There's a common joke that's told in evangelical circles. Unfortunately I'm guilty of telling it more times than I care to count. It's always in the context of learning truth vs. knowing truth. Maybe it's less of a joke and more of a jab. It goes like this:
Whenever you refer to someone/something in "seminary" (an institution of higher education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry) you replace said word with "cemetery". ex. I learned the definition of "Odium theologicum" in cemetery. The response is always followed by canned laughter.
The real joke is in the fact that everyone involved knows that seminary kills real Christians, instead of teaching them. Hence the replacement of seminary for cemetery.
GET IT! WOCKA WOCKA!!!
I'm reading a book by Bart D. Ehrman. In this book he describes how he was attending a conservative seminary (Moody Bible Institute) and after graduating he furthered his studies at a more liberal seminary (Wheaton College & Princeton Theological Seminary). He then describes how he and his conservative friends had to start a peer group to "keep their faith".
It immediately reminded me of the old joke I was so guilty of telling.
I had to start asking myself, does knowledge of the truth and a better understanding of the facts of biblical history really cause you to become "dead" by conservative standards? Well, In Bart's case it eventually did. He recently became an agnostic after struggling with the philosophical problems of evil and suffering.
I'm on a quest. A quest that I have appropriately labeled "Hell Bent". In this quest I am looking for the truth. The more I look the better off I am and the more ALIVE I feel. This quest is doing anything but killing my faith.
In the end I am confident that I will not find my faith 6 feet under. I am quickly burying my old rotten ideas of how things should be according to popular/evangelical belief. It feels so good to let the old ways fall off my bones. I also believe that (for me) those decrepit ideas should remain in the ground.
So, you're prolly asking yourself, is Chris for or against Seminary? I will answer with this quote.
"And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
