I just finished Walton’s book on Genesis, and will be reviewing it shortly. The last section of the book is a Frequently Asked Question section. One of the questions involves the difficulty of understanding some aspects of the Bible, which Walton answers wonderfully. In his answer, he also gives a slight apologetic for scholarship:
Read the rest of this entry

If you have been around the blogosphere for any amount of time, you have probably heard of the term “contextualization.” The term has been thrown around by Christian theologians for a while now, but has come into prominent use in the last few years. But what is contextualization? Why is it necessary?
Read the rest of this entry

Seeing as how I’m a seminary student I’m sure that many will find my answer to this question ‘biased.’ I think, however, that if you read this honestly you will see that I have tried to keep any biases out. In fact, at the end I will spell out my biggest problem with seminary.

The short answer to this may also come as a surprise. If I had to answer with simply a “yes” or “no,” I would answer “no.” Of course, this no would be very very nuanced and incomplete. It would also be an answer to the question as asked- do pastors need to go to seminary. C. H. Spurgeon, arguably one of the greatest preachers to have lived, did not go to seminary. I also personally know a lot of pastors who have not been professionally trained at a seminary who are also incredibly gifted, biblically faithful pastors. It is telling, however, that what these men have in common is that they spend large amounts of time in prayer- for their congregations and for their sermons. They also are incredibly well read, both in the Scriptures and in books by sound preachers and theologians. In other words, they are training for their calling, just not in a formally academic setting. It is also telling, I think, that one of the things Spurgeon set out to do, and did, was to build a school for the training of pastors- what we would today call a “seminary.”
Read the rest of this entry