Why Study Theology?
What is doctrine for? Seminarian Jonathan Sundermeier turns to Calvin’s Institutes to argue that theology’s highest end is piety: reverent love of God that is formed by knowing him and issues in joyful obedience.
Tag
Theological Education
Ten articles from nine issues, 2015 to 2026
Pastoral Ministry and Scholarship
Why insist that pastors be trained as scholars? La Montagne separates the Reformed tradition's actual answer from the modern research-university definition that's quietly replaced it, and shows how the original conception still serves congregations better than the institutional one.
Humility as a Reformed Value
What does humility have to do with teaching the Bible? Bryant argues: everything. The breadth and mystery of Scripture, the humility of God's self-revelation in Christ, and the limits of every interpreter all push against confident overreach in the classroom and the pulpit alike.
Theology as a Way of Life
Today's classrooms aim to feel safe. Neder argues theology classrooms must do more than that. Christian theology is an encounter with the living God, and a class that never disturbs anyone is teaching about a different subject than the one its name says.
An Invitation to Combat
Ray opens with a Boy Scout sea voyage to Austria as a fifteen-year-old, the moment a curious kid first met big questions. The address builds from that memory toward an invitation: theology as combat in the best sense, the place where serious questions actually get fought through.
Six Observations about Presbyterian Theological Education: The View from My Window
Forty years into ministry, Bullock offers six observations about how Presbyterians have trained their pastors and where the model has thinned out. Stewardship of time, the witness of unlikely converts, and the irreplaceability of mentors all show up on his list.
The Feast of Many Memories
Church-leadership conferences offer endless cures for stagnant congregations: webinars, restructuring, mergers, branding consultants. Ray draws on John Leith and a long memory to question whether any of these have actually produced what they promise, and to point toward what historically has.
Is Theology Practical?
Three months into pastoral ministry, Nixon noticed that her seminary theology courses turned out to be more practical than the courses labeled 'practical theology.' This conference address asks why, and what congregations lose when academic theology gets quietly dismissed as impractical.
Why Church Leaders Should Study Theology
Any organization needs leaders who know what it exists to do and how well it's doing it. Patterson argues that theology is exactly that knowledge for the church, and that pastors and elders who treat it as optional are quietly steering their congregations toward irrelevance.
Reclaiming Theological Education
In 1943 Princeton Theological Seminary required apologetics. The next year, it dropped from the curriculum entirely. Dembski traces how rational defense of the Christian faith, once taken for granted as a Christian duty, became theologically suspect, and what the seminary's loss has cost the church.