Things I Know Nothing About: A Theology Student's Song

I wrote this a few years ago when I was a student and thought some of my readers might enjoy it.

If you like it then you might want to like my Jonathan Robinson (Music) page on Facebook and keep up with my other musical offerings as they appear.

brick-a-brack 140911

• Ben Myers defends Rob Bell's Love Wins (and of course Karl Barth as well)
• Daniel Kirk explains to his students how biblical studies will ruin their faith (in a good way)
• Kevin DeYoung lists the values that guide the way his church worships (HT Marc)

let me know what you think! :-)

Jonathan Robinson on Educational Preaching

If you have been missing my posting, sorry about that moving house and starting a new pastoral role have rather limited my time for blogging (not to mention the phone company messing up our internet connection), but over at Kiwi-Made Preaching you can see (and comment on!) a provactive and thoughful post by your's truly. Normal service at Xenos may or may not resume shortly. ;-)

Brick-a-brack 30/12/10

• Tim Bulkeley fires a shot across the bow of the established paradigms of theological education
• Roger Olsen suggests we do theology with pre-biblical presumptions, whoever we are, and his top two are whether God can do anything and our approach to the "primitive" church
• Marc Cortez gives a roundup of his top tips for theological research, you'd be a fool to ignore them
• The ruthless monk starts an interesting series on Christian stereotypes and how to deconstruct/disembowel them
• Doug Chaplin reflects on the slaughter in Matt 2:16-18
• Jason Goroncy lists why we shouldn't write off John Howard Yoder even though people often look for any excuse to do so [because they are wimps]

Three Vids of Distinction

How to talk Christianese, HT



Brian McClaren talks about the life span of a listener, HT



Mike Bird gives us some insight into the brand new SBL GNT! 



Enjoy!

Education Must Change Or Die!

Well usually that is the catch cry for the Spong's of this world about Christianity, but i thought i would borrow it to catch your attention for this excellent presentation.  Another one of the RSA's brilliant and thought provoking animate videos.  Let me know what you think.  In particular, what effect might these ideas have on theological education for ministry, if we took them seriously?  And from my recent experience at Carey as student and faculty, i think we need to more and more.

brick-a-brack 19/11/10

• Tim has a couple of complaints about the way we tend to censor the Bible
• John Byron exposes dishonest seminarians
• And Steve acheives a whole new magnitude of esoteric, with his discussion of Gothic translation methods
• And a really helpful post from Marc on "what is theological interpretation of the Bible?"

Enjoy

brick-a-brack 05/11/10

• So, Ken Schenck blogs on a the marks of a missional church
• While William Birch reprimands those glory seeking seminary students and pastors
• Uncle Stan writes a letter to students (HT)
• and Louis McBride thinks about the incarnational analogy of scripture and finds it lacking (HT)

have a good weekend, i'm off to the beach!

brick-a-brack 03/11/10

• the ridiculous prudish literal mindedness of Christians around the world has once again been proven by the reaction to Skosana's sermon "Jesus had HIV."  Also interesting to note the African Christologies coming through in some of the discussion, Jesus the heavenly power is very important in that context, but a frail human Jesus is a source of suspicion.
• Loren Rosson gives a characteristicly interesting review of Dale Allison's Constructing Jesus
• Tim Bulkely fires a shot across the bow of the whinging Avalos and Lemenche
• Paul Windsor reflects on the recent sea changes in NZ theological training
• Marc wonders if we should read less in seminary
• Daniel Kirk on Mark 13 and the fall of Jerusalem HT

A Short Cautionary Tale of Academia

All those contemplating a PhD in theology should take the time to read Ben Myer's latest literary work,

After the appearance of Hoffmann’s work, Susan Crimmins had briefly considered suicide, which in many universities is still accepted in lieu of a dissertation.

On the other hand, the vast wellspring which is Biblical Studies flows without ceasing! ;-D

brick-a-brack 24/10/10

• Duane has some advice for those frustrated with big business
• Jim West has some advice for youth pastors, pastors, parents, and everyone else
• A rather depressing article about the proliferation of Bible "versions" HT
• Get an insight into Paul Windsor's work as a trainer of preachers
• A Lutheran pastor ponders evangelism (or lack of it)
• Marc raises a pertinent question about PhD students who have no hope of getting jobs after

Should Pastors Know Biblical Languages?

A bit of debate on this subject has been caused by John Byron posing the question.  He is answered in the strong affirmative by both Jim and Scott.  Although Jim goes a bit overboard, and seems to think that everyone is capable of the sort of output he is (they're not, Jim is, in this sense at least, exceptional) he does have a point that most pastors are not as overworked as they claim to be, it is more a case of what things they give priority to in their time, if they don't see the ponit of biblical languages then they won't make time for them. 

Scott makes an even more valid point, that pastors with no language training often then try and use what little Greek or Hebrew knowledge they have to add a little magic authority to their sermons.  At this stage they are playing with smoke and mirrors, relying on the ignorance of their congregation to get away with what a first year language student could spot a mile off as dishonest and incompetent. 

