Theological tension

Vancouver, at night

I am still very busy with PhD revisions. I shall present a short article on an issue I have been dealing with as of late. As a Christian, I would describe myself theologically as a moderate conservative, and less so a moderate Calvinist. The University I attend by distance learning is top rated but has for the most part secular and liberal perspectives theologically. The program I am working in requires me to provide secular, liberal perspectives to counter my predominately conservative perspectives. I do not have a problem with this requirement as long as I have academic freedom to come to scholarly conclusions, which I have been provided.

Some who read this blog on the liberal theological side may assume that it is naïve because I do not always go thoroughly into liberal perspectives. Like every other scholar I have more to learn than I know, but after eight years working with theodicy (the problem of evil) and related MTS and MPhil degrees, I have read and dealt with many perspectives that are secular, liberal, conservative, atheistic and theistic that do not agree with my own. I simply do not go into the depth on my blogs that I would in a PhD. Some on the conservative theological side may not like the fact that I use a fair amount of secular, liberal sources, such as Simon Blackburn on this blog, and I use even more secular, liberal sources and perspectives in my PhD. As I conservative I use secular, liberal sources on my blogs, and more importantly my PhD, for at least the following reasons.

1. Some of them like Simon Blackburn and his Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy are very good academic works, as is The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. Dictionary sources should only be sparingly in a PhD dissertation, but the concepts and ideas within can assist a scholar in researching primary sources for key topics.

2. If I am going to pass my PhD, I need to have a balance between conservative and liberal views in order to provide an apparently scholarly work. It is good to get into the practice of this on my blogs.

3. Secular, liberal theological views exist and must be dealt with in an intellectual manner. If some of these views are correct they can be accepted by conservatives, if they are deemed as incorrect they need to be argued with in a respectful, but academic manner.

4. Presenting liberal views does not take away from the gospel message. I am not a Reverend, and my primary calling is not that of a preacher, but I consider myself a preacher with a small ‘p’. Providing counter-arguments to my primary conservative ones should not weaken the truth of the gospel as long as the evidence for the gospel message is properly presented.

5. An academic institution that would consider hiring me once I have my PhD should realize that since the UK academic system is not predominantly conservative Christian in world-view, that I have to at least acknowledge and understand the world-views that fuel that system. The PhD dissertation should therefore should not be considered the primary representation of my life’s work, but merely a beginning, along with my MPhil dissertation.

Cheers, I really appreciate those who read my blogs, and those who comment.

Russ