Questions from a fellow churchgoer, part 1

Questions for Jacob: 5/22/13

1. Was seminary threatening to your faith? To other seminary students'?

There is an oft-quoted schema of seminary wherein the first year they cut you down, the second year they build a foundation, and the third year you actually get to learn some things.  As far as "threatening," I would say no--professors and other students gave testimony--words from their own experience, but did not expect through discussion to overpower you.  I came in with the assumption that my assumptions would change, and some did.  But my faith has deepened in seminary precisely because I encountered others with very different (and deep--simple difference is interesting but not usually productive) ways of doing faith.  It is hard to call it "threatening" after the fact, since I was party to the change.

Other students have had difficulties and may be more willing to apply the word "threatening"--a few especially trying moments in seminary are:
1) OT survey, Fall semester first year, where we are introduced to critical ways of reading the Bible.  ("Critical" in Biblical studies does not necessarily mean "disapproving" or "essential" but rather refers to a specific toolkit--for example, literary criticism looks at plot, genre, characters, historical criticism looks at archaeology and history, text criticism looks at different manuscripts of the biblical texts)
2) Theology, second year all year.  Besides an intense reading schedule, the theology class requires you to take a stand and defend an opinion each week about the topics covered.  It is often difficult to argue well without being disrespectful, or to analyze historical movements in theology in ways that honor rather than dismiss.
3) CPE, Clinical Pastoral Education, where students intern as hospital chaplains for 400 hours (can be taken any time, usually second or third year--full time in the summer or half time during a semester).  CPE is difficult because there are difficult circumstances (deaths, illness, economic hardship) to be dealt with in pastoral ways, but there are also other people with other theologies and habits doing the same work with you and sharing stories and support with you.  That is to say, in CPE you encounter not only patients' difficulties, but your own and those of your peer group.  It is personally intense.

In case you were curious, the time in which I assume people take these classes is according to the plan for the M.Div. degree, which I finished in May.

2. How did your faith change?

One way my faith has changed has been in my approach to scripture--I have become less confident that I read it right the first time I read it, but no less passionate about how it connects to my life.  I have new tools to bring to the scripture, not so I can take it apart and dismiss it, but so I can interpret it more appropriately.

I have thus adjusted my theology to compensate in a somewhat (but not rigorously) Barthian direction.  I say now with the Confession of 1967 that the Bible is the "witness without parallel" to the Word of God, Jesus Christ.  Thus, the Word of God is first of all a person, whom we experience by the Spirit through the word of God (the Bible) read and proclaimed.  I don't see this as a diminishment--when we hear the scriptures as the Word of God, we truly encounter the divine Christ.  One difficulty with my adolescent theology of scripture was that it could not account for canonization, except with the silly caveat that the Bible's Table of Contents is also scripture.  I like the Confession of 1967's words because it recognizes the prominence of the Bible in the life of faith, but does not claim that "The first way I read this text is the Word of God," but rather that the Spirit uses our faculties of interpretation to reveal to us Jesus Christ.

Another way my faith has changed is in my excitement for public disciplines as spiritual disciplines.  I'm grateful for the importance the religion of my youth placed on personal study of scripture and prayer, as it is a huge part of my response to God.  In seminary, I have seen that public worship is just as essential for me, not simply as an expression of faith but as a practice which forms faith in the first place.

3. Are there any atheist professors at CTS?

I've heard that rumor, too.  Not that came out as such to me.  There are some who think that God's existence is of a category distinct from human existence.  But that seems so acceptable as to be orthodox, depending on what category that is.  There was one who professed the "empty tomb" stories to be unhistorical, but that one still professed faith in the resurrection.

4. How does Seminary affect the international students? and vice versa?

Good question.  CTS has a good few exchange students every year as well as international students.  Some I have gotten to know quite well, others I have not.  International students are a wonderful presence in the academic and residence life on campus.  Partially, they teach domestic students how to be hospitable in discussions, speaking in ways that are relevant across borders and cultures.  This is no simple issue of politeness, as hermeneutics is in a large part translation--biblical interpretation is communication across cultures.  International students also testify in this place that God's work is bigger than we see in any of our individual churches.

There is room for growth in our inclusion of students for whom English is a second language.  A lot of the social scene at Columbia is very geared toward casual conversation, so sometimes even extroverts who simply don't have confidence in their English can be excluded by fast-talking native speakers in class and in social settings.

I'll post more questions and answers later--this is plenty for a first post.