God knows what he is doing within human learning. We cannot grasp it all. Yet we also do not often grasp as full a picture of human learning as God created our minds and hearts to be able to consider.

Why Do We Teach the Way We Do?

I sat under a mango tree as a fellow American trainer of pastors in the Philippines personally admitted, "I know the curriculum has 'Praise or Pray' at different parts throughout, but there's so much to cover that I just skip those parts." Meanwhile, multiple pastors there in the Philippines—and in India, and in Mongolia, and Tanzania, and Uganda, Turkey, Romania, Brazil, Chile, Panama, etc.—have personally told me (in various versions of English or via interpreters):

We are learning so much about God, about his Word, about pastoring and teaching. One part of this training that has helped even more than most is when we get to connect what we are learning to praising God together, and lamenting, and praying with each other—in the classroom and flowing from the lesson!

There seems to be a disconnect, to say the least, in the two versions of learning presented above. I think the disconnect should prompt us to reflect: Why do we teach the way we do? Is it the best? What could we do as teachers to help our students learn better? How robustly have we considered the way God designed humans to learn?

God has things to say about human learning. And it all starts with his creative artistry.

God is an Artist—the Artist, the Great Artist

In the beginning, God was the Artist. He is the Artist-King, I tell you. He sovereignly, wisely, and beautifully painted on a non-existent canvas four dimensions of water and time and light, of mountains and trees, sun and stars, fruit and living creatures of countless kinds (Genesis 1:1–25).

God made humans his royal image—like a self-portrait, a coin, a statue, a mirror... but living and breathing and learning. God created humans as kingly and queenly beings specifically designed to proclaim and portray to creation his own Kingly care and character through what we, as his image, do and how we do it (Genesis 1:26–28).

God did it all like a master Artisan. A divine potter, "forming" or "molding" the first man, Adam (Genesis 2:7). He got his hands dirty, delicately spinning the man from dirt to breath and life like a potter a miraculous masterpiece. A divine builder, "building" the first woman, Eve (Genesis 2:22). He built her like a house, a city, a fortification, a family. He got his hands bloody, masterfully constructing Queen Eve as royalty from a piece of King Adam and designed to help rule beside him.

God's Artistry Continues

God has manifested his creativity through human form ever since. He "clothed" Job (and every human) with skin and flesh, "weaving" or "knitting" him together with bones and sinews (Job 10:11). And David, leading Israelite worship, delighted in how God "knit" or "weaved" him together in his mother's womb (Psalm 139:13).

God shone his creative glory again through human form as his own eternal Son became enfleshed in the full form of a human! God overshadowed Mary (Luke 1:35), as if sitting down at his work bench, bending down close, blocking out the sun or artist's lamp. In the light of his own honor, he knit human nature for his own Son in her virgin womb.

God has felt human complexity. Beauty. Pain. Learning. Mourning. Maturing—all from the inside out in his Son, our Lord Jesus.

God's Artistry in You and Me—and Our Students

God continues to "fearfully and wonderfully make" us—each of us, from the poorest slum in India to the highest throne in Africa, from the weirdest homes of America to the most normal experiences of Asia... and everywhere in between.

Fearful. Wonderful. The very way God masterfully molds, wonderfully weaves, beautifully builds, and caringly crafts us evokes obedient awe and shocking wonder.

Do our souls, like David's, know this full well?

I imagine you already know God's careful creating of humans theoretically. By faith. In general. But...

Have you fearfully, wonderfully, and carefully considered how God's creative attention to crafting anthropoi affects how you and your students learn? And thus how you teach? This short essay begins to explore such queries—particularly for professors and teachers.

Theological Anthropology for Theological Education

What might happen within the world of cross-cultural theological education (or any education) if we were to more deeply and carefully consider "theological anthropology"—that is, how humans (anthropology) are made by God (theology)—specifically for education:

• How exactly has God molded and built male and female humans to learn something deeply?
• How exactly has God weaved and knit humans together—individually and as a collective—so as to be transformed by deep learning?
• How exactly has God crafted and formed us so that our learning can help transform others, and through them others, and then others, etc.?

Here is our big question:

Since God (theology) has crafted humans (anthropology) intentionally and intricately, how should a robust "theological anthropology" affect our theory and practice of cross-cultural theological education?

The "how" is the topic of Part 2.