Evangelical Theological Education

Many today are seeing the need and importance of teaching Christian apologetics in a variety of different settings. This is intended to help fulfill that need. Following Dr. Norman Geisler’s Twelve Points that Show Christianity is True, this Guide or curriculum is designed to help you prepare and teach Christian apologetics. This Guide contains what is required for instruction in a single resource to teach others successfully in apologetics. It is for the homeschool parent, Sunday school teacher, Christian school teacher, pastor, campus minister, leader in your church or anyone who wants to educate others in Christian apologetics. Dr. Norman Geisler developed the Twelve Points over many years of teaching and instruction at various levels and settings. They have proven to be an invaluable way to learn, communicate, teach and classify the steps of Christian apologetics in a systematic manner. The Twelve Points serve as domains of learning that are memorable, usable and practical. This Guide is intended to help any teacher educate students both young and old in Christian apologetics.

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This ebook is also available on Amazon in Kindle format.
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"Methodology: The interaction of rhetorical and stylistic analysis

This study is based on a prior text-analysis and translation of the entire book of Jonah (Wendland 1996). The methodology involves a systematic investigation of such macro-structural properties as demarcation (an internal segmentation of the text), conjunction (textual cohesion and coherence), projection (the foregrounding or highlighting of focal information), progression (the development of syntagmatic sequences and paradigmatic sets), and inclusion (the hierarchical integration of all discourse constituents into a unified whole). The result provides one with an overview or exposition, depending on the degree of detail, of a given biblical text's larger organizational framework and, perhaps more importantly, its associated (albeit assumed) functional operation as a unique instance of theological and literary communication, whether in the original event or during subsequent oral and written rehearsals in different contextual settings.

In this chapter, I will focus on the form and function of what appear to be the two most prominent stylistic techniques in the Jonah text, namely, recursion and variation. These two are of course related by mutual complementation. Both similarity (recursion) and difference (variation) are necessary for the production of verbal meaning in general and poetic effect in particular. "Style" concerns the how (or manner/means) of transmitting the content (the what) of a certain message. It refers to the sum of all those literary and linguistic characteristics that serve either to distinguish one text (or related corpus) from another, or to relate one text to another. Two other important, and closely related, artistic devices in Jonah (as in other biblical Hebrew narrative works) involve the use of "quotation" (i.e., inter- as well as intra-textual citation) and "interrogation" (i.e., both real and rhetorical questions), but these will be treated under the more general categories of recursion and variation. The use of any given stylistic feature will normally not be textually distinctive in itself. But the total inventory and placement of such items (their selection and arrangement) as they interact with one another within a single composition and situational context will inevitably be text-specific in terms of both form and function.

Any consideration of functional significance will normally engage an analyst with the rhetorical dimension of discourse. A study of "rhetoric" investigates the why (or aim/intention) of a certain text in relation to both the primary as well as any secondary receptor group. Rhetoric (in the narrower sense as used here) is the art of argumentation. It takes up where stylistics (the art of composition) leaves off and examines the utilization of a specially shaped and organized ("styled") verbal composition for the purposes of receptor persuasion. How did the original Hebrew author (whoever that happened to be, a unified text being presupposed) endeavor to employ a considered selection of content coupled with a skillful manipulation of form in order to direct the thinking, mold the opinion, move the emotions, and motivate the will of his audience—in short, to adopt a divinely-shaped ideology and point of view? Following this discussion of function, I will focus upon the diverse operation of two prominent rhetorical techniques in Jonah, namely, irony and enigma. These effects are frequently (but not always) generated by, or we might say—embodied in, the pair of stylistic means mentioned above, recursion and variation.

The present chapter consists of several major sections. In sections 6.2-6.4, I will survey the major formal features which distinguish the text of Jonah, with special reference to recursion and variation, which are key characteristics of Hebrew narrative style. In section 6.5, I consider the wider functional dimension of this type of discourse—though it is impossible to completely separate form and function during any meaningful analysis. In 6.6 and 6.7, irony and enigma specifically are described and illustrated from the text of Jonah. The four poetic and rhetorical resources of recursion, variation, irony, and enigma are crucial components of the “artistic code” (Long 1994:35) in which the book was first written and hence they are also keys to its contemporary interpretation. In the course of this investigation I hope to demonstrate why the short narrative work of Jonah has often been characterized as a “masterpiece of rhetoric” (Brichto 1992:68)—an excellent example of artful, affective religious communication. The principal reason for paying such careful attention to artistic form has been well-stated by V. Philips Long (Ibid.,42):

An increased appreciation of the literary mechanisms of a text—how a story is told—often becomes the avenue of greater insight into the theological, religious and even historical significance of the text—what the story means. A brief overview of Jonah's main theme(s) or "message," validates in turn the book's classification as a "prophetic" discourse; that is, it manifests a similar generic (hortatory) purpose to other texts found in the corpus of the so-called "minor" prophets.

