Meet and Greet:
Third Personal Encounter with Theological Liberals
Again, we
are developing a series of posts on “Meet and Greet: Personal Encounters with Theological
Liberals.” Again, we are aware of the
technical and historical definition of 19th-20th century “theological
liberalism.” For my children reading this, “theological
liberalism” is a long story. The Veitchs
emerged from “theological liberalism” in Canada. Let’s “Meet and Greet” another
liberal. We reflect on the consequences of
it: theological indifference,
relativism, incompetence and ineffectiveness.
Here’s a practical consequence of a theological liberal (half-wit), “Hey, I don’t care much
about Biblical doctrine and theology, so why should you or the congregation or
the children? We've advanced beyond the quest for doctrinal depth.” The series was prompted
by several posts (see at end). So let’s
meet another one.
Background. I had an occasion to fly, compliments of the
military, from Naples, Italy, to London, UK, for further air transfer to Rota,
Spain. There were several Chaplains
slated to attend an annual “Chaplaincy Training,” a five day affair. En route, I travelled and sat with one
Chaplain, a graduate of Princeton Seminary and PCUSA Chaplain. I did this for both flights. We chatted.
I was a
graduate of Westminster Seminary (Confessional Presbyterian) and he was trained
and ordained through the “theologically liberal” Princeton (non-Confessional
Presbyterian). What happened?
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| Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia |
Before
further comment, years before this air flight and conversation. I had taken
some Th.M. courses at WTS with the Rev. Dr. Philip Edcumbe Hughes, a scholar,
gentleman and Church of England man. In
Dr. Hughes’s NT course, we had a Princeton student, a student on exchange for a
few semesters. I specifically recall
him grousing and observing that Princeton students had half the workload of the Westminster students. It struck me as odd at the time; old Princeton had a reputation for
scholarship; what was the new Princeton
like (post-1930s)? Dad often—at the
dinner table—spoke very highly about those “old Princetonians,” that “careful
and scholarly breed.” But, as a youth,
what did I know?
Fast forward
from WTS to the air flight and conversation with a PTS graduate.
 |
| Princeton Seminary |
Occasioning incident. Here I was, travelling with a PTS
graduate. I asked him several
questions. The answers surprised
me. Based upon that conversation, if
what he was saying was true, I was not impressed with the PTS program. This sloppy fellow lived up to what I’d later
conclude more widely: doctrinal
indifference and incompetence.
Here’s
the upshot of the conversation “in the air.”
I asked
him what language requirements existed, e.g. Greek and Hebrew. Those were always demanding. The PTS man said, “I took a few of them,
although it was not required.” Huh? That was a bit stunning. “Just a few courses in the old languages” I
mused. Of course, I grew up with a Dad
who studied the Greek, Hebrew and Latin texts weekly through 4 decades of
ministry. I’d started Greek lessons at
age 18 and took 2-years in undergraduate studies. What was this, I pondered. I asked him about systematic theology. He said, “I may have had a year and a half of systematic theology.” He really was not sure about his answer
either. “What?” I thought, it can’t be true. Dad handed me Louis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology and Charles Hodge’s
3-volume Systematic Theology upon
graduation from high school and entrance to university. Dad said, “No matter what you major in, read
10 pages from the systematicians and 10 chapters of the OT and 10 chapters of
the NT per day.” Indeed, I did that too,
long before attending seminary. What was
this PTS-man and PCUSA Chaplain saying?
A year and a half of systematics?
Say it ain’t so! I asked him
about church history. “Oh yes, I had a
few of those also.” The dismissive and
casual answers were distinctive. I
asked, “That’s it? What else did you
take?” He said, “Courses on counseling,
sociology, psychology and practical theology.”
I was a bit shocked. These tallies
or demands did not compare to Westminster Seminary or The Reformed Episcopal
Seminary that I had attended. PTS sounded like a cake walk.
