Have Mercy is a research project concerned with the practice of education in religious and theological institutions. The Covid-19 pandemic and the Movement for Black Lives have together shed a discernible light onto the entrenched legacy of disenfranchisement that shapes much of higher education, even as institutions increasingly talk about commitments to justice. Theological education needs an understanding of justice shaped by a commitment to mercy. Mercy requires a reorientation of our educational practice away from exploitation and toward life affirmation.

Have Mercy brings a novel debate to the disciplines of religious education and practical theology by:

• Demanding a critical engagement with the theological and political implications of our (religious) educational practice

• Extending liberation theologies of mercy to the art and practice of religious and theological education, and

• Engaging “practitioners of mercy” in education and offering examples of how teaching and administration practices can be acts of mercy in educational life

Have Mercy is more than a critique of theological education; it is hope for its future.