Finally, in section 6.8, I present some thoughts on the practical implications of this study, Jonah’s psalm of chapter two in particular, with reference to Bible translation—communicating the "word of the LORD" persuasively (i.e., rhetorically) to God's people today in an appropriate genre and an idiomatic style.
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Background: Paul was on his third missionary journey in Miletus about 48 kilometers south of Ephesus.  Paul had sailed past Ephesus because he was in a hurry to get to Jerusalem before the day of Pentecost.  From Miletus, he sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church and gave them a farewell speech.  Believers involved in evangelism can learn a lot from Paul’s style of ministry.

Evangelist [is] used in a general sense of anyone who proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ… The evangelist… moved about in different localities, preaching the [gospel] to those who had not heard the message before.  Once such had put their trust in the Lord, then the work of the pastor-teacher begun.  He would remain with them, training them further in the things pertaining to Christ and building them up in the faith.  [Therefore, the artistes’ work of evangelism should be supervised by guardians or pastors].

This study reviews many of the aspects of the Folk Catholicism that is practiced in the Philippines in light of biblical revelation. What does the Bible say about things like God's providence and God's power? What the Bible say about the Virgin Mary, the saints, multitudes of other spirits and the ancestors? What does the Bible say about town fiestas, religious processions, offerings to spirits, amulets and talismans, going to the gravesite on All-Saints' Day and a multitude of other issues. What does a culturally sensitive, biblically authentic, contextual theology look like? Keywords: Animism, theology, folk religion, primal religion, traditional religious values, theology, culture, Philippines, Filipinos, missions in the Philippines, Pentecostal, Folk Catholicism.

Jeffrey M. Horner (ed.), Leading Teachers, Teaching Leaders. Biblical and Historical Perspectives on Education and Leadership [Celebrating 500 Years since the Reformation, 1518-2018: Tome septième] (Oradea, Warsaw, Berlin, and Enschede: Emanuel University Press, De Gruyter Open, and Refo500, 2018).

Summary of activities by various faculty at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School to engage the school on behalf of broadening our ethnic diversity in good ways. The activities described here underpinned a subsequent faculty retreat on the topic (led by Tienou, Cha, and Priest), and laid foundations for the subsequent publication (2007) by Oxford University Press of the book "This Side of Heaven: Race, Ethnicity, and Christian Faith," to which various Trinity faculty members contributed, a book edited by Robert Priest and Alvaro Nieves.

"Perennial crisis is the normal state of affairs. This would be the dominant impression created if the history of all institutions of higher learning founded by the people called Baptists could be encompassed in one narrative. The casual reader of such a story might conclude that, since some of those institutions still exist in spite of such continual crises, the present crisis in Baptist Higher Education is simply another in the long series of emergencies which, somehow or other, will be resolved in the normal course of events. (c) Doak S. Campbell, Florida State University

This is a defense of evangelical theology for the beginning student. It certainly is also a primer for students already familiar with theology. Contained here–in is a glimpse into the classroom of the authors. This, as closely as possible, is a text of our lectures in Prolegomena. Each chapter covers a central topic or question related to the subject. Each chapter also contains educational aids such as objectives, questions and exercises, vocabulary words, and summaries to help the student master the material. Hence, it is intended to be used with or in preparation for classroom teaching, instruction and learning.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1536965138/

In 1910, the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Free churches opened a school in Rushford, Minnesota, and six years later moved the school northwest to Minneapolis. The trend toward liberal theology had reached a climax at the beginning of the twentieth century, prompting these churches to open their own school based upon their evangelical convictions. For them, the challenges and costs of opening and operating a school outweighed the benefits of a twenty-five-year affiliation with Chicago Theological Seminary

Plagiarism awareness is increasing overall in the Indian academia, but theological institutions lag behind. In this context, exploring viable solutions should be prioritized by theological educators. The challenge is to incorporate anti-plagiarism measures as intrinsic to the overall learning experience. This is the subtle battle for the heart of the theological education. To achieve long-term success, collaboration of all the stakeholders looms to be critical.

