By David Gushee
Tonight I enter a classroom at McAfee School of Theology where 80 students will gather for the introductory course in Christian ethics. Fully one-third of our students will be in this one class. I have been thinking and praying about what I hope to accomplish with this course. Here are a few reflections:
1. I begin by celebrating that the Christian faith has somehow taken root deeply enough in each student that they have decided to attend seminary.
In a context in which Christian faith is generally on the decline in North America, sitting in front of me will be 80 souls to whom that faith has been successfully communicated, undoubtedly in wildly varying ways. I begin with basic gratitude and respect for the very existence of Christian communities that still have the capacity to nurture a faith powerful enough to send women and men into seminary education. They did their job. Our job is to return to them graduates who are equipped to serve them well in the next generation.
2. I want to send away from my class students who are even more committed to Christ, the scriptures and the church than they were when they entered my class.
There is a longstanding tendency in some academic circles to take delight in the deconstructing of what is perceived to be naïve, pre-critical or fundamentalist faith among students. They want to leave students far less certain of the things they thought they knew when they entered school.
I have never embraced such deconstruction as a goal, because it sets the professor up to be an adversary of the student rather than a friend on a shared journey. I know too many cases where deconstruction of old verities was never followed up by reconstruction of new convictions. This leaves them poorly positioned to serve the church, and that benefits no one.
3. I want to help students retain and strengthen their piety and the practices that nurture it.
Most seminarians have a history of practicing a devotional life. They have woken up early each morning for what used to be called a “quiet time.” Perhaps they memorized Scripture or sang out their worship in songs of praise and meditation. But the busyness of seminary, growing doubts about the meaning of Scripture or the lack of encouragement to continue practices of spirituality, leads to the gradual abandonment of a devotional life.
Seminary should enrich student spirituality by adding new options and new practices. I encourage students to deepen rather than abandon their spirituality.
4. I want to nurture morally serious Christians who place themselves under the Lordship of Christ.
One of the things I will always cherish about the discipling that I received as a baby Christian was its moral seriousness and clarity. I learned that Christ is Lord of every dimension of the Christian’s life. Sometimes seminary produces something less than morally serious Christianity.
Sometimes students exposed to the great moral diversity of contemporary Christianity get morally disoriented and lose a certain grip on their own core convictions. Sometimes they stop working on their own issues of character and integrity. Seminary education must deepen rather than weaken commitment to the Lordship of Christ.
5. I believe good theological education nurtures critical faithfulness in students.
The ideal outcome of seminary education is a sharper, more thoughtful fidelity to Christ. Graduates are better formed and informed. Their faith is stronger. Their love for the Bible is more profound. Their spiritual life is richer. Their character is more mature. Their compassion is refined and trained. They can think critically about every dimension of Christian Scripture, tradition and theology but all in the service of Christ and the church. Seminary has not made them into cynical outsiders to church life but instead effective servants of the church.
This, at least, is my goal as class opens tonight.