Journal: Emmaus Journal
Volume: EMJ 15:2 (Winter 2006)
Article: The Case For Formal Theological Training
Author: Robert Duncan Culver

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EMJ 15:2 (Winter 2006) p. 59

The Case For Formal Theological Training

Robert Duncan Culver

Before his retirement Robert Culver held professorships at Grace Theological Seminary (Old Testament and Hebrew), Wheaton College and Graduate School (Bible and Theology), and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Systematic Theology). He is one of the elder statesmen of modern evangelicalism, and we are pleased to welcome him to our pages. Dr. Culver has taken an interest in the Brethren assemblies for many years. One of his early students was the late John Harper, longtime faculty member of Emmaus Bible College. Knowing of the debate in the assemblies over formal training, he offered this article to The Emmaus Journal, thinking it would be of some help to those who have thought about the subject and are seeking some guidance. The article is adapted from Robert Duncan Culver, Systematic Theology (Fearn, Scotland: Mentor, 2005), 6–11. The editors express their thanks to the publisher (Christian Focus Publications) for permission to publish the article in this format.

Is there a specific biblical mandate for setting up schools of training for elders, pastors-teachers, full-time workers, itinerant preachers, missionaries, and evangelists and, if so, must systematic doctrinal study be a part of it? Do we really need teachers? Is it not true that if serious Christians would only gather together with Bibles on their laps, read together, and share their insights and experiences, this is all they need to understand the Word of God? Is something less explicit than formal, guided study under gifted and authorized teachers possible and, if so, is it desirable? Is there intellectual depth to Christianity which justly challenges the best minds? If so, does that require the same kind of intellectual rigor demanded in many other areas of human culture? The answer to all these questions is not hard to find.

Biblical Examples

The Example Of The Lord Jesus

Let us start with Jesus. He lived out his days as a biblical Jew, according to the requirements and instructions of the Law and the Prophets. They spoke to Jesus with authority. The synagogue, its school, and its rabbis were part of his training as a youth. He asserted that to search the Old Testament is a part of the true way of eternal life.

EMJ 15:2 (Winter 2006) p. 60

This attitude of Jesus was passed on to the apostles, all of whom were already committed to the same outlook. They followed Jesus everywhere, being schooled thereby in one of the accepted pedagogical methods of the ancient world, that is, they were true “Peripatetics” though not quite after the Aristotelian model.1

Many times he promised they ...

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