Seven Things I Wish All Pastors Knew About Academics—Part 2Posted on September 21, 2015 by J. Aaron SimmonsIn this second part, I want to focus on the experience and identity of academics in Christian communities. Many of the things that I wish pastors knew about academics speak to the way in which academics might be perceived as threatening to the leadership and power of pastors. Although I am attempting to show that such a notion is misguided, I admit that there is one way in which academics are threatening. . . .
Seven Things I Wish All Pastors Knew About Academics—Part 1Posted on September 14, 2015 by J. Aaron SimmonsIn this two-part blog post, I want to offer a short (and quite informal) series of thoughts that I have about what I wish pastors knew about academics as they relate to us in the congregations that they serve….
Seven Things I Wish All Pastors Knew About Academics—PDF DownloadPosted on September 21, 2014 by J. Aaron Simmons
Reading Philosophy in Christian Communities: Part 2—On The Importance of Philosophy for Seminary EducationPosted on February 25, 2014 by J. Aaron SimmonsIn the first post in this series, I argued that invitational dialogue is the most promising way for Christian communities (whether ecclesial or academic) to appropriate philosophical inquiry. In this post, I will turn my attention to seminary education in particular and argue that reading philosophy should be an important aspect of such ministerial training….
Reading Philosophy in Christian Communities: Part 1—On Appropriating Philosophical InquiryPosted on February 14, 2014 by J. Aaron SimmonsI went to college at an evangelical Christian liberal-arts institution. When I was an undergraduate, there was no philosophy major at my school and no professional philosopher on the faculty (this situation has, gratefully, changed since then). In fact, there was only one introduction to philosophy course offered and it was taught by a theologian. My professor was incredible and I credit him, nearly entirely, with my own choice to become a philosopher.Toward the end of the course, however, I told my professor that philosophy had hooked me and I wanted to go further in studying it. As we were finishing up our conversation that day, I asked him why the institution did not have a philosophy major since it seemed to be so deeply relevant to thinking well about religious life. He smiled and said: “Because the administration is scared of turning our students into atheists.” Though I expect he was being ironic, his comment struck me deeply that day and it has continued to trouble me ever since…