The Unity of Theology

greenbaggins · #1 (**permalink**) 07-03-2008, 11:42 AM

I intend for this post to be a seed for a future journal article. What do ya'll think?

greenbaggins · #2 (**permalink**) 07-04-2008, 11:33 AM

Bump.

DMcFadden · #3 (**permalink**) 07-04-2008, 01:19 PM

Lane,

I agree with your thesis and would love to see a journal article expanding it.

It closely parallels some of my own complaints with seminary education today.

It never ceases to amaze me what an advantage you Westminster folks have over those of us who went to an interdenominational seminary. The proliferation of "perspectives" only exacerbates the fragmentation that you speak about in your post. Instead of OT, NT, Christian Education, Sys Theo, etc., you have Reformed (non-confessional) OT, Weslyan OT, Pentecostal OT, etc.

greenbaggins · #4 (**permalink**) 07-04-2008, 01:21 PM

Wow, and I thought WTS had some problems! Thanks for the perspective, Dennis.

DMcFadden · #5 (**permalink**) 07-04-2008, 05:23 PM

Another thought, Lane,

The environment of the interdenominational school tends to breed tolerance of diversity and reduced commitments to one's own tradition. Perhaps that is part of my difficulty (especially at first) of feeling the force of the baptism threads. When you go to school with people all over the theological and ecclesiastical landscape and have teachers hailing from different traditions as well, some issues just don't seem all that important (e.g., baptism). The very nature of the interdenominational school wars against any specific belief being taken with full seriousness. All gets relativized, pluralized, and privatized in the mix. You speak in tongues? Cool. If it works for you, fine. You baptize only believers? Works for me. You want to be confessional? OK, I guess. Etc., etc., you get the point. Plus it fits the zeitgeist perfectly in a postmodern setting!

py3ak · #6 (**permalink**) 07-04-2008, 08:44 PM

I would like to see more emphasis placed on the theological encyclopaedia myself. It seems to me that you could never work through Hebrew 7 properly without being confronted with a need for every aspect of it. And that highlights the impracticality of undue specialization: a pastor must often be competent in multiple theological disciplines.

I think it might also be questioned if the specialization necessitated by "keeping up with your field" doesn't involve sacrificing some measure of real learning in order to keep in the current of contemporary contributions; but that seems like a bondage to the now singularly inappropriate in those who are pointing us to eternity.

DavidGGraves · #7 (**permalink**) 07-10-2008, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DMcFadden

Another thought, Lane,

The environment of the interdenominational school tends to breed tolerance of diversity and reduced commitments to one's own tradition. Perhaps that is part of my difficulty (especially at first) of feeling the force of the baptism threads. When you go to school with people all over the theological and ecclesiastical landscape and have teachers hailing from different traditions as well, some issues just don't seem all that important (e.g., baptism). The very nature of the interdenominational school wars against any specific belief being taken with full seriousness. All gets relativized, pluralized, and privatized in the mix. You speak in tongues? Cool. If it works for you, fine. You baptize only believers? Works for me. You want to be confessional? OK, I guess. Etc., etc., you get the point. Plus it fits the zeitgeist perfectly in a postmodern setting!

Bingo! Recently I got into it with a fellow TEDS grad over this very thing. He became irate when I even obliquely suggested that there Monergism was orthodox and Synergism was not.