In Academia for the Church

DR ÁBRAHÁM KOVÁCS is an Associate Professor at Debrecen Reformed University. After obtaining his MTh from Princeton, he earned his PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2003. He has published several books with Peter Lang and L'Harmattan Publishing House. Dr Kovács' articles focus on Christian theology, comparative theologies, mission studies, Jewish- Christian relations and Scottish Hungarian church history. He is trained as a historian, theologian and historian of religion.

Tension between theory and practice in theological education is an unfortunate yet common occurrence, with educators sometimes finding themselves on one extreme or the other. Some academics can be so immersed in high-level theological discourse that they hardly interact with the main questions of the average church-goer, while others are so keen to be engaging and relevant they fail to be rigorous in their scholarship. Regardless of the reasons the results are the same - failure to present the good news with a powerful, credible voice. To address this tension between academia and the church, a group of Eastern European theologians came together in the spring of 2013 in Berekfüd¿, Hungary. This publication is a collection of 10 edited papers presented at that conference. While topics are addressed from a European context the principles behind them are far-reaching, providing important insight for the global church and academy alike.