Here’s
the 2010-2011 catalogue for Princeton. You
can draw your own conclusions. 78 graduate hours for the M.Div. (Not 90? Like WTS and RES?) 12 hours in Bible. That’s it?
4 courses on the Bible? 12 hours
in History, 4 courses covering early, medieval, early modern and modern
history? That’s it? 12 hours in Theology, that is, 4 courses in systematics? Say it ain’t so. 14 hours in Practical Theology? Huh?
And the rest in electives. This
is very, very poor. See: https://our.ptsem.edu/UploadedFiles/catalogue10-11REVatblue.pdf
. The results were evident in my friend,
his conversation, and casual indifference to his own specialty.
Post incident reflections.
(1) I had read the old 19th-20th
Princetonian theologians per my Dad (long before seminary it must be said), as
well as the history of Princeton and Westminster, an old scholarly tradition of
top drawer thinkers. How had Princeton
fallen?
(2) I did not attend Princeton and this was
really the first conversation with a modern Princetonian. Again, I heard the grousing of a Princetonian
in Dr. Hughes’s course at WTS. It would
take years of connecting dots here and there.
(3) The stunning impression was this: the casual, indifferent, and ignorant review
of theological education. (I suspect the Ph.D. program would be
different, but am discussing the M.Div. program).
(4) Beyond his casual answers, on a personal level, he was
overweight, a bit sloppy, and drank heavily during the week of Chaplaincy
training.
(5) Was this man interested or qualified for
ministry?
(6) The fruit of theological liberalism was
theological indifference, clear Confessional and catechetical ignorance,
Biblical incompetence, language-incompetence, historical incompetence, and
doctrinal incompetence. It would appear
that PTS lost some of the energy and scholarship of the old days. WTS had not lost that.
Objections.
Objections.
(1) Objection.
Are you imputing theological ignorance and/or indifference to Princetonian
alums? Isn’t that an overstated
claim? Rebuttal. We affirm in part and
deny in part. We do not impute that to
all PTS M.Divvers. For example, the Rev.
Dr. James Montgomery Boice, our Pastor for a few years, was a PTS alum. (Jim could have done better, by the way.) However,
we emphatically impute exactly that—ignorance
and indifference—to this graduate and several other Presbyterians. Indeed, we do that here. However, granting your objection on a wider
arc, we say this. Having met other PTS
alums, the question, curiosity and questions stand. PCUSA Chaplains, in my experience, graduates
of liberal schools, were not substantively-oriented or
theologically-driven people. That infects and affects listeners and
followers.
(2) To revise and extend on the rebuttal, we
expect that the Th.M. and Ph.D. programs have well trained Professors. But again, we are not impressed with the
M.Div. program. Nor have we been
impressed with those we met.
Conclusions.
(1) Confessionally incompetent.
(2) Absence of doctrinal rigour and, hence, an
absence of a compelling vision and faith-system, resulting in communication of
that horrific disease to others.
(3) At the time, more questions were raised in my
mind. Self to self: “You’ve read about theological liberalism for
years. Is this what they are really
like?”
(4) We continue our “Meet and Greet” tour. This was one liberal Presbyterian amongst
others with whom I had dealings. There
will be more.
(5)
Connect the dots across the mainline denominations. There will be other connections.
(6) I’ll have another post about another
Presbyterian Dumb Ass, Tom, a Senior Chaplain.
A Dumb Ass? Indeed.
Related Blogs on this subject.
Detwiler,
SGM, Mahaney, TEC, Sandusky/Penn State & Leadership Corruptions
A
Personal Encounter with a Theological Liberal
A Second Personal
Encounter with Theological Liberals
http://reformationanglicanism.blogspot.com/2012/07/second-personal-encounter-with.html
Dr. Timothy George: 3 Lesson from Mainline Crisis and Decline
The following tags are applied. Mainline
Decline, Mainline Protestants, Theological Liberalism, Liberal Chaplains,
Theological Education, Uneducated Ministers, Dumb Asses.
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