Prophetic -- Heretical -- and...

I have had some interesting experiences, and some fascinating conversations in the past two weeks. Some of what has been said reminded me to do as my parents taught me when I was young. When you come to a railroad track: "Stop! Look! Listen!"

At one of the meetings I attended a biblical theologian asked about seminaries in the United States. He said it seemed as though the seminaries had become more mouthpieces for the institution than they were places where a prophetic voice was raised and heresies aired. Um.... That comment caused me to think both about seminaries where I have been a student, and seminaries in which I have taught.

I remember that when I went to seminary - granted a long time ago (1964-1968) professors challenged us as students to "try out" our heresies in the context of the seminary; to challenge and question "tried and true" beliefs, and not accept them simply because the institutional church said they were true. My professors challenged us to remember that theology, like everything else, was in need of repentance. Theology was subject to all the same conditions of humanity, and especially sinfulness. So the professors said the seminary was the place to try out different ways of understanding and different ways of formulating doctrine. One professor, our professor of systematic theology, reminded us that the problem with heresy was not that what was said it was untrue, but that it took a truth and made it the entire truth.

I also remember in the early 1960s there was a new book brought out with a title something like, "Bible -- Book of Faith." Some of my professors had written chapters in that book, and as a result were "under fire" for being heretics. One professor, a Professor of New Testament had been "under fire" for several years by one particular District of the then American Lutheran Church.

As I thought about what the person had raised at the meeting, and as I thought about my experiences at seminary, and as I thought about seminaries and seminary professors in many of our institutions I wondered, was the person was correct in saying the seminaries often seem to be mouthpieces for the institution? I don't hear of too many seminary professors in my denomination being charged with heresy. Are there still prophetic voices in seminaries which call the institution into question? Are there still prophetic voices calling for a repentance and renewal in the doctrine, and in the institutional church itself? Um.... As I said to a friend in an email the other day: "Thinking -- Dangerous and Causes Headaches."

Yes. Thinking can be dangerous. It can be disquieting. Yes. Thinking can cause headaches. Yet, the scripture does say that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our mind, and with all our strength. Our minds are God given gifts to be used to challenge, and to think anew. Those of us from that side of the Christian faith which might use the word Protestant need to remember that the word not only means to "protest against" something, or someone. Protestant also means to "stand for" something, and more importantly someone. That someone in the Christian tradition is Jesus Christ.