Gustav Edwards (1874–1948) served as the prominent leader of the Bible Institute and Seminary of the Swedish Evangelical Free Church from 1916 to 1944. In his role, he shaped this fledgling school in Chicago into an established institution that was founded to train men and women to serve as Christian workers, pastors, and missionaries. During his twenty-eight years of service, Edwards directed the Bible Institute of the Swedish Evangelical Free Church at Moody Bible Institute, and helped to establish the Bible Institute and Seminary as a free-standing school of the Swedish Evangelical Free Church. Today, this school, affiliated with the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA), is known as Trinity International University (TIU) with Trinity College, Trinity Graduate School, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, located at Deerfield, Illinois, northwest of Chicago.

Theological institutions are the "seed bed where seeds and then young plants are nurtured into bloom and usefulness" 1 for the service of church and society. This view of a theological institution is as profound as it is humbling. It is a profound thought that seminaries provide the context for ministerial formation of those whom God calls. It is humbling because failure on the part of seminaries to play well their parts does have far reaching implications of eternal proportions. This paper examines the challenge facing seminaries from the perspective of the importance of graduate profile. A graduate profile is a portrait of the person a graduate of an institution is expected to be at the point of graduation. This portrait needs to be clear in the minds of institutional administrators, teachers and the students themselves if the expectations will be met. I shall attempt to explore the relevance of graduate profile in the spiritual formation of the theological student. In this paper, I emphasize integration as the effective way of developing properly formed ministers for the church and provide a model for assessment that will achieve the desired results.

A good amount of theological education literature is being generated on the relationship between training and usefulness to the church. For instance, Tim Dearborn (1995) published a study to determine the characteristics that are important for pastors to have in order to be successful in ministry and based on that to develop a theological education programme that will assist in developing those traits. Jaison Thomas, (2008) also studied the situation in Kerala, India, sampling theological educators, church leaders and theological students to unravel their perspective on what theological education should focus upon in order to be more useful to the church. The present study is similar to these previous efforts in methodology but different in focus. The attempt here is to try and determine a set of characteristics that could describe a good church in Nigeria today and then to establish a set of characteristics that could describe the kind of pastors that are likely to produce such a church. This should then assist theological institutions in Nigeria to decide how to focus their programmes towards the development of such ministers. To achieve this, different sections of the church is surveyed in line with contemporary viewpoints which prioritize the input of the community in the determination of educational programmes and their objectives. To give the study a concrete footing, the ministerial training programme of one institution is selected for evaluation based on the findings of the study. After the introduction, the paper discusses concerns being raised on the issue of relevance of theological education programmes. The findings from the study are then reported and salient issues highlighted and discussed. The paper concludes with a few recommendations that could further enhance the usefulness and relevance of theological education programmes for contemporary ministerial realities.

The study was inspired by the conviction that having been awarding the BTh degree since 1948, the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso needs to reassess this programme to see to what extent its curriculum is effective in preparing ministers for the churches today. Two methods of data gathering were used. First was an open-ended questionnaire used to ascertain the characteristics of churches needed in contemporary Nigeria and the kind of pastors that will bring about such churches. Then focus group interviews were conducted on three graduates of the Seminary’s BTh programme and some of their members to see to what extent these graduates exemplify the characters of the ideal pastors earlier established.
From the research, characteristics of the ideal contemporary church that emerged include evangelism and missions, robust preaching and teaching, ministry to the needy within and outside the church, team spirit and unity, inspiring worship, and a prayerful atmosphere. On the other hand, the ideal pastor was reflected as one characterized by a prayerful lifestyle, sense of call, knowledge of the word of God, care for members, good preaching and teaching skills and strong leadership in missions and innovative ministries.
The findings confirmed the hypothesis that there is indeed a correlation between curriculum and graduate output. The Seminary’s graduates were found to be doing quite well in the areas where the NBTS curriculum was strong:  preaching and teaching, ministry to the needy, unity, worship and prayer. As much as these graduates were doing well in the areas of consolidation ministry, it was found that they were not performing strongly in the areas of evangelism and missions and spiritual formation; incidentally areas where the seminary’s curriculum and objectives were deemed quite weak.
It was therefore recommended that the NBTS and other theological institutions in Nigeria need to do regular needs assessment that then guides programmes reviews that help in developing the kind of ministers that will provide the needed leadership and service required to take the church to where it needs to be today.

