Image: Courtesy of Fraternidad Teológica Latinoamericana / edits by Rick Szuecs
Editor’s note: CT also offers a collection of tributes by leaders and friends of Padilla.
C. René Padilla, theologian, pastor, publisher, and longtime staff member with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, died Tuesday, April 27, at the age of 88.
Padilla was best known as the father of integral mission, a theological framework that has been adopted by over 500 Christian missions and relief organizations, including Compassion International and World Vision. Integral mission pushed evangelicals around the world to widen their Christian mission, arguing that social action and evangelism were essential and indivisible components in Padilla’s words, “two wings of a plane.”
Candler School of Theology at Emory University is completing the third and final phase of the Theological Education Between the Times (TEBT) project, which includes publication of a series of 12 books to help readers understand what might be born out of this time of transition in theological education. The first three books are now available.
Launched in 2014, TEBT is funded by grants from Lilly Endowment Inc. and led by Ted A. Smith 04G, professor of preaching and ethics. Smith initiated the project in recognition of seismic social, cultural and demographic shifts that demand a reassessment of how to approach theological education.