Princeton Theological Seminary : 2007 Seminar
Narrative
THIS CLASS IS BLOWING MY MIND
RE-EXAMINING THE FIRST YEAR OF SEMINARY
PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
Princeton Theological Seminary is a seminary of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) with about half of its M.Div. students who are Presbyterian. The other half represents a highly diverse group of other, mostly Protestant, denominations from all parts of the U.S.
The class of first-year students typically takes three sequences of large introductory courses in the areas of Bible, church history and theology (two semesters in each area). The class usually numbers about 120–130 students with two plenary lectures each week, along with one small group preceptorial usually led by a teaching fellow (a Ph.D. student). Professors who teach these introductory courses often wrestle with two competing goals: (1) exposing students to the breadth of the field in terms of content, issues, methods and approaches, and (2) orienting and guiding students into specific approaches and methods that the professors deem most helpful and compelling for their students.
The only formal small-group classes facilitated by professors that first-year students have involve sections with capped enrollment in the Practical Theology area, especially in small group sections in speech/communication and preaching.
The seminary is undergoing a thorough curriculum review of its M.Div. program, a process that raises basic issues of the goals, structure and outcomes of the seminary’s M.Div. program. The first-year “portal” experience provides one window into deeper issues and assumptions which animate conversations and conflicts over the mission of the seminary and its M.Div. program.
Jacq OT prof.; co-teaches with another colleague OT101 Orientation to OT Studies, a large introductory class for all first-year seminary students.
Janet A 40’ish urban professional Korean American, had a successful New York business career and left it for seminary and a call to ordained ministry in the PC (USA).
Tom Aged 25, non-denominational, undergraduate chemistry major; Bible-belt Southerner, worked as a Young Life youth leader for a few years before seminary.
Sheila Aged 21, African American, a religious studies major in college, interested in Ph.D. work and becoming a professor; could have petitioned out of the intro., but she wanted to see how Princeton Seminary does an introductory biblical course.
Jason Aged 34, intellectually-gifted, artistic, creative, suspicious of the institutional church, but excited about new paradigms of living in intentional spiritual communities of ministry located in depressed urban centers.
Jacq and her colleague Kathie are co-teaching the one-semester introductory OT class. They hold an informal and optional brown bag lunch and open discussion in a corner of the cafeteria on Thursdays for anyone who wants to come, and usually about 10-20 students do. Kathie is away and so Jacq has the students alone this week. One lecture in this week’s class dealt with the narratives of Israel’s holy war conquest of Canaan in the book of Joshua, with a special focus on the story of the fall of Jericho in Joshua 6.
Jason raised his hand, “You know, it’s about midway through the course, and I’ve been learning a lot about a part of the Bible I didn’t know very well. I understand that there is a lot to cover, but sometimes I wish we could just slow down and think about what these biblical texts and characters mean for our spiritual lives. There is so much information, dates, names, history, and theology churning in these biblical texts. Your lectures are interesting. The readings that introduce different approaches and methods to studying the Bible are great. But the course is like a freight train that just keeps on coming with new stuff. I don’t feel a lot of space in the class to work through how the ways that I have approached the Bible in the past intersect with the new questions and approaches that you are introducing to us.”
Janet looked around at her fellow students. “A lot of us have been talking about the Joshua stuff, the whole holy war thing, the walls of Jericho not being there. It’s a lot to take in.”
Tom nodded his head in agreement. “Yeah, this class is blowing my mind! I can’t quite figure out why. I guess part of it is just learning about stuff in the Bible I had no idea existed. And part of it is that my faith and understanding of God is being challenged by what I am learning in class. I guess that’s a good academic exercise, but it doesn’t feel very good and it would help to process all of this more.”
Jacq nodded. “Okay, so what specifically do you need to process from this week?”
“Well,” Tom replied, “to think that maybe the Jericho story didn’t really happen and that the walls weren’t even there. Hey, come on! If the Joshua story is made up like a piece of fiction, then how do we know if any of the Bible is true? Did God really save Israel out of Egyptian slavery? Did the resurrection really happen? The Bible is the inspired Word of God, and I have to believe it over any other authority. It’s the foundation for my faith. I’m gonna believe in God and the Bible before I believe in some desert-grubbing archaeologists!”
