time. TEE programmes discussed in the book originated from a variety of generally Evangelical sources – denominational, interdenominational, para-church and non-denominational. Denominations represented include Presbyterian, Anglican, Lutheran, Pentecostal and more.
One regret of the editors was that such a project had not been undertaken earlier, as then more diverse accounts could have been collected and preserved. Yet, the editors are still very interested in hearing additional accounts and stories from the early years of TEE. If anyone has further information about early TEE workers or documents in various languages, please reach out to the editors via TEENet ([email protected]).
The book is available as a free and fully accessible e-book, in line with TEEnet’s vision to encourage open access to theological learning materials (see TEEnet and Open Access Learning Materials). We are grateful to the authors, editors and other copyright holders for their willingness to forfeit any royalties and publish the book under a Creative Commons licence. Please click here for the e-book Theological Education by Extension: Accounts from the 20th Century. A paperback version of the book is also available, sold by TEEnet, solely to cover production and shipping costs. Inquiries for purchase of the paperback version should be directed to [email protected].