Key words
Theological education, curriculum and graduate outcomes, spiritual formation, missions, Nigerian Baptist Theological seminary

The doctrine of the church has continued to generate interest among scholars since the early history of Christian theology. This interest has been facilitated by the fact that this doctrine is one that touches on several other doctrines such as the doctrines of God, Christ, Holy Spirit, humanity, salvation and eschatology. A prominent approach in ecclesiological discussions is the use of analogy in describing the church. This is because, often times, complex issues get clarified by the use of analogies. This article reviews a number of the different analogies that have been used to describe the church and finds them deficient in capturing the depth of God's relationship with the church.

The purpose of this paper is to assess to what extent Roman Catholic Seminaries in Nigeria comply with the emphasis in the Pastores Dabo Vobis on spiritual formation. The PDV is the dominant Roman Catholic document on ministerial formation since Vatican II. The PDV has been influential in highlighting the importance of spiritual formation in theological education globally. The paper gives a brief overview of the PDV and then examines one Roman Catholic Seminary in Nigeria (the Claretia n Institute, Nekede, Owerri) to see to what extent this objective is carried out amongst other objectives. The paper concludes with salient lessons other theological institutions can learn from Claretian Institute's effort at provision of holistic and relevant theological preparation for ministers.

Theological education finds itself in uncertain times, with questions about its future coming from many angles. With religion losing its pride of place in society, with increased government scrutiny and decreased government funding, with fewer full-time students (and fewer students all together), with increasing ambivalence toward traditional training within churches and without, and with serious questions being raised about its very nature and value—many wonder what the future will look like for theological education, if it even has one. None of these questions is answered, at least not directly, by Volf and Croasmun’s new book, For the Life of the World. But it does address the most fundamental issues of them all: What is theology and what is it for? And in doing so, it provides a point of departure for the most foundational issues in theological education, too: What is it and what is it for? This paper reviews the book with an eye toward its contribution to these questions.

This article draws from the insights of Andy Lord's Pentecostal network ecclesiology in order to explain the emergence of Bible institutes and the challenges in theological education. By examining the educational history of the Latin American Bible Institute (LABI), we find how the network paradigm enables us to understand why Bible institutes have fostered the success, growth, and education of Latinos/as. Lord's network paradigm is also applied to the problems of diversity and inclusion in theological education. This article aims to offer insights into how theological education can be renewed through ethnocultural networks and pedagogies of inclusion.

In diesem Essay setze ich mich vor dem Hintergrund des universitätstheologischen Sammelbandes "Theologische Ausbildung und Spiritualität" (2016) mit Spiritualität in evangelikal-theologischer Bildung auseinander. Als Studienleiter und Dozent an einem evangelikal-theologischen Bildungsinstitut bringe ich dazu hauptsächlich meine eigenen Erfahrungen ins Gespräch und mache so vier wesentliche Bereiche der Weiterarbeit aus, die ich mit je einer These vorläufig abschliesse.
Trotz aller inhaltlichen Unterschiede zeigt sich sowohl auf universitätstheologischer wie auch auf evangelikaler Seite die eine Hauptfrage darin, wie die nichtlehrbare, aber notwendige persönliche Spiritualität als Haltung und Praxis gelernt werden kann.

С целью выяснить какую пользу поместные церкви и пасторы Восточной Европы получают от богословского образования, было задано несколько конкретных вопросов в процессе данного исследования всем 70-ти пасторам, участвующим в опросе:

а. Какова, с точки зрения пасторов, основная цель существования и функционирования богословского вуза?
б. Какие программы они хотели бы видеть в богословском учебном заведении?
в. Какие качества они желают видеть в студентах и выпускниках?
г. Какими качествами должен обладать преподаватель богословского вуза?

В заключение статьи будут предложены новые направления для качественного исследования: восприятие поместными евангельскими церквами богословских семинарий в странах бывшего Советского Союза, их отношение к учебным заведениям и их взаимоотношения с богословскими вузами. Для тех, кто несет служение в богословском образовании, будет предложено несколько общих рекомендаций, чтобы они могли лучше воплощать ожидания евангельских пасторов, но не в ущерб академическому качеству.

Virtually all Evangelicals recognize the health benefits of limiting pregnancy and therefore endorse some form of artificial contraception. Moreover, some Evangelicals accept abortifacents and abortion. Indeed, Evangelical colleges and universities in Massachusetts—one of the first states to mandate health insurance coverage for all citizens—have provided employees and students their choice of contraception without objection for the last decade. Based on this precedence, when the United States Affordable Care Act (ACA) was implemented nationwide, it was surprising to see some Evangelical corporations seeking religious exemptions from covering essential health benefits, including certain forms of contraception. My presentation will argue that Evangelicals did not need to bring lawsuits against the ACA, as contraception is viewed as a theologically acceptable part of women’s reproductive health.

