He calls himself “the new guy,” and he has spent his first weeks on the job meeting with and listening to people in places ranging from the red-brick campus of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary to some of the grittier streets of its surrounding neighborhoods.
And as a veteran of seminary work from Africa to the Pacific, the Rev. David Esterline, 64, already has a few ideas of his own about the direction of the Highland Park seminary.
They include making the school more available to students taking part-time, online and nontraditional routes to a master’s of divinity degree, rather than just the traditional three-year full-time program.
More fundamentally, Rev. Esterline wants to build on the theological diversity of a school that has long had a reputation as having a stronger evangelical bent than the more liberal seminaries of the Presbyterian Church (USA) but which also has faculty from various denominations with views ranging from progressive to conservative.
“The seminary cannot be successful unless it becomes much more diverse not only racially but also theological,” he said. He envisions “a seminary as broad as the church of Jesus Christ, rooted in the Reformed tradition,” he said, referring to the theological heritage of Presbyterianism.
“That rootedness in the Presbyterian Church (USA) has got to be first and foremost,” he said. But “I’m honestly convinced we can’t do good theological education unless we have many different conversation partners, especially those we disagree with.”
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“The seminary cannot be successful unless it becomes much more diverse not only racially but also theological. … I’m honestly convinced we can’t do good theological education unless we have many different conversation partners, especially those we disagree with.”
Translation: Pittsburgh Seminary needs both Jeremiah and Hananiah (Jer. 28) to be successful. Truth must be on par with falsehood to promote “theological diversity”.
Again, is it any wonder that the denomination’s Bible Content Exam scores are so abysmally low?
“The seminary cannot be successful unless it becomes much more diverse not only racially but also theological,” Based on what evidence? Successful based on what measure? How can you be theologically diverse and rooted in the Reformed tradition? Clearly this means success is measured in donations and student enrollment. Again, the liberal element thinks that a big tent that accepts all views as valid does not succeed for the Kingdom of God, and this will not attract more students. Mainline liberal denominations are dying and making a seminary more liberal only removes conservative evangelicals from the pool.
I am not sure the path of theological education that is mix and match will stem denominational decline. I am not sure that without a strong commitment to biblical languages [even for weak students who have no aptitude for learning another language but can benefit from the exposure], a strong commitment to the teaching and diverse interpretations of the Bible, and a strong historical and theological knowledge of the Early Church, Middle Ages, Reformation, etc.
seminary education will fail quickly and then the seminary disappears but has a strong endowment.
A strong endowment is wonderful. Endowment in and of itself does not transmit the Christian Tradition or affirm the teaching and preaching of The Gospel.
If the seminary delivers a mixed message and has no reliable foundation, then, students will think of their life’s calling to social work, not the rigor of pastoral ministry
It would be informative if any seminary, based on what its graduates are doing since graduation, to evalute the strengths and weaknesses of the seminary.
Dear Layman,
I am sure that Dr. Esterline is a nice individual. Theological Diversity would be understood, in antiquity, as worshiping other Gods or Deities. I know how important it is, in these times, to be politically correct and allow others to “act out”, but have we considered the implications? Paul talks about the principalities and powers of the air (both as instruction and as a warning), John, in Revelations, points out that one third of the angels followed Satan in his rebellion. What if the Lord gets tired of our spiritual infidelity let alone our sexual infidelities, as a nation, and takes his hand of blessing off of us? As the former stronghold of Christianity, we would become quite a target for all kinds of chaos and destruction. It is time to turn off the pagan television, buy wholesome DVDs, and resist the culture in small ways, supporting presidential and senate candidates that protect the Biblical worldview, attending school board and city council meetings and not backing down when issues touch upon the exercise of our faith. We need to become engaged and resist the trending culture or we will see this nation unravel.
You neglected to mention visiting widows and orphans in their distress and advocating justice for them, showing hospitality toward foreigners, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and presenting the Gospel to our neighbors. What you suggested, other than keeping oneself unstained from the world, is not what the Lord has called us to do.
(And as an aside, it’s spelled “Revelation”, not “Revelations”.)
We wish the best for the new President of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. All our seminaries have an important task to do–Equip the “shepherds” to feed the “flock” with the Word of the Lord.
“As these denominations are seeking to innovate, so must the seminary, he said.”
That’s the problem. The seminaries affiliated wtih the Presbyterian Church (USA) have been “seeking to innovate” for so long that they’ve lost the central message of Scripture, of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone as He is revealed through Scripture alone to the glory of God alone. Doctrines central to the Gospel, such as the Substitutionary Atonement, the Bodily Resurrection of Christ, and the sole saving efficacy of faith in Christ as God’s only provision for the salvation of humankind are disparaged by seminary staffs that have sought to “innovate” the theology they have been teaching. And this has proven detrimental to the Church these seminaries purportedly serve. The Church of Jesus Christ would be far better served if Pittsburgh and all the other seminaries affiliated with the PC(USA) would stop trying to “innovate” the theology and methods of Biblical interpretation with which they seek to indoctrinate their students and instead teach them proclaim the Gospel as it is written in the Scriptures.
Instead of following the path he mentions he should consider what United Theological Seminary, a United Methodist Seminary, has done. Its president went back to an orthodox path and the school has been growing ever since with students from different denominations. It seems some people don’t learn from the example of other schools that following a plurListic theological path only leads to a diminishing influence on behalf of the Kingdom!