Many ordinands haven’t had their imagination informed deeply by Scripture or by the experience of life within a worshipping community for a long period of time. Even fewer have grown up in the Church. So, while they may have tremendous faith — and it takes a great deal of faith to put oneself forward for the ministry in the Church of England these days — they often aren’t native to the Church. Their way of understanding themselves and the world is typically formed within the same culture as everybody else: late modern consumerism. Through no fault of their own, they operate largely out of a secular social imaginary.
Schools for the Imagination: Reflections of a Former Theological Educator
As a simple layperson, this certainly explains a lot. A shame really, because maybe if there was serious attention paid to this, we’d have a better class of discussion. So tired of priests who don’t know a bit of Hebrew going off on some subtly anti-Semitic tangent during sermons, or those without any understanding of Thomistic theology shallowly opining on science/technology and respective ethical and interpretive concerns. It’s really… kind of embarrassing to be honest!