“That’s not really the issue for me,” Janet interrupted. “I’m more troubled by the thought that the Bible seems to present the violent killing of a whole city, including women and children and even animals, as a positive thing. It’s like genocide, right? And God commanded it? That just doesn’t fit with my image and understanding of God at all. For me, God is about love, not killing or war. I think we need to stop and wrestle with this in class, you know, ask each other how we deal with this? How do you as a professor deal with this?”
At this point, Jacq was beginning to lament the absence of her teaching colleague Kathie. Why did she have to be gone today of all days? But before Jacq could say anything, Sheila jumped in. “I covered some of these issues in my undergraduate work. It just takes some time to work through some of this if it is new to you. I wouldn’t want our class time to be taken up with touchy-feely Bible study sessions—how do you feel about this or that? You can do that on your own or with friends or at church. We’re here to learn from a rigorous academic curriculum so that we can be better informed, stimulated and stretched by exposure to the best of current scholarship.”
Tom responded, “Out at the married student housing complex, we have a good community, and I do talk to friends about some of this stuff. But what concerns me is that some older students who are getting ready to graduate feel like they aren’t ready or competent enough to go out to serve the church as pastors. They feel inadequate. They still have lots of questions about their theology and faith. They haven’t really been able to work through some of these issues. They don’t feel that they’ve been able to integrate what they’ve learned in the different areas so they can go out in confidence and put it to practical use to lead congregations. I figured that if you went through three years of seminary training, you would feel ready and prepared to put it all together and become a pastor. But some of my upper class friends say they’re going to do something else for a while—maybe work, maybe another year of classes, whatever—before they look for a call.”
Jacq looked at her watch. “Well, folks, it’s been an interesting conversation. Unfortunately, I have a class to teach right now so we’ll have to continue with some of your questions at another session. These are important issues, and I encourage you to keep thinking about them and discussing them. There are no easy answers. Thanks for coming!” As the students got up and left, Jacq wondered if there were ways to help students enter more effectively into the rigorous and challenging first-year seminary experience that could deal with the wide diversity of students, some of whom feel that some of the foundations of their faith and theology are being severely challenged by what they are learning in classes.
THIS CLASS IS BLOWING MY MIND
RE-EXAMINING THE FIRST YEAR OF SEMINARY
PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
Princeton Theological Seminary is a seminary of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) with about half of its M.Div. students who are Presbyterian. The other half represents a highly diverse group of other, mostly Protestant, denominations from all parts of the U.S.
The class of first-year students typically takes three sequences of large introductory courses in the areas of Bible, church history and theology (two semesters in each area). The class usually numbers about 120–130 students with two plenary lectures each week, along with one small group preceptorial usually led by a teaching fellow (a Ph.D. student). Professors who teach these introductory courses often wrestle with two competing goals: (1) exposing students to the breadth of the field in terms of content, issues, methods and approaches, and (2) orienting and guiding students into specific approaches and methods that the professors deem most helpful and compelling for their students.
The only formal small-group classes facilitated by professors that first-year students have involve sections with capped enrollment in the Practical Theology area, especially in small group sections in speech/communication and preaching.
The seminary is undergoing a thorough curriculum review of its M.Div. program, a process that raises basic issues of the goals, structure and outcomes of the seminary’s M.Div. program. The first-year “portal” experience provides one window into deeper issues and assumptions which animate conversations and conflicts over the mission of the seminary and its M.Div. program.
Jacq OT prof.; co-teaches with another colleague OT101 Orientation to OT Studies, a large introductory class for all first-year seminary students.
Janet A 40’ish urban professional Korean American, had a successful New York business career and left it for seminary and a call to ordained ministry in the PC (USA).
Tom Aged 25, non-denominational, undergraduate chemistry major; Bible-belt Southerner, worked as a Young Life youth leader for a few years before seminary.
Sheila Aged 21, African American, a religious studies major in college, interested in Ph.D. work and becoming a professor; could have petitioned out of the intro., but she wanted to see how Princeton Seminary does an introductory biblical course.
Jason Aged 34, intellectually-gifted, artistic, creative, suspicious of the institutional church, but excited about new paradigms of living in intentional spiritual communities of ministry located in depressed urban centers.
