Category: Education
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Theology Conferences Part II of II: The Vices
See Part 1 here. In my first post, I sought to paint a constructive vision of academic conferences, but that is far from all there is to say—for a conference is a vice-saturated affair, and it’s worth knowing that ahead of time. One of the most superficial and natural ways vice rears its head has…
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Theology Conferences Part I of II: A Brief How-To Guide
See Part 2 here. If you are interested in an academic career, welcome to the world of conferences. For all their weaknesses, these are one of the main heartbeats of the academy. Over two posts, I will do my best to pass along what I have learned, thus speeding up the learning curve. The Cost…
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Why Read? By Eva Brann
This speech was originally given on March 3, 2016, by Professor Eva Brann of St. John’s College (Annapolis), as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series at the Torrey Honors Institute. The following is an excerpt. A link to her full speech is available on Open Biola. There’s reading and then there’s reading. There’s the kind…
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Online Education: Relation-less Education
Online classes and online universities are all the rage. They boast an impressive set of virtues and opportunities. Among them: Take classes in your pajamas (or less)! Why relocate? Learn at your own pace. Keep your day job. Pay less. A lot less (but read the fine print!). These, and a number of other “benefits”,…
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“Learning, by Means of Important Texts, to Read” (Barth ’48)
A note here on how Karl Barth viewed his teaching in the late 1940s in Basle. Barth was deep into writing Church Dogmatics III, and as usual he was developing the voluminous text of the Dogmatics out of the four hours of lectures he was giving on the subject weekly. But four hours of lectures…
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The Un-Resume: An Exercise in Professional Humility
To some of our students, we faculty probably present a daunting picture of excellence. After all, we are professors at one of the most distinguished private Christian universities—we excel in our fields, publish scholarly works about topics they may have never even heard of, are the authorities within our classrooms, and they come to us…
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Reading Strategies
Our students read thousands of pages per semester—a daunting task threatening to compromise and undermine their health and well being if they are not careful. The key to doing all this reading, I would like to suggest, is setting up patterns and disciplines which will serve them both now and in the years to come.…
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Sanctified by Grace: A Theology of Christian Life
I was surprised when they opened class in prayer. I had flown out to LA to interview for a job at Biola University, and the public display of piety took me off guard a bit. It shouldn’t have. Prayer and theological study belong together. Some of the earliest theological reflection erupted in prayer and praise.…
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Pastoral Theologians Part 2: A Practical Theology
Read Part 1 here. At the core of the Christian faith is the belief that God did not rest content with using any effective means to save us from our sin, and creation from its ruin. Rather, God made himself the means of our salvation. The same one who brought us into existence brought us…
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How to Teach a Class on the Doctrine of Scripture this January
Here’s the deal. I’ve arranged for a whole lot of experts on the doctrine of Scripture to be in one place at one time this January, presenting papers and having public conversations about it. So if you’re a theology professor in southern California, you should take advantage of that by teaching a class on the…
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Pastoral Theologians Part 1 of 2: A Living Theology
Read Part 2 here. There is great momentum toward the vocation of theologian pastor—a pastor who cares deeply about studying theology in a careful and sustained way. I hope there is similar momentum in the opposite direction, toward pastoral theologians. Lord knows we need them! Theologians who are deeply pastoral as theologians, weaving together Christian doctrine…
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Our Reading Life (Torrey Convocation 2015)
. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. –2 Timothy 3:14-15 The first book you ever read was a book…