Seminary and Faith

[JonC]

On another thread @Van insisted that seminary students have to pretend to believe the doctrines taught by a seminary in order to pass seminary.

My experience was much different. I attended a Baptist seminary affiliated with the SBC.

BUT I attended with free-will Baptists (who disagreed with seminary position on the security of the believer), a Presbyterian (who disagreed with their view of Baptism), and a few Church of God members (who disagreed on several points the seminary taught).

@Van believes those people had to lie or recieve a poor grade. This, however, was not the case.

The Presbyterian (someone I maintained contact with for a few years) wrote a paper explaining why infant baptism is proper, relating it to circumcision and a covenant within the congregation, challenging the seminaries position. He made a very good grade on that paper even though it disagreed with what the seminary taught.

He was also a Calvinist (this was not a Calvinistic seminary) and defended his view.

Same with the others who were not SBC.

I disagreed with the seminary's teaching on original sin. I graduated with honors.


So, for others who attended seminary, what was your experience?

Did you have, as @Van suggests, to go along with teachings of the organization you disagreed with when writing a thesis to get a good grade or were you encouraged to articulate and defend your own beliefs?

 

[JonC]

Reading comments on another forum, I think the confusion @Van has is with disciplines.

If I were majoring in biology, I certainly would be graded against the facts of that discipline. Same with accounting, engineering, physics, etc.

But there are some disciplines that are different as they hinge on one's belief. They are to an extent subjective.

A thesis (in a seminary theology course) is not about restating facts but in developing, communicating, and defending one's beliefs or ideas.

 

[Marooncat79]

Complex

if you are being tested over lectures, it’s immaterial what you believe. You have to answer accordingly.


If it’s a paper, state your case and make it


There are some schools which will kick you out for liber views if they are conservative.

liberal schools are the same in terms of a paper.

I once took a class where I did not agree w the professor and lecture and put a disclaimer of something like “the answers provided may or may not reflect the views of this student”

for a dissertation write about something no one else knows about

one lady wrote how on the middle passive voice of American Americans was a left over of African languages ie “I be stayin”

 

[Marooncat79]

Btw, there are a few schools which will allow you to state conservative view back in the day

RC Sproul would talk about a German professor he had that enjoyed reading his papers but was not a conservative

 

[JonC]

Complex

if you are being tested over lectures, it’s immaterial what you believe. You have to answer accordingly.


If it’s a paper, state your case and make it


There are some schools which will kick you out for liber views if they are conservative.

liberal schools are the same in terms of a paper.

I once took a class where I did not agree w the professor and lecture and put a disclaimer of something like “the answers provided may or may not reflect the views of this student”

for a dissertation write about something no one else knows about

one lady wrote how on the middle passive voice of American Americans was a left over of African languages ie “I be stayin”

There is a difference, I agree.

For example, MLK wrote papers at Crozer and Boston to examine the beliefs of certain theologians. This is fairly objective (MLK didn't state his views but weighed the theologies of those men).

But MLK also wrote in thesis form to state and defend his own views. This was subjective. It isn't passing a test but explaining and defending one's own belief (MLK did an outstanding job, btw).

 

[JonC]

Btw, there are a few schools which will allow you to state conservative view back in the day

RC Sproul would talk about a German professor he had that enjoyed reading his papers but was not a conservative

Most seminaries did. It was a out expressing and defending (adequately defending) ones beliefs. That not only fostered conservatives, but also liberalism.

 

[Marooncat79]

School I went to had a lot of Koreans in the Doctoral Program 4-5?

One of them wrote a paper defending Liberation Theology. I am unsure if he really understood what he was writing. His English was lacking.

It created a hullabaloo

 

[JonC]

School I went to had a lot of Koreans in the Doctoral Program 4-5?

One of them wrote a paper defending Liberation Theology. I am unsure if he really understood what he was writing. His English was lacking.

It created a hullabaloo

I bet that (the language barrier) was difficult.

 

[RighteousnessTemperance&]

I bet that (the language barrier) was difficult.

