Are American Christians beginning to oppose scholarly education?

Question

Yesterday I asked whether Christians preferred having a pastor with seminary training or one without.

Approximately 2/3 of the respondents either openly stated opposition to a theology-trained pastor or saw no advantage to a seminary education. Of those who did see an advantage, half of them were seminary trained or were related to a seminary graduate.

This was not a scientific poll, but the response of the laity seems so firmly planted in the irrelevance of a theology degree that I think further research may be warranted. When seen in the context of Christians who also want to use information in the bible as a textbook in public schools, a bias against scholarly education is seems evident.

What are your impressions from your experience?

Answer 1

Personally I have no problem with and prefer a scholarly education for Christians in leadership.
Neither my husband or I have this education, but we certainly respect it and support at least two "scholarly" institutions.

My denomination will not ordain a pastor unless he is a seminary graduate. Ordination is no walk in the park, either. You'd appreciate the training for an elder or deacon, as well. ; )

That said, I do agree that there seems to be a trend amongst evangelicals to believe that "spirit-led" is preferable to seminary trained. In my own church there have been rumblings about the strict training programme for the deacons and elders.

May I recommend Michael Horton's "Made in America"? There is some discussion on this topic and what he believes to be the heart of it. It is out of print but certainly worth the search.

Answer 2

My impressions from the results you observed are that many of the Christians who responded are ignorant of the way that God works in this world. As I said yesterday, the most important thing for a Pastor to have is the calling of God upon his life. But that doesn't negate the truth that once a person has heeded God's calling they are supposed to grow in knowledge that they then pass on to others in the body of Christ.

Perhaps the people who thought that theology training was bad or of no value were thinking of liberal theology that seeks to impose a world view on God's word or they don't understand the benefit of being able to read the Bible in it's historic and cultural context and knowing what the original words mean today and how they were used at the time the Scriptures were written.

As to your original question I can only guess what people's attitudes are towards a "scholarly" education because it seems like that word has a different meaning to different people. On the one hand people might think that "scholarly" is equivalent to impractical and theoretical teaching as opposed to well researched teaching. On the other hand conservatives have been decrying the "dumbing down" of America for decades now and this could be a spill over into Christian or at least professing Christian Americans who live in the e-mail, microwave generation where people want everything fast and simple without a lot of work either physically or mentally.

Answer 3

i don't think the Bible is a very difficult book to understand. Most of the teachings are pretty basic. The problem comes arises when our knowledge meets our ethics... will we live by what we say we believe or will we profess to believe and live by some ethic other than the Bible.

Seminary might be helpful for some, not helpful for others. An educated pastor doesn't always lead to an obedient congregation. If people believe the Bible they are teaching, then they understand that God can even use a donkey to teach His truth.

Answer 4

Many times the theologs are the most skeptical ones. Their sermons are difficult for the ones who haven't studied so much to figure out and those who have so many letters behind their name are often more distant from their parishoners.

Jesus said that we must become like a children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. The way to him is so simple that a child can understand it. What people in a church need is someone to teach them things that are relevent to their lives, guidance so they can figure out how they can best express their spirituality with the gifts they have been given, and someone who is present for their parishoners in different kinds of life circumstances. It doesn't take a huge amount of education to do that sort of job. This is not to say that such a pastor would be brimming with brilliant sermons week after week...not to say that they wouldn't be either:)

Regardless of the feelings of the church-goers, it is very important that theoloy is studied. When there are difficult circumstances, the ones who have broader knowledge are needed. In churches where there are more intellectuals from different disciplines, a more studied approach can be more meaningful to them.

So, I suppose part of the answer to your question may be that the preferences of a church are based on how much, and what kind of education the majority of the church members have had and what is meaningful to, and needed by them.

Answer 5

My Pastor has his PHD and so do most of the leaders at my church. The importance of a good education is encouraged at our church. We have even sent several of our youth to Sydney Australia to receive their BA's at the Hillsong College. They have been very supportive and helpful to me as I am currently pursuing my BA in education. I don't know why anyone would feel that an education is not important when Jesus himself taught at the synagogue when he was 12 and the purpose of the disciples was to teach and mentor them. Go figure.

Answer 6

Stupid is what stupid does...

They think the Bible is literal truth...and that is all that matters to them...not the lessons of life that God has placed within them.

And to that end they think that they can reject scholarly education because they think the Bible is enough...how narrow minded and inutile can people get???

Thank the Almighty that I dont live in the USA anymore then...

Answer 7

If they were going to teach creation, the creation teacher should of course be versed in the bible, so they'd be expected to be theology trained. On the other hand, teaching math, english, science, etc., I see no point in them being theology trained, it has nothing to do with what they're teaching. I wouldn't want an atheist teaching my child creation, but I could care less if they were teaching my child math, science, language, etc..