Ryan BurnsI value any apps that can help my seminary studies, enhance my ministry skills, and save me valuable time so that I have more time to rest and spend with people. Since starting in seminary, some of these apps have been very useful to me. Here is a...
Your choice of classes in seminary can make or break your education. If you’re going to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a masters degree, you owe it to yourself to make sure you get the best education possible. More than that, you owe it...
Paul BurkhartIt won’t take you long upon your arrival at seminary how much things may have changed from previous generations of seminary educations. One of the biggest differences is just how digital everything is. Most seminaries have some sort of online class...
Steve RungeHow is your summer going? How is your summer reading of Scripture going? Here’s another quick tip that can help you more deeply engage and understand what you are reading. As with all of the Summer Reading Challenge posts (here and here), the...
Michael S. HeiserA while back on Unfiltered Fridays I blogged about how bad Bible interpretation really can be harmful. I mentioned that I’m exposed to my share of interpretive incoherence because I’m known on the internet for my paranormal fiction and blogging on...
Most of the time when we are reading the Bible, we read about what happened to biblical characters e.g., David killing Goliath, Jesus feeding the 5000. In some places we even learn about what will happen in the future, as in the book of Revelation...
It won’t take you long upon your arrival at seminary how much things may have changed from previous generations of seminary educations. One of the biggest differences is just how digital everything is. Most seminaries have some sort of online class...
If you’ve been a Christian for very long or were raised in a Christian church, chances are that you’ve heard that the Bible is really about Jesus. That cliché has some truth to it, but it’s misleading. The truth is that there’s a lot in the Bible...
Logos StaffOf the “five solas” of the Reformation, sola fide (Latin for “faith alone”) was so important that Luther called it the “doctrine by which the church stands or falls.” Rooted in Scriptures like Eph 2:8–10, it drew a line in the sand between...
“Surely that can’t be right.” I leaned closer to the computer screen, willing away the obvious. However, it was hard to deny the pull of reality, and the next few minutes were spent coming to grips with the fact that in my first...
For those of you wondering where I’ve been, for the last two weeks I was at the Wales Evangelical School of Theology (WEST) and Cambridge, teaching and attending conferences. At WEST I taught a class similar to the Mobile Ed course now on Pre-Pub...
A few weeks ago I saw Jurassic World, the latest installment of the Jurassic Park franchise based on the Michael Crichton novel by that name. The novel and the films center around the idea of bringing dinosaurs back from extinction by means of...
The hardest class I have taken in seminary is Greek Exegesis of James. This was the capstone class for the Biblical Greek classes and includes creating narrative flows, taking weekly quizzes, a Final exam, and writing the “notorious” exegesis paper...
Readers know that I’m a biblical scholar by training. What most won’t realize is that I’m a political junkie. My undergraduate degree is actually in History and Political Science. Since one of my graduate degrees is in history (albeit ancient...
Greek class often gets a bad rap in seminary. Bible students would probably interpret Paul’s words about trials and tribulations to be a reference to Greek class. “For what can separate us from the love of God…certainly Greek class...
One of my teachers in the Seminary once remarked that theology has the tendency of making theological students and teachers become complacent and lukewarm about spiritual things. At first, I joined others in criticizing the teacher’s statement on...
Two seminarians chime in on the importance of developing a prayer life in seminary. 1. Luke Urban Luke attends Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX. He graduated from TCU in 2010 and loves all things Fort Worth. He is studying...
“No Politics in Church? Not So Fast.” | Religion & Politics // As many of us have heard, Pew Research recently came out with a study highlighting the decline of Christianity and the rise of the unaffiliated and atheist. Many of these...
A while back, I attended a performance of Rebirth of a Nation, a film created by Paul Miller (aka DJ Spooky) that seeks to deconstruct and remix the 1915, W.D. Griffith film, Birth of a Nation, a highly acclaimed cinematic venture and one of the...
One of my favorite scholarly quotations about the hard work of seriously engaging the biblical text—what we popularly call Bible study—is that of the renowned Greek lexicographer, Frederick W. Danker (the “D” in BDAG). Danker famously said that...
Seana ScottWhen my hubby said, “I think I should go to seminary,” I laughed (should my name be Sarah?) “Sure, if God provides,” I replied, fully expecting to still be barren financially, but God provided the tuition. We sold our house, almost all our...
We are heading into the summer vacation season, the perfect time to let your bible reading go on vacation too! I am issuing a Summer Reading Challenge for those wanting to either enhance (or begin!) their regular time in Scripture. How? I will be...
Anyone who teaches the Word of God wants people excited about exploring Scripture. Ultimately, you want to turn listeners into competent students so that they can teach others. Along the way you have to deal with a lot of mistaken methods and...
“Are we reading the book of Genesis as if God has sort of subtly placed scientific information there for us to read 2000, 3000, 4000 years later as modern people?” asks Dr. John Walton. “Or are we supposed to read it as an ancient book? I’m inclined...
In my first year of seminary, I was in a New Testament class with an eccentric and somewhat unorthodox professor who enjoyed challenging various long-held theological assumptions and beliefs with the goal of helping us freshly think through these...
Let’s get the obvious out of the way. You should read your Bible. You should also commit Scripture to memory. Both spiritual disciplines are axiomatic for Christians. But neither is Bible study. I’ll explain what I mean by taking one at a time...
Was Abraham called to kill Isaac? Yes. He went forward with that plan until God “called” otherwise. Would he have been disobedient to continue with the original “calling” of killing Isaac after God said “stop”? In the church today we have a very...
We’ve all heard the old saying that certain things get better with age—wine, cheese, common sense. Anyone who’s watched Antiques Roadshow also knows that the longer you have something that there’s a demand for—real estate, investments, fine art, a...
It’s May, which for most schools is graduation season. Men and women who have invested countless hours in classrooms and libraries are now preparing for the ceremony that will mark the end of a sometimes long and often very difficult journey...
Names are typically the best way of quickly achieving identification, especially if the person is already know to everyone. But sometimes context demands that you do something other than the ordinary. TV programs are a great modern example of this...