I wrote this near the very beginning of the Heidelblog, in 2007. As high-speed internet service was becoming more widespread, online education was beginning to catch on and all many seminaries were beginning to adopt it. The world has changed since then. . . . Continue reading →
distance ed
How Not to Train Pastors (2)
Part 1 There has been considerable discussion about this post over at The Puritanboard The PB thread was started my my friend Jerrold Lewis. I haven’t read his blog post, so I’m only responding to the discussion on the PB. I see . . . Continue reading →
Why Pastors Need A Seminary Education
Over the years many things have changed at Westminster Seminary California (WSC). In the most important ways, however, the seminary has not changed. We still believe the Bible to be the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God. We still believe the historic . . . Continue reading →
And Now for the Rest of the Story
CT Online has a piece today touting the virtues of online seminary education. I expected there to be, somewhere in the story, someone to present the other side opposing online seminary education but I didn’t see it. Perhaps I missed it? In . . . Continue reading →
Updated Resource Page: For Students Considering Seminary
In my never-ending quest to serve our “one-click” world I’ve compiled a great lot of resources (video, audio, and text) into a resource page (there’s a list of them on the left side of the home page of the HB) for students . . . Continue reading →
Online Classes: Just Because They’re Hip and Convenient Doesn’t Mean They Educate
One of the primary purposes for the HB is to but there are limits to what can be done online. The limits of online education/distance ed is has been a frequent topic here and here on the HB. The maxim is this: . . . Continue reading →
Selling Short
My argument is not that learned monographs have no value (of course they do, whether widely read or not), or that blog posts are somehow superior as “scholarship” (of course they’re not), but simply that we might be selling online publications short . . . Continue reading →
What Is A Seminary?
The question arose on a discussion board as to how a theological seminary relates to C. S. Lewis’ distinction between “education” and “vocational training.” The premise of the question was that one had to choose between the two, relative to a university I . . . Continue reading →
Distance Ed: After The Hype
Tamar Lewin (HT: Kendrick Doolan) writes in Tuesday’s NYT “two years after a Stanford professor drew 160,000 students from around the globe to a free online course on artificial intelligence, starting what was widely viewed as a revolution in higher education, early . . . Continue reading →
How Not To Train Pastors
I see that someone is starting an(other?) online seminary. The whole business of online/distance seminary education is troubling. Because the confessional Reformed churches (i.e., NAPARC) are conservative and theologically oriented, we tend to attract ideologically committed folks. That’s okay but it means . . . Continue reading →
Why “Distributed” Pastoral Education Is Not The Solution
There are problems with the traditional model for preparing pastors but some of the proposed alternatives are worse. One of those is “Distributed Education” model. The traditional model is that you have 20 professors on campus and all the students have to . . . Continue reading →
How To Prepare For Seminary
Over the years I have had the privilege of having many conversations with prospective seminary students. One of the more frequent questions has been, “how should I prepare for seminary?” This is a natural, good, and important question. A Renewed Need In . . . Continue reading →
Why Pastors Need A Seminary Education
Over the years many things have changed at Westminster Seminary California (WSC). In the most important ways, however, the seminary has not changed. We still believe the Bible to be the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God. We still believe the historic . . . Continue reading →
Education True and False (Part 1)
Americans are busy people who continue to conquer a big place which has, since the eighteenth century, offered wealth and great influence to those who work hard and who produce a product or service valued by others. Education, per se, has not . . . Continue reading →
Education True And False (Part 2)
In the previous part, we looked at the first mark of a true school: genuine learning. We continue here with a discussion of the second mark: what makes a proper faculty. A second objective mark of the quality of a faculty is . . . Continue reading →