Jacq and her colleague Kathie are co-teaching the one-semester introductory OT class. They hold an informal and optional brown bag lunch and open discussion in a corner of the cafeteria on Thursdays for anyone who wants to come, and usually about 10-20 students do. Kathie is away and so Jacq has the students alone this week. One lecture in this week’s class dealt with the narratives of Israel’s holy war conquest of Canaan in the book of Joshua, with a special focus on the story of the fall of Jericho in Joshua 6.
Jason raised his hand, “You know, it’s about midway through the course, and I’ve been learning a lot about a part of the Bible I didn’t know very well. I understand that there is a lot to cover, but sometimes I wish we could just slow down and think about what these biblical texts and characters mean for our spiritual lives. There is so much information, dates, names, history, and theology churning in these biblical texts. Your lectures are interesting. The readings that introduce different approaches and methods to studying the Bible are great. But the course is like a freight train that just keeps on coming with new stuff. I don’t feel a lot of space in the class to work through how the ways that I have approached the Bible in the past intersect with the new questions and approaches that you are introducing to us.”
Janet looked around at her fellow students. “A lot of us have been talking about the Joshua stuff, the whole holy war thing, the walls of Jericho not being there. It’s a lot to take in.”
Tom nodded his head in agreement. “Yeah, this class is blowing my mind! I can’t quite figure out why. I guess part of it is just learning about stuff in the Bible I had no idea existed. And part of it is that my faith and understanding of God is being challenged by what I am learning in class. I guess that’s a good academic exercise, but it doesn’t feel very good and it would help to process all of this more.”
Jacq nodded. “Okay, so what specifically do you need to process from this week?”
“Well,” Tom replied, “to think that maybe the Jericho story didn’t really happen and that the walls weren’t even there. Hey, come on! If the Joshua story is made up like a piece of fiction, then how do we know if any of the Bible is true? Did God really save Israel out of Egyptian slavery? Did the resurrection really happen? The Bible is the inspired Word of God, and I have to believe it over any other authority. It’s the foundation for my faith. I’m gonna believe in God and the Bible before I believe in some desert-grubbing archaeologists!”
“That’s not really the issue for me,” Janet interrupted. “I’m more troubled by the thought that the Bible seems to present the violent killing of a whole city, including women and children and even animals, as a positive thing. It’s like genocide, right? And God commanded it? That just doesn’t fit with my image and understanding of God at all. For me, God is about love, not killing or war. I think we need to stop and wrestle with this in class, you know, ask each other how we deal with this? How do you as a professor deal with this?”
At this point, Jacq was beginning to lament the absence of her teaching colleague Kathie. Why did she have to be gone today of all days? But before Jacq could say anything, Sheila jumped in. “I covered some of these issues in my undergraduate work. It just takes some time to work through some of this if it is new to you. I wouldn’t want our class time to be taken up with touchy-feely Bible study sessions—how do you feel about this or that? You can do that on your own or with friends or at church. We’re here to learn from a rigorous academic curriculum so that we can be better informed, stimulated and stretched by exposure to the best of current scholarship.”
Tom responded, “Out at the married student housing complex, we have a good community, and I do talk to friends about some of this stuff. But what concerns me is that some older students who are getting ready to graduate feel like they aren’t ready or competent enough to go out to serve the church as pastors. They feel inadequate. They still have lots of questions about their theology and faith. They haven’t really been able to work through some of these issues. They don’t feel that they’ve been able to integrate what they’ve learned in the different areas so they can go out in confidence and put it to practical use to lead congregations. I figured that if you went through three years of seminary training, you would feel ready and prepared to put it all together and become a pastor. But some of my upper class friends say they’re going to do something else for a while—maybe work, maybe another year of classes, whatever—before they look for a call.”
Jacq looked at her watch. “Well, folks, it’s been an interesting conversation. Unfortunately, I have a class to teach right now so we’ll have to continue with some of your questions at another session. These are important issues, and I encourage you to keep thinking about them and discussing them. There are no easy answers. Thanks for coming!” As the students got up and left, Jacq wondered if there were ways to help students enter more effectively into the rigorous and challenging first-year seminary experience that could deal with the wide diversity of students, some of whom feel that some of the foundations of their faith and theology are being severely challenged by what they are learning in classes.