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I recommend your looking into the School of Theology at SBTS. It is academically strong and theologically conservative.Originally posted by lchemist:
So, which academically strong schools do you recommend and why?
And. which ones you do not recommend and why?
Thank you
For me the case was attending a Calivinistic, fundamentalist, rationalistic dispensational church for about ten years. It had not started that way but newcomers changed it. I got to the point where I had so many questions that even the pastor did not have answers for. What he preached often did not coincide with what I read in scripture. But when I went to SWBTS I found out where I had gone wrong. I found out that so much of what I was taught sprang from a Calvinistic, rationalistic, dispensationalist approach. It even brought me to the point of questioning the basis of evangelism and prayer. I thought: If everything was so cut and dried then why do anything?Originally posted by Paul33:
Sadly, some, not all, who attend liberal academic Ph.D. programs wind up abandoning historic Christianity for the theories of men.
Not necessarily! IMHO, it depends more upon the individual. Big name schools with reputations and more resources do tend to attract higher quality students. An abundance of fellowships helps attract quality grad students too.Originally posted by Rhetorician:
[snip]
You choose the school you choose the end product.
My two cents worth.
sdg!
rd
This is absolutely true, Paul. Well said. The pursuit of "academic excellence" is not all its cracked up to be. When people resort to liberal theological schools, we have to wonder what exactly they are pursuing.Knowing what liberals believe and teach is one thing. Sitting under their teaching week in and week out to attain "academic excellence," well, that's another thing.
The time wasted on "their" theology could be better spent learning the truth!
You can't really put these together since the WCF pretty much excludes dispensationalism.Putting a Westminster confession Calvinist together with a dispensational system is an explosive combination.
You still seem to have a real bug in your craw about this. I wonder why this continues. There is no reason for you to be going after separatistic fundamentalists in this manner. It is always fascinating to me that I never see the kind of ire and disdain out of fundamentalists that I see against fundamentalists by people who have left it. It is too bad you have such a negative view.And then add in separtistic fundamentalist! Watch out!
Yeah, fine. What is more important--believing the Bible or having an academic knowledge of unbelieving theology?Originally posted by Charles Meadows:
As would be expected any of the "bigger name" places are going to involve studying non-fundamentalist works.
Going to an "inerrantist" school is fine. And getting a degree in bible or even an MDiv or DMin is certainly not a problem.
But a PhD is an advanced academic degree. Studying only "inerrantist" works does not constitute academic theology. Even if one maintains an inerrantist position at a "bigger name school" he/she will have to INTERACT with current scholarship, conservative and liberal.
Hey Rhet! Who lighted your fuse? In the post to which you responded, what did I protest? What sparked your rhetoric?Originally posted by Rhetorician:
paidagogos,
Me thinks thou dost protest too much!
It depends on where you want to end up, what specifically you want to teach, and whom you want to be "when you grow up!" Not everybody in the world wants to be a "fightin' fundamentalist" all of their lives?! Some of us believe that there is more to the Gospel than "Saying a prayer" to "be saved" and that the Baptist are relatively new comers on the "theological block" as it were. And, that those "fightin' fundamentalists" are even later-comers who may not even understand who the Baptists are from history?!
One of the biggest missions fields there is--is the secular university! I for one believe that to share the Gospel with the educated--you must be educated; and know all of the ends and outs and their nomenclature in order to know how to apply the Gospel to those who do not say "shibboleth/sibboleth" like a "fightin' fundamentalist." I am probably wasting my breath and arguments here.
I also believe that one can hold to the "Historic Fundamentals" of the early 20th Century and not loose their convictions or understandings of the Gospel and still have a ministry; to those who are "liberal," or "conservative," or "Roman Catholic," or whomever.
That is one of the problems of the "fundy" movement. They are so separated, that by and large they have lost the Gospel and have ended up full of victriol and hyper-Pharisasim. (sp?).
The Monastic Movements of the RC did not work with the devotees trying to separate themselves from the world to maintain personal holiness. And many of the same things that caused it to fail have shown up in the "fundy" movements of out time. Which I might add have failed in the main as well. Like many movements in Church History, what started out with good and Godly motivations, they have gone awry in one or two generations hence.
Some are so concerned with "hyper-separation" that I for one believe that it is just a ruse to cover; either their own insecurity OR their own lack of/or ability to think critically through many of the issues of The Faith (cf. Jude).
"Angry exhortations" welcomed and expected!
sdg!
rd