tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post8908075714048162919..comments2024-03-27T17:15:37.606-04:00Comments on Triablogue: The Fruit Of Neglecting ApologeticsRyanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17809283662428917799noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-21983509926462498182013-12-30T11:52:12.952-05:002013-12-30T11:52:12.952-05:00This problem is rooted at the seminary level. Fro...This problem is rooted at the seminary level. From what I've read, seminaries tend to have a great deal less funding than secular colleges or universities. This requires seminaries to fund through the tuition model, which incentivizes lower entry standards. The lower the standards, the more students who can pay tuition and fees. For some seminaries, academic selectivity isn't even an option, as the pool of students passing even basic standards wouldn't be enough to keep the institution afloat.<br /><br />Basically, seminaries take almost anyone with a BA and a credible profession of faith.<br /><br />This creates classes with a low academic standard. How many laypersons considering seminary spend their nights or weekends reading good monographs or other scholarly works in relevant disciplines? Many are already burdened by work and families (because seminaries aren't funded enough to provide sufficient scholarships, and seminary tends to be something you pursue after college). So classes are taught at the high school level with low reading requirements and easy exams. "Research papers" (if they can even be called that) tend to be graded with a rather lenient pen, since few students can properly formulate a thesis with supporting arguments and relevant evidence.<br /><br />Of course, the students who graduate from these institutions and go on to be our spiritual and intellectual leaders have no interest (or, sometimes, ability) to study the hard disciplines of ancient history, literature and language. So they are left appealing to general feelings, tradition or other squishy arguments that hold no sway in an environment dominated by plausible sounding skeptical scholars.<br /><br />Stricter academic standards for seminaries would go a long way. But that's an institutional problem that I don't see going away anytime soon. You'd need more Christians in business or other profitable professions to fund seminaries so that they can institute stricter standards. Much prayer is needed here.Mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12784922935749497931noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-20715461978928948182013-12-29T06:25:59.226-05:002013-12-29T06:25:59.226-05:00Thanks, Jason, for all your fine work and for your...Thanks, Jason, for all your fine work and for your fine work to come! And thanks for always helping people live in light of eternity's values rather than the values and desires of this present world, which is passing away. :-)Patrick Chanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16095377877712197984noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-31613271992080616292013-12-28T13:50:13.336-05:002013-12-28T13:50:13.336-05:00Prince Asbel,
Thanks for the encouragement!
For ...Prince Asbel,<br /><br />Thanks for the encouragement!<br /><br />For the sake of readers in general, I should mention that I do read the comments that are posted in my threads. Sometimes I don't write responses, because of time constraints or for some other reason, but I do read and appreciate the comments that are posted.Jason Engwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17031011335190895123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-51689136916103695722013-12-28T13:44:12.843-05:002013-12-28T13:44:12.843-05:00christandcosmos,
I agree. To make matters worse, ...christandcosmos,<br /><br />I agree. To make matters worse, when family organizations and such occasionally address apologetic issues to some extent, they often rely on the work of scholars and apologists who aren't making much of an effort to develop the best arguments they can. Rather, they produce introductory or intermediate material and make little or no effort to advance beyond that.<br /><br />I suspect these tendencies have a lot to do with the typical American lifestyle (and equivalents of it in other parts of the world). Pursuing the American Dream and being popular in our entertainment culture require giving a lot of your time and attention to matters like your career, sports, movies, housework, and doing trivial things with friends and relatives. Getting more involved in apologetics would cost people more than they're willing to give up. It's not just a matter of time. It's also a matter of reputation, money, health, and other factors. You can't do the sort of intellectual work that needs to be done in this kind of culture without paying a significant price for it.<br /><br />By the way, after I found the text of Richard Bauckham's lecture online, I contacted several web sites in an attempt to get them to link it. None did. The sites I contacted included some well-known Evangelical ones. They won't even do something as easy as linking such an important lecture by a scholar as significant as Bauckham. I get the impression that some Evangelicals aren't just apathetic about Christmas apologetics. They're contemptuous of it. For some, that seems to be true of their view of apologetics in general. For others, I think there's something they particularly despise about Christmas apologetics, maybe because it interferes with how they'd prefer to spend the Christmas season.Jason Engwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17031011335190895123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-80475029031785265082013-12-28T10:41:53.209-05:002013-12-28T10:41:53.209-05:00Unfortunately, much energy in conservative evangel...Unfortunately, much energy in conservative evangelicalism that could be directed toward apologetic issues is tied up in worrying about which retailers wish shoppers "Merry Christmas" as opposed to "Happy Holidays." Not that this is an entirely unimportant issue, but I do wish organizations like the Family Research Council cared half as much about rationally defending the faith as they do about pressuring non-Christians to honor the Christian roots of the holiday.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-89166906836829212782013-12-28T09:40:31.790-05:002013-12-28T09:40:31.790-05:00Thank you, Jason Engwer. Your words ring loud and ...Thank you, Jason Engwer. Your words ring loud and true and you make excellent points. I especially like this sentence:<br /><br />"As more books, television programs, and web sites argue against the historicity of the Biblical accounts, pastors continue to claim that they can love people while neglecting their minds."<br /><br />I may start quoting that line myself. ;)Prince Asbelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06084817183123423099noreply@blogger.com