Even worse than on this board?!

 

[SATS PROF]

My first masters was from Pasadena Nazarene which now is Point Loma University. It is Arminian, but I am Calvinistic. In one course we read and commented on Arminius' huge 3 volume set. I graduated with no trouble.

Another example is that my thesis on Christology at Corban was supervised by Wayne House who vigorously believes that the Son as God is eternally role subordinate to the Father. But I like Hillary, Augustine, G. Nazianzus, Calvin, and C. Hodge reject that opinion. And chapter 4 of the book I wrote based on the Corban D. Min. thesis , which Wayne approved, was an attempt to discredit his position on eternal role subordination.. At Corban too the D. Min. director-a very nice brother,-rejected my view that M. Erickson is a kenoticist! (He is!) Yet I graduated.

So, I've fortunate, I guess.

 

[Piper]

For my two degrees, we were required to write papers on controversial topics and I differed from the Academic Dean on dispensationalism, but he said as long as I defended my position well, I could get a good grade. I got an A in his class. Upon graduation, you had to sign the doctrinal statement of the school and state clearly any divergences, and explain those divergences. I did. I was not Pre-trib, and I believe in limited atonement, so had to defend those. They were good with
those. They would not allow people who believed in Infant baptism to become students at the seminaries, but if they came to believe that, they would allow them to graduate.​

 

[Salty]

I still like the story of the young man taking his final exam on theology.
He was to write one hour on Christ Jesus and one hour on the Devil.

At the end of the second hour - the professor went to pick up the papers.
When he got to a certain student - as he looked at the paper the professor
stated: You only wrote about the Lord - where is your paper on the devil?

The student responded
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I was so involved with the Lord
that I had no time for the Devil

Best theology I have ever heard!

 

[yc205]

I would pray and do my research before applying to any Bible School. Currently I'm finishing my first semester at an SBC Seminary in Texas and God really led me to the right place through much prayer and godly counsel.
However, back 10 years ago, when I was still a teenager, I attended Christ For The Nations Institute because it was the "cool Bible college" with absolutely no prayer or counselling and it was a train wreck.

 

[Dr. Bob]

When I taught and was Academic Dean of a school that was "non-denominational", I had about 2/3 Baptist/Bible church and 1/3 Assembly/Pentecostal. When teaching sophomore level Bible classes, it was x-y-z facts or maps etc. Tests were objective, no wiggle room.

But when I taught junior/senior level Bible classes, like theology, it was my lectures, discussion on all views, BUT on tests it was "present YOUR position and DEFEND it." All students appreciated not be forced to regurgitate a professor's theology.

 

[Marooncat79]

One of my OT profs was huge on lists

If he gave 15 reasons, he wanted all 15 back on the test

No wiggle room

I learned well after the 1st test

 

[Deacon]

A thesis (in a seminary theology course) is not about restating facts but in developing, communicating, and defending one's beliefs or ideas.

That sort of the definition of the word, "thesis"!

When you are young and learning the basics, your regurgitate facts.
As you progress in your learning, you begin to organize those facts and learn how they function in reality.
Later, (when you begin to realize that reality is much more complicated that you could ever imagine) you begin to develop your own ideas...

Develop those ideas too quickly (before you learn the foundational basics), and you are graded poorly.

Rob

 

[JonC]

That sort of the definition of the word, "thesis"!

When you are young and learning the basics, your regurgitate facts.
As you progress in your learning, you begin to organize those facts and learn how they function in reality.
Later, (when you begin to realize that reality is much more complicated that you could ever imagine) you begin to develop your own ideas...

Develop those ideas too quickly (before you learn the foundational basics), and you are graded poorly.

Rob

I agree. My point was about MLK's defence of his thesis. While framed within a Christian context and using "Chrustian" terms, his position regarding the Resurrected Christ cannot be legitimately viewed as Christian because it denies the bodily resurrection of Jesus. His faith was, by his writings, a Christian themed social philosophy, very much like Jefferson's faith.