Threads from Henry's Web

Author: henry

  • On a Virtual Seminary Education

    Spire of First United Methodist Church
    Image by unca_cthulhu via Flickr

    Jason Byassee explains why he voted to allow up to 2/3 of seminary credits to be taken online in his United Methodist conference (HT: Joel Watts).

    Readers of this blog will already be aware that I believe it’s inevitable that the majority of education is delivered by virtual means. Not only that, I think this is a good thing. I think it will make it possible to deliver a higher quality education. There is always resistance to new technology, because it takes away from our old standard ways of doing things. But instead of fighting such technology, which is still just a tool, we need to find ways to use it to make things work better.

    I think our current concept of a university, a college, and a seminary are doomed. But that doesn’t mean that there is nothing good in those concepts. There are experiences that do need to be carried out together. But those classroom lectures with hundreds of students ignoring the professor can be replaced by more efficient means, and we can spend our money, and the precious time of quality teachers on the most important things.

    For example, I recall preparing lessons for my later classes while occupying a seat in a class on Daniel and Revelation, and then getting a comfortable ‘A’ in the course. I could have learned more by spending those hours online. Could the professor have done better? Absolutely. But he also had to deal with about 50 students, so detailed discussion of all points involving all of us would have been impossible.

    On the other hand I would not want to exchange my time studying Greek exegesis with Dr. Sakae Kubo for anything else. There we had half a dozen serious students, and we made that time with an expert count.

    Dr. Byassee comments on hands-on education, such as learning how to take the hand of a dying person. There’s where I think even seminary fails. I have talked to many seminary graduates who are uncomfortable praying with a member of their congregation when they graduate. They have to become comfortable as they pastor. Here the local church needs to be involved. I wonder why a young person, especially one contemplating full-time ministry, would be allowed to get through their youth in church without learning how to pray with one another.

    I’d think strong local church involvement plus a good online program with additional time spent in person at a seminary (weekends, weeks, months, sabbatical years) would be a good formula. All of those elements should be lifelong, and not just during a time of preparation.

    In my view, social media and virtual education will only hurt us if we don’t learn how to make the best of the resources available.

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  • Proper and Rightful Role for Iowa Caucuses?

    Source: http://www.legis.state.ia.us/Pubinfo/S...
    Image via Wikipedia

    According to CNN, Iowa Republican Chairman Matt Strawn commented on those states that are trying to move their primaries earlier in the process:

    “I don’t think its any secret that Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina have historically worked together, and we are in communication, and we will do what is necessary to maintain our proper and rightful role in the process,” he said.

    I have no idea what makes it either proper or rightful for the Iowa caucuses to be first in the nation, or the New Hampshire primary to be the first primary. In fact, I think the idea is ridiculous, and the parties should give up on this.

    Since party conventions have become a waste of time, except as a PR event, the timing of primaries has become ridiculous. There’s no reason these particular states should have the first say in choosing party candidates.

    But what annoys me even more is the extent to which state legislatures are involved in setting up party events. I see this whole fight (and the one we had in 2008, as even more reason to de-institutionalize the two major parties. Let the parties pay for and organize whatever events they want in order to select the props for their media events, mislabeled conventions.

     

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  • February Biblical Studies Carnival Posted

    … at A Fistful of Farthings. It’s definitely a comprehensive one!

  • New Biblioblog: The Good Book

    A group of 30 professors at the Talbot School of Theology have created a new blog, The Good Book Blog. Their about page describes it this way:

    The Good Book Blog is the faculty blog of Talbot School of Theology at Biola University. Representing the diverse areas of specialty within the seminary, but bound by a common commitment to biblical authority, the blog seeks to engage with important topics in biblical studies, theology, philosophy, spiritual formation and Christian education. The Good Book Blog is a resource for anyone seeking solid biblical scholarship that engages contemporary ideas from a decidedly evangelical perspective.

    I think it will be worth following their “decidedly evangelical” perspective.

     

  • Dave Black on Philippians

    Matt Capps has collected links to Dave Black’s online writings on Philippians. As one of Dave’s publishers, I’m glad to see the list.

  • Biblioblog Top 50 for February

    … posted. I’ve climbed to #20.

  • Note: Naked Heat

    I read this book, and the previous Nikki Heat volume, Heat Wave, because I found the concept of a book by a ghost writer, writing for a fictional author interesting. (OK, that sentence is too convoluted, but I’m not going to fix it.) I find the ABC show Castle entertaining in a non-intellectual sort of way. It’s good relaxation.

    As for Heat Wave, it took me half the book to get interesting. It almost fell into a rating of 1 on my scale, by virtue of my failing to finish reading it. But about half way through it managed to become mildly interesting and ended up OK. Because I decided to check out the next volume, it makes it, just barely, to a 3.

    Naked Heat was better. I was interesting throughout. It’s not a book I couldn’t put down. In fact, I put it down in the middle of quite a number of scenes, including one with Nikki Heat in the middle of a fight. I also had a fair idea what was going on too early in the book, though the evidence was not always presented all that clearly. Some authors keep you guessing by having a complex case. Others do it through some obscure presentation of the evidence. This one uses the latter a bit.

    It’s still a decent book, and the concept is fun. I give it 3 out of 5 stars. I also give Heat Wave 3 out of five stars, but Heat Wave barely made it, while Naked Heat is a solid 3.

  • Note: The Hittite

    I picked up this book because of the obvious historical connection. I found it a fairly interesting read if one didn’t expect excessive historical background. It’s build around the siege of Troy and provides an interesting idea for the famed “Trojan Horse.” The jacket description is a bit wild (it mentions bringing down the walls of Jericho, which isn’t in the book).

    I’d recommend reading this more as fantasy than as historical fiction and give it 3 of 5 stars.

    Buy The Hittite from Amazon.com.

  • Two Science Links – Yellowstone Caldera and Ants

    What do they have to do with one another? Actually, nothing, other than that both are about science and I thought they were interesting. I haven’t written anything on science for awhile and these stories were there!

    The first addresses concerns about the Yellowstone Caldera and whether it’s likely to erupt. The conclusion? It’s unlikely to impact you or me personally. In the course of the post there’s a video of Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana making a rather silly remark about volcano monitoring. I just find the science here fascinating.

    The second illustrates a problem with science writing online. It’s easy for someone to make remarks that turn out to be way off the mark.  Alex Wild at Myrmecos (that’s from myrmecology, the study of ants, something I learned this very day) takes on William Dembski, who thinks that evolution cannot explain the way in which ants find the shortest path between two points. But it turns out that Dembski needed to do a bit more research, or find a specialist in the right field. It turns out there’s no neurological programming involved. Sometimes the simple solution is best! (HT: Why Evolution is True).

  • Allan Bevere on Methodist Identity

    In a post related to John Meunier’s, which I linked earlier, Allan Bevere provides some additional form to the question of United Methodist identity.