Knowledge, Faith, and Love - Reflecting on a George Grant Quote

My PhD supervisor and I email back and forth this week about my conclusion. I am on the final stretch of my dissertation and now my question to address is this: how do I want to conclude my conclusion?

I read an article by George Grant this week that seems like a fitting addition to my conclusion. Writing about the scientific method of research and its propensity for objectifying everything, Grant suggests that love is no longer welcomed into the halls of the university (what he calls the "multiversity"):

Indeed it is clear that the modern project of reason as projected towards objects summoned before us to answer our questions is not an activity which depends on the love of the objects studied. Objects can be summoned before us without love for the things summoned. This is true, whether the object summoned is a tree, a beast, a human being, a society or the past; that is, whether our researches fall under the natural sciences, the social sciences or the humanities. Therefore as this paradigm of knowledge becomes increasingly all pervasive, faith as the experience that the intelligence is illuminated by love, must have less and less significance in the central work of the multiversity. Indeed, what has happened in modern society as a whole is that knowledge qua knowledge is detached from love qua love. (Grant, "Faith and the Multiversity", 392-393). 

If Grant's assessment is true about the university, and I believe it is, I wonder how true it is of seminaries and theological schools? Could the modern search for knowledge according to scientific methods downplay love in those institutions? If so, there are implications for Christian theology. After all, God is love (1 Jn. 4:8 & 16). Therefore, to know God is to know love. If a quest for knowledge in theological schools focuses on "objects summoned before us" rather than an intimate embrace of God and His creation, love may not be as welcome as we might have hoped.

How is virtue acquired?

Have you ever wondered how someone becomes really kind or patient or generous? Becoming virtuous is just like learning a skill. It takes people modelling and guiding and it also requires practise.

Here's what Aristotle says, 

Virtues ... we acquire just as we acquire crafts, by having previously activated them. For we learn a craft by producing the same product that we must produce when we have learned it, becoming builders, for instance, by building and temperate by doing temperate actions, brace by doing brave actions. (Nicomachean Ethics Book II)

David N. James, in his article "The Acquisition of Virtue" describes the importance of "experiences of personal relationship and shared activities" in learning character virtues. There's something about being with others that helps us learn how to be better people. Of course, that is not always the case. Sometimes, people bring out the worst in others. When that happens, consider it another opportunity to practise becoming a person of depth and character.

 

 

PhD Imposter Syndrome

I was warned about it during my PhD orientation days: imposter syndrome. It's a graduate student sentiment, a feeling of not belonging of being a phony in a program where you are supposed to be one of the smartest. 

After almost four years I still wrestle with inadequacy. It creeps in everyone once in a while. A passing "your a fraud" thought or an idea about knowing less than I should. The voice of doubt screams, "Your research is garbage! You do not belong here!". There is very little good that arises from these moments. 

Of course, one virtue stumbles along behind imposter syndrome. It's quieter, gentler, and a much better companion. It's name is humility. Humility appears alongside vulnerability as a secret weapon for those willing to risk exposure as the fraud imposter syndrome claims you are.

Believe it or not, even as I reach the end of my four year PhD journey, I still wrestle with imposter syndrome. Thankfully, when I'm pinned down and feeling like a phony, humility quietly reminds me "I've got you. You're right where you need to be". 

Pastoral Education in 1840

Pastoral education has changed significantly since the 19th century. Historian William Westfall includes part of a letter penned by The Rev. Featherstone Lake Osler in a chapter of Learning to Practise: Professional Education in Historical and Contemporary Perspective. Osler's program of clergy apprenticeship appears to include a group of up-and-coming pastors learning from him in everyday life:

The following is the plan I pursue with regards to them. At 6 a.m. they meet in my study for Scripture reading. This engages them until half past seven, when we breakfast. Afterwards they study ... until evening.... We take an early tea, after which I give them three hours to correct their exercises, hear them read etc. By this means none of my public duties [is] neglected, as I attend to [the students] when my outdoor ... work is done.... On Sunday I send out two of them to ... different outposts to read prayers, superintend the Sunday schools and visit the sick.... One I keep home to assist me in my central Sunday school. (Westfall, 49).

Those eager students probably looked forward to that early tea! 

A photo of Rev. Featherstone Lake Osler.

What is "hard work"?

In the 1953 book, The University of Utopia, former University of Chicago president Robert M. Hutchins writes "Thought is hard work, but not all hard work is thought." (Hutchins, 36).

Later he argues:

... a university in which no unpopular opinions are heard or one which merges imperceptibly into the social and political environment can be presumed, until the contrary is proved, not to be doing its job. If a university is a center of independent thought and criticism, then a popular university is a contradiction in terms. (Hutchins, 88).

As I think about these citations from Hutchins I am reminded of the pastoral calling. What Hutchins calls "thought" could be redefined as "prayer" or "contemplation", disciplines that are challenging to practise in an age of technological ubiquity. 

Hutchins' thoughts on the university could also be true of theological schools, contexts of pastoral formation. These days, most theological schools are a long way from winning popularity contests. The Christian message, with its "foolishness of the cross" gospel (1 Cor. 1:18-31), is nonsensical and unpopular thereby preventing notions of grandeur. Theological educators are having to work "thoughtfully" and "prayerfully" in an age when popularity appears to be winning the day. Thank you to those guides who challenge pastors to the "hard work" of thinking critically and theologically.  

Virtual Virtue: Exploring the Fruitfulness of Online Pastoral Education

I will be presenting a paper at Tyndale Seminary's 2021 Wesley Studies Symposium on Zoom.

My presentation focuses on some of my PhD research findings, examining the role of technology on character formation in online pastoral education programs. 

The research is important for at least two reasons:

1. According to a 2019 article published by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), 62% of ATS accredited schools were approved at that time to offer online distance education (Gin, Lester, Blogett, 2019). That represents almost two thirds of all accredited theological schools in North America.

2. Since the pandemic, there has been an even greater shift toward online learning. In an August 2020 Faith & Leadership interview with ATS Executive Director, Frank Yamada, he referred to the newly adopted accreditation Standards saying: 

... we changed residency requirements. With these new standards, there are only residency requirements for the Ph.D. program, and all the other degree programs no longer have residency requirements ... it provides schools the flexibility to be able to do, for example, more online distance education at this time. (Read the full article here)

Yamada acknowledges the heightened need for online education during the pandemic. With the new Standards, even more schools are able to shift courses and programs online. 

With the rapid uptick in Internet theological education, how are programs of pastoral formation affected? Even more importantly, how does this educational milieu affect ministerial students?

Consider attending the Wesley Symposium this year. It's free and you might find some answers to those questions.

Looking Forward With Hope

I recently reviewed Looking Forward With Hope by Benjamín Valentín. Valentín's 2019 volume addresses the state of mainline Protestant Theological Education in North America. You can read the published review here for free or via subscription to the Toronto Journal of Theology.