Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 109:433 (Jan 1952)
Article: Editorials
Author: Anonymous

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BSac 109:433 (Jan 52) p. 1

Editorials

Time for a Theological Education

Must one spend all the years of childhood to be prepared to enter college, and then devote at least four more long years in college or university in order to secure what may be termed a normal or standard education? Still more to the point is the question of whether, having completed the courses mentioned above, one should spend another four years or more to be qualified in a worthy profession. Law, medicine, and engineering require four years at least of the student. Even chiropody—the science of human feet and dentistry—the science of human teeth hesitate not to require a full four years for the preparation of one who is to operate or serve in these fields. Yet theology, the greatest of all subjects of education, is, in a more or less conventional indifference, compressed into three years of technical study. Notice the reason why students hesitate to give more than three years to theology: the fact that the majority of seminaries are requiring no more than the three years and have shortened all courses to the point that they can be fitted into the usual three years.

The answer of the head of a school to a prospective student is pertinent. The student had inquired whether he might not find a short-cut way to complete the prescribed courses. To this the president made reply: “Doubtless we can find a way to shorten things for you. It takes a full hundred years to grow an oak tree, but a squash can be grown in six months.”

Recognizing the superior demands of an education in theology, the Dallas Seminary, soon after having begun with the conventional three-year course, extended its program of study to four years for graduation. The results of this move are long past the experimental period and the

BSac 109:433 (Jan 52) p. 2

quality of the men graduated has spoken for itself in no uncertain terms. Instead of discouraging good men from attending a school which requires four years, the Seminary has had a constantly increasing student body every year under this plan.

What the student desires most determines usually the training he receives. It is the man who wants that which is complete, and therefore best, who is going to make best use of the education he obtains. The answer now, as always, to a man who is thinking in terms of a shorter course is that those who want a strong, complete foundation in the knowledge of the Word should be directed to Dallas, while those who are interested in a less extensive training may well go elsewhere.

The Sins of Christians

In a class studying Soteriology at the Dallas Theological Seminary an unusual question was asked in an examination. The class had made a study of the doctrine of the security of t...

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