Dear brother in Christ, to answer your question, "Are the problems confronting American seminaries merely theological? Or is the problem more systemic?": I'd say "more systemic."
And not just in the seminaries; but in the churches themselves. It seems to me a "careerist attitude" is increasingly common today, as if being the pastor of a flock could in any sense ever be "a job," entailing concerns about promotion, mediation of grievances, pay, pensions, etc.
Thanks so much for the ping, dear YHAOS!
“. . . not just in the seminaries; but in the churches themselves.”
What happens in the seminaries rears its ugly head in the churches. Just as in education generally (or the lack of education), so does it generally rear its ugly head in society.
“It seems to me a "careerist attitude" is increasingly common today”
It once was referred to as a “calling.” Just as politicians once answered the “call” to serve their community in one governmental function or another, as a way to “pay back” for the benefits of a benevolent government designed to minister to the legitimate needs of the governed. When people come to regard politics as a “career,” then we may be sure that government for the people, at their consent, is being supplanted by a tyranny managed by a “ruling class.”
Thanks for the comeback.