I don't think we can expect every pastor to be proficient in biblical languages, I do think if everyone did at least an introductory course in Greek and in Hebrew they would at least be aware of how little they do know and of how different and alien the biblical languages are.  If you have never tried to translate something yourself, you will struggle to comprehend the complexity of the translation process in producing English translations and you will not handle them accordingly.  It is a crying shame that more and more seminaries do not have compulsory language courses, the church will rue this trend in decades to come.

To make a positive reccomendation, I wonder if there is a growing need for some sort of provision for pastors to either start or continue their language study as professional development?  We send pastors away to do leadership and counseling courses, why not biblical exegesis and language courses? 

For those who suffer the drudgery of essay marking

In my experience you'll find all these types handing in essays at a theological college.

The literalist:

 

The poet:

 

The depressive:

From here, and they have more if you want it.

Ivy Beckwith on The Act of Becoming a Christian

Developing Christians - people who love God and desire to live in the way of Jesus - is not primarily a cognitive endevour . . . but for hundreds of years the church has treated it as such.  The act of becoming a Christian is the actual practising of being a Christian, over and over again.  One does not become Christian by sitting in a room in a church hearing a Bible story.  This is part of it, yes, but one becomes Christian by being immmersed in God's story everywhere it is told, living with God's people, and repeating the symbolic acts of the church, as well as repeating acts of loving neighbour and denying oneself, over and over again.  This form of education . . . cannot be regulated to a few hours a week spent learning inside the walls of a church.

Ivy Beckwith, Formational Children's Ministry, Baker 2010, p19

Education, Debating, And Other Tidbits

James McGrath and Marc Cortez discuss exams versus otherways of testing students.  My question would be, is the point that students know theology, or that they can do theology?  Maggi Dawn didn't get what she needed from her theological education, she had to start blogging for that.  Where I work, we have very few exams, mostly assignment based assesment, and are using more and more online interaction in assesment and delivery.

Paul Windsor gives Fox news a good spanking. While Jim West observes that Hitchens gets a spanking from John Haldane, I especially liked this bit if only because it tied in so nicely with my blog post of Lev 24, perhaps he read it before the debate?  The dissapointing thing is that most of it goes way over Hitchen's head and he just keeps pushing the same old tired wheelbarrow.  Poor thing. Seriously, this is why I avoid debates, no one ever listens.

Meanwhile Ben Myers just asks us to be nice to theologians, after all, they are human (sort of) too, and Jason Goroncy wants us to save the internet, but why should we bother?

Blogs of note

• An incredibly helpful comment on modern translations of the apocrypha.
• A Chesterton quote on things that people think are in the Bible but aren't.
• John Scott on what we are learning (or should be learning) from mission among unreached people groups.
• Dewi Hughes on ethnic identity and land in Wales and Kenya, not to mention nonviolence.
• The church is called out of its consumerism.
• Shauna Niequist kicks the princess out of church.
• And Don expounds the benifits of reading, while John just goes for learning, full stop.

More good stuff

So much good stuff landing online at the moment, check out:

• NT Wright on CS Lewis
• Gordon Fee on Revelation and understanding scripture
• Ben Witherington on Atonement
• Clayboy's review of a book on "liturgy"
• James McGrath musing and enthusing about education
• Larry Hurtado suggests a reason for Mark's "ommissions"
• Rod points out the contradictions in the way early Christianity is used to bolster people's agendas

Fast food education?

Some Random Student on Hermeneutics: Quote of the Day

A young female student just walked past my door, coming out of a "Introduction to the Bible" lecture, she said to her friend,

It is so much better looking at it as a letter rather than just taking little chunks out of it,

Hearing her say that just warmed my heart.  Congratulations to her (i'm afraid i didn't recognise the voice) for taking an important step in discovering the riches of God's word when it is allowed to be what it is and not turned into a collection of "thoughts for the day."  And congratulations to George who was taking the class and is helping about 50 students make these crucial initial steps towards mature and informed biblical interpretation.

What do we learn from the way that we are taught?

Gregory Jones reflects on Duke University's research on corporate learning strategies,

I was intrigued to discover the 70-20-10 principle among chief learning officers for continuing training and development needs: 70 percent of learning occurs in the workplace, 20 percent from coaches/mentors and only 10 percent from formal educational “continuing education” programs. Yet in Christian institutions we typically have reversed these numbers and presume that most learning for Christian clergy, laity and institutional leaders will occur through formal learning opportunities.

Rest of the article here

I think it is pretty clear that what we teach people, no matter how many times we tell them that stuff needs to be applied in real life, is that Christian life is primarily about thinking and saying the right things in church, rather than saying and doing the right things in the world, because as a church that is what we spend our time getting good at and practicing.  Unless we put greater effort into being the people of God on those hours outside of church meetings than we do into those meetings themselves no one is ever really going to believe us that the other 90% of the week is actually the important bit.