First, I will survey the litigious landscape of Evangelical lawsuits against the contraceptive mandate in the ACA. Then, I provide a brief Evangelical theology of contraception and abortion, inclusive of both progressive and conservative stances. Finally, I will appeal to the internal coherence of Evangelical bioethical theology. Due to the willingness of the vast majority of Evangelicals to accept contraception—and abortion when the life of the mother is in danger—I will make the case that Hobby Lobby, Grace College, Biola University, and other Evangelical institutions could have accepted the Affordable Care Act as written. Should further exemptions be sought under ‘repeal and replace’, Evangelicals must considered the arguments presented above.

Case studies in postcolonial contextualization mark a forty-year-old missiolog-ical trend in evangelical scholarship. The largely unqualified support of indigenous theological expression by mission theorists represents an epistemological shift from a conservative bibliology toward felt-needs evangelization and religious roundtable dialogue methods. Evangelical contextualization theory today echoes German Ro-manticism's early assessments of indigenous language and local religion, especially as seen in the works of pluralistic Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803). No study of postcolonial contextualization is complete without considering the enduring influence of Herder's " vernacular consciousness " on the current missiological mindset.

Our essential beliefs about what the Old Testament is should inform how we interpret it and teach it. Thus, the fundamental conviction underlying this chapter is that ontology should determine praxis. While the advent of theological interpretation has helped to clarify the presuppositions and goals of evangelical hermeneutics, the practice of evangelical hermeneutics, particularly with respect to the Old Testament, is often at odds with such beliefs. Broadly, evangelical hermeneutics need to resist the influence of historical criticism and embrace a consistent and explicit application of our convictions within Old Testament interpretation and pedagogy. Speech act theory is proposed as a helpful means of achieving this objective.

... Mark Rapinchuk is assistant professor of philosophy and religion at the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout^ MO 65726. ... 9 For discussion of this point see Kaylor, Paul's Covenant Community 109-110; Cambier, "Péchés des Hommes" 242-251; Porter, "Pauline Concept of ...

... [398]. The later intertestamental and NT apocalyptic literature also has many affinities of imagery and themes not only with Daniel but with standard eschatological prophecy, including the kingdom oracles. Thus when God's wrath ...

A survey treatment, in short compass, of so rich and multifaceted a topic as the Holy Spirit in Paul is bound to be supercial. A surely more promising alternative is to identify and reect on those viewpoints in his teaching on the Spirit that are dominant and most decisive. My ...

Since the last few decades, spiritual formation has been receiving attention in theological education literature. An increasing number of theological educators have observed how easily this important objective of ministerial formation gets crowded out by the academic and ministry emphases. Others have called attention to the problem of fragmentation pointing to the need for integration in the work theological institutions do. Thus, it has become common to hear institutions boast of how integrated their programmes are and how much emphasis they place on spiritual formation. It is, however, not that common to see studies dedicated to finding out how these claims are actually realized in practice. The purpose of this paper is to assess to what extent Roman Catholic Seminaries in Nigeria comply with the emphasis in the Pastores Dabo Vobis (PDV) on spiritual formation. The PDV is the dominant Roman Catholic document on ministerial formation since Vatican II. The PDV has been influential ...

Plotting conversion stories is my sacred hobby. Lauren Winner's best-selling memoir of her conversion from Reform Judaism to Orthodox Judaism and then on to evangelical Christianity is one of the best reads of the last decade, and her story illustrates one type of conversion by Jews to the Christian faith. Her aesthetically-prompted and liturgically-shaped conversion story is as difficult to plot as it is joyous to read—she tells us about things that do not matter to conversion theory while she does not tell us about things that do matter. In her defense, she did not write her story so the theoretically-inclined could analyze her conversion. Here is a defining moment in her conversion story:

This completely understandable - albeit defensive - justification of what is or can be Christian about a liberal arts education has become a punchline. The apologetic genesis is obvious to me, but it's rarely admitted from within these circles, as the relationship of faith and learning is the problem to be overcome or solved. These institutions seek accreditation, grant advanced degrees, seek professional credentials to track majors/graduates-it all is necessary to justify the expense of higher education as well as differentiate the institution from competition. But, properly, there is no such thing as Christian dentistry, law, diesel mechanics or mathematics - so why do we entertain silly assertions of Christian psychology, education, business or even biology?

This paper is the work product from a recent review of such things at a prominent Christian higher education institution. (The response was mixed - from faculty outside the Christian labeled departments it was lauded, from those within and from the administration's representatives it was not.)