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Seminary and Faith

Discussion in 'Baptist Colleges & Seminaries' started by JonC, Jan 20, 2023.

  1. JonC

    JonC Moderator
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    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?
     
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  2. JonC

    JonC Moderator
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    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.
     
  3. Marooncat79

    Marooncat79 Well-Known Member
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    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”
     
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  4. Marooncat79

    Marooncat79 Well-Known Member
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    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
     
  5. JonC

    JonC Moderator
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    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).
     
  6. JonC

    JonC Moderator
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    Most seminaries did. It was a out expressing and defending (adequately defending) ones beliefs. That not only fostered conservatives, but also liberalism.
     
  7. Marooncat79

    Marooncat79 Well-Known Member
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    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
     
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  8. JonC

    JonC Moderator
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    I bet that (the language barrier) was difficult.
     
  9. RighteousnessTemperance&

    RighteousnessTemperance& Well-Known Member

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    Even worse than on this board?! :Wink
     
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  10. SATS PROF

    SATS PROF Member
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    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.
     

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  11. Piper

    Piper Active Member
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    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. ​
     
  12. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    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!
     
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