Logos StaffPlanning on attending the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Academy of Religion? This is your chance to see an advance screening of A Polite Bribe, Robert Orlando’s documentary on Paul. It’s...
Elliot RitzemaBefore deciding to go to seminary, prospective pastors ask themselves a number of questions: Has God called me to go? Can I afford it? One question I would encourage you to ask yourself if you are considering seminary is, “Have you thought about...
Review by Jeffrey J. Bütz Earlier this year I was contacted by director Robert Orlando to be interviewed for a film called The Paul Story. Robert explained to me that he was doing final edits for his documentary and realized he needed more...
daryl-eldridgeIf God has called you to get a seminary education, here are some tips that might help you to go debt free or reduce your debt. 1. Get a ministry position, even if it is part-time, and serve for several years before going to seminary By doing so...
Book Review Arthur J. Dewey, Roy W. Hoover, Lane C. McGaughy, and Daryl D. Schmidt, Polebridge Press, 2010, 270 pp. Those who appreciated the fresh and edgy translation of the Scholars Version of the Gospels will be thrilled with the Westar...
Book Review Kent L. Yinger, Cascade Books, 2011, 120 pp. Kent L. Yinger’s The New Perspective on Paul: An Introduction is as accessible as it is academically sound. In only 120 pages he outlines and illustrates nearly every aspect of the new...
Besides adjusting to the academics and general flow of your particular school, another challenge lies in meeting all of your fellow students. It can be dizzying trying to remember so many new names and faces. This too is God’s providence. You’re at...
Every seminarian remembers visiting their seminary for the first time. Everything on the walking tour is mesmerizing. You crane to take it all in as you revere current students that pass by (secretly wondering if that could ever be you) and hang on...
Many seminary students realize during their academic career just how starved they were for formal training. Even students who were reared in church all their lives have commented on how little they actually knew about the richness in God’s Word that...
As a volunteer leader attending seminary online, I sometimes feel out of place. I don’t have the experience or skills of many of my classmates. But as an ex-professor and someone with a PhD in Chemical Engineering, there is one thing I do...
So you’re in seminary. Your journey has included countless hours of study, late nights tucked away in seldom-visited corners of the library, and copious amounts of caffeine to keep you going. Ancient Greek draws you closer to insanity, and you feel...
Have you ever thought about going to seminary? Chances are your answer is ‘No.’ Maybe ‘No, I’m not looking to become a minister’ or ‘No, I want to do ministry, not just learn about it.’ If you had asked me two years ago if I was thinking about...
by Mark Reasoner, Bethel University, St. Paul, MN AAR/SBL Meeting, November 18, 2006, Washington, DC The gospel, which Paul celebrated and described in his letters, certainly has a political edge to it, since Paul describes this gospel’s effects...
A link to Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision by N.T. Wright as reviewed by V. George Shillington in the Review of Biblical Literature has been added to the category Around the Web: Book Reviews.
Traditionally, dikaioumai, ‘to be justified’, has been understood in general as ‘to be put in right relation with God’. Arndt-Gingrich defines it: ‘to be acquitted, be pronounced and treated as righteous, and thereby become dikaios (righteous)...
by Edward L. Hamilton Over the last three decades, a series of scholarly developments known as the “new perspective on Paul” has challenged traditional interpretations of the theology of the Pauline epistles, particularly Galatians and...
N.T. Wright is one of the prominent voices of what has been labeled the “New Perspective on Paul,” a currently debated subject in the Church today. The crux of the “New Perspective” is a redefining of Paul’s writings on justification/righteousness...
Book Review N.T. Wright, Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1992, 560 pp. This massive undertaking lays the epistemological, literary, and historical foundations for Wright’s projected five-volume series (now stretching into six)...
Book Review James D.G. Dunn, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2008, 551 pp. When James D.G. Dunn delivered his Manson Memorial Lecture in 1982, he set out to sketch an emerging paradigm in current Pauline studies. Though it wasn’t...
Because of the interesting combination of being a US Navy sailor and online seminary student, I’ve learned a few things about surviving in a distance learning seminary. If you’re on active duty, or even if you have an otherwise demanding civilian...
As I was writing my previous post, ‘Balancing Church and Seminary,’ I realized that a lot of what I was writing assumed that you were in a time in your life where you needed to choose a church. But since not everyone in seminary is in...
Seminary students are a transient bunch. They blow into town, spend three years too busy to do anything but study, and then they’re gone. For many of them (or, I should say, us), the whole seminary thing can seem like a hassle. If we...
One of our readers recently commented that he was in the process of deciding whether or not God was leading him towards starting studies at a seminary. He had a few friends who had already graduated or were going through seminary themselves, and was...
As a director of admissions, I believe there are two questions future seminarians should ask any seminary they are considering. Really, only two questions? More questions will certainly arise. However, two key questions will provide the quickest and...
Terry DelaneyThe information for this post can be found in Meet The Puritans by Joel Beeke and Randall Pederson available at Reformation Heritage Books or Westminster Book Store. As part of Going to Seminary’s devotional initiative, we would like to...
We all have some idea of what a mentor is. Some of us may currently have a mentor or are even taking on the role of a mentor. However, despite the familiarity of the concept and the value many of us attribute to it, real mentoring is something that...
As a librarian in a seminary, I’ve noticed that in general students can be divided into two different types. There are those who consider themselves bibliophiles, haters of all things digital, old school. They spurn the internet and electronic...
The last thing I would advise anyone to do is what I did this semester—work thirty hours per week and take eight hours of classes simultaneously. I started working in the summer because we needed some extra money, and thought that I could keep at it...
Jeff’s post Professors Are People Too, got me thinking. On my lap right now sits a stack of theology position papers—a tall stack, I might add—to grade. Jeff and I have been blessed the past three years to tag-team TA for the first year...
A couple years ago, I was humbled when I realized my professors were so caring, authentic, and well, human. This epiphany moment? I was walking across campus and two different profs, a couple minutes apart, asked us how our son was doing and how...