golden state school of theology

Where is it located? Never heard of it before.

 

Greetings

Here are three web links that will be useful:

Blue Letter Bible Project: http://www.blueletterbible.org/
Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society: http://www.faithalone.org/journal/index.html
Present Truth Magazine: http://www.presenttruthmag.com/

Lloyd

 

Here is the link to the school. http://www.goldenstate.edu

It isn't accredited by a regional accrediting body or TRACS. There are many people on this board that could direct you to a great seminary that could meet your needs. Liberty, DTS, Luther Rice, etc. There are a bunch of great ones, so I would say look around and find a great one.

 

Luther Rice has quite a few international students studying in their home countries. Check out their site at www.lrs.edu.

Blessings,
Bill

 

I would not recommend either Bethany of Dothan or Golden State, but the intensity of my aversion to these schools increases or decreases according to what levels and/or areas of study are being done.

Neither should offer any sort of doctorates at all IMO. But personally I think ,eg, that 30 years of pastoral experience qualifies one to instruct in MDiv courses which have to do with ministry.

Both of these schools exemplify clearly why so many less credible institutions so often remain unaccredited, even by the Christian accreditor TRACS. If you look at the TRACS website you will see the standards for accreditation.

One of these standards concerns the academic qualifications for graduate faculty. Grad faculty would teach courses or supervise students in MA, MDiv, ThM, and DMin programs of study (as I recall, TRACS accredits no school which offers PhDs/ThDs)

The TRACS standard is that the norm for grad faculty will be that the professor has an earned and accredited doc in the area of instruction. One teaching ministerial courses might have a DMin. A DMin does not qualify one to teach grad Bible/Theology. One teaching grad Bible or Theology or Church History, etc, is normally expected to have an accredited (or foreign equivalent) PhD or ThD in the area of instruction.

The faculty of Golden State or Bethany of Dothan , or the much discussed here Andersonville, does NOT meet this standard. Nor do these schools appear to be interested in trying to meet it. Why should they when so many know little or care little about what constitutes genuine quality in higher Christian Ed.

Now IMO there should be exceptions to that norm, and I think TRACS makes these. As I recall, eg, John Murray, that excellent prof of Theology, had only a ThM. And at Western (RA/ATS accredited) ,when I was in the MDiv, Beginning Hebrew was taught by a gal with only a ThM. So, exceptions can exist for this rule.

As I think Paid wisely somewhere remarked, experience and giftedness should be factored into assessing the competency of instructors.

Nevertheless, the norm is there by accreditors and that norm is exemplified countless times over by credible schools: Credible and accredited schools like faculty who teach grad studies to possess accredited doctoral degrees in the area of instruction. This is the practice in Christian academe. But it is not practiced by Bethany of Dothan or by Goilden State or Andersonville. These choose not to follow the good examples of credible schools and real accreditors.


Another criterion by which to measure the academic worth of a school is to determine whether or not the grads of masters' programs of that school are equipped to enter and be successful in doctoral programs in accredited should they attempt to do that.

To the best of my knowledge it is not the case that Bethany of Dothan or Golden State or Andersonville grads are successful in doctoral programs in accredited schools.

Now, we know that these three schools have had many masters graduates in programs in Bible/Theology. We also know that there are a variety of PhD/ThD programs in both the USA and abroad.

From these data it should follow that some Bethany or Andersonville or Golden State grads should have by that preparation entered and completed PhD or ThD work eithewr in the USA or outside of it..as in the UK.

But I would like to challenge anyone interested in spending time on this to find for us just three grads of each of these three schools who after graduating completed a doc in Bible or in Theology at an accredited, or the foreign equivalent, school.

So, I find useful these two measures of the academic (and degrees are academic) :

1) is the faculty qualified by established norms (accredited docs)

2) do some grads go on to complete accredited docs?

By these standards these three schools each score 0/2.

So, go somewhere else is my recommendation.

Bill Grover

[ October 04, 2005, 12:51 PM: Message edited by: UZThD ]

 

I am going to say don't give Golden State School of Theology a second look. I have visited their web-site and examined it carefully (in the past). Their programs sound good but I am afraid it lacks meat. I give as an example their "sample course" they "had" on their web-site (I am not sure if it is still there since I can't access their site tonight for some reason). It was very easy, offer no challenge, and did not seem to teach much. If you want a degree please attend a fully accredited, well-established school. That is true on campus and via distance/online learning.

Martin.

 

Dear Heavenlyman,
I would recommend you PM UZThD and ask him about hi alma mater in Africa (courses taught in english).His school is not only accredited but is also less expensive than the two schools you are asking about.