Categories
May 2022 News Perspective Online Top Story

Letter from the Dean: Partnering with God

Commencement season is upon us. Here at SMU, and across the country, family and friends will celebrate the accomplishments of graduates, while graduates anticipate opportunities for future achievement.

However, the Perkins ceremony is different in one essential respect: it is a worship service. In it, we also celebrate God’s calling and pray for God’s continuing work in the life of each graduate. Their future ministry is their life’s work, to be sure, but work prompted, encouraged, and enabled by God.

I wrote last month about paradoxes of Christian faith. Another is the tension between God’s initiative and our own. Where does the one leave off and the other begin? Are we mere puppets, or, on the other hand, do we act entirely alone?

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul makes striking use of words built on the Greek root εργ, “work” (as in the English energy), most notably in the following two verses:

“I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:3-6).

[W]ork out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for God’s good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12b-13).

John Wesley’s conception of “prevenient grace” likewise includes both the belief that God is the first actor, at work in us before we realize it, and that we ourselves are responsible actors. At one level, this is an expression of the mystery of free will. At another, it is an expression of the mystery of God’s active presence in human life. Wesley would hold the two together, but many of his opponents would not, collapsing one side or the other of this paradox. What the latter gains is simplicity and clarity. What it loses is correspondence to the lived experience of believers who sense both that God is at work in them and also that they are at work for God.

Day-to-day awareness of this partnership is vital. Ministry at times takes us to the limits of our abilities and to the farthest edge of our resolve. It matters that this is not simply our work. It matters that God, not we ourselves, “will bring it to completion.” These realizations are simultaneously humbling and empowering.  It is not about us, but neither are we alone. We have the privilege of making a unique and meaningful contribution to a work very much larger than ourselves. And we do this in partnership not only with God, but with countless others before, alongside, and after us.

God’s work in us neither commences nor concludes at commencement. Still, at that moment much indeed is brought to completion, which is both a marker and a signal as well as a cause for celebration.

Paul wrote his letter to the entire church at Philippi. These points are true for us all, lay as well as clergy. Similarly, Wesley said without any such distinction, “Best of all, God is with us.”

God is with us, indeed. Thanks be to God.

Categories
April 2022 News Perspective Online Top Story

Letter from the Dean: The (Seeming) Paradox of an Educated Clergy

Christianity is a religion of paradox. Material creation is good but somehow fallen; the meek inherit the earth; one finds one’s life by losing it; the reign of God is both present and future; believers are free and yet bound; justice is wedded to mercy; Jesus is both human and divine.

In Christian theology, truth is not found in the middle, as though by compromise. It is found instead in the tension between two equal but seemingly competing truths. This challenges the human mind, which greatly prefers simple binaries, the decisive mathematics of this vs. that, us vs. them.

I therefore have some sympathy for those who for the sake of making the faith understandable have chosen to make it easy. This is most often done by collapsing whichever of its inherent tensions seems most problematic. So it is that a perplexing both/and becomes a much more manageable either/or. A great many of the religions derivative of Christianity have had this impulse in common. Thus, for example, they might claim that Christ cannot have two natures and God cannot be three persons.

Something of the same impulse exists in much popular thinking about theological education. I have often encountered persons deeply suspicious of all seminary learning, believing that it is not only unnecessary for ministry but positively detrimental to it. In support, they might, for example, quote 1 Corinthians 1:19-21:

For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe?? Where is the debater? of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.

This is undeniably true, but it is not all that is true. The teachings of Jesus are filled with reversals that overturn what passes as common wisdom, and we humans are marvelously adept at rationalizing our way around them. But the person who penned these words, the apostle Paul, was himself well educated, and his remarkable skill as a writer explains his enduring influence. Indeed, Paul himself says as much in 2 Corinthians 10:10: “For they say [of me], “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.”

Speaking of letters, John Wesley received an earnest missive from a pious brother who declared, “The Lord has directed me to write you that while you know Greek and Hebrew, he can do without your learning.” Mr. Wesley replied, “Your letter received, and I may say in reply that your letter was superfluous as I already know that the Lord could do without my learning. I wish to say to you that while the Lord does not direct me to tell you, yet I feel impelled to tell you on my own responsibility, that the Lord does not need your ignorance either.”

Not how I would have put it but, yeah.

Piety is no substitute for knowledge, and knowledge no substitute for piety. As Charles Wesley–no intellectual slouch himself–masterfully put it, we ask that God would “Unite the pair so long disjoined, Knowledge and vital piety; Learning and holiness combined; And truth and love that all shall see.”

I close with a prayer on behalf of all lifelong learners:

Gracious God, we ask for wisdom free of boasting; inquiry free of arrogance; openness free of cynicism; conviction free of judgmentalism.  Let us neither be content with ignorance nor puffed up by knowledge. Indeed, let knowledge of you be an encouragement to humility, and knowledge of our ignorance an encouragement to study. We offer you the best of our minds, knowing that you would first possess the entirety of our hearts.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Categories
March 2022 News Perspective Online Top Story

Letter from the Dean

In this issue of Perspective, we celebrate the remarkable gift of the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation to encourage the work of the Baptist House of Studies, providing substantial scholarships for students from Baptist and Free Church traditions. Our entire school is lifted by this generosity, not just the Baptist students among us.

This gift, and its hoped-for outcome, prompt reflection on the importance of personal connections that cross denominational lines.

“To know only one thing is to know nothing.” We learn most often, and often most accurately, by the act of comparison. We cannot say that something is our best choice if it is our only choice. We test and refine ideas by bringing them into conversation with other ideas. In so doing, we learn about commonalities as well as differences. By looking beyond ourselves, we become our better selves.

The body of Christ extends far beyond any one denomination, time, or outlook. It is not limited to those with whom we most agree. Cultivating this awareness can keep us from errors perpetuated by a lack of perspective.

Studying church history helps to correct denominational myopia, as does reading a diversity of contemporary sources. The best remedy, however, is personal: direct experience of others different from ourselves. Genuine friendships and lasting fellowship across ecclesial boundaries can grow out of such encounters.

It is a rare town of much size, especially here in Texas, that does not have at least one Baptist and one Methodist church. The chances of their working together for common cause—and not simply competing for congregants—increases exponentially if their leaders came to understand and appreciate each other while still in seminary; that is, before they become isolated within the ecosystem of a single expression of the Christian faith.

The Baptist House of Studies at Perkins exists first for the benefit of Baptist and other Free Church students, providing them support, enrichment, and encouragement. Near equally, it exists for the benefit of Methodists and students of other faith traditions. I say this as a lifelong Methodist who had a lifelong Baptist as a seminary roommate. I would not have had the same quality of education without that formative personal experience, and all of us at Perkins will be the better for this new opportunity.

With profound gratitude to the Baugh Foundation,

Dean Hill

 

Categories
February 2022 News Perspective Online Top Story

Letter from the Dean

New Life in the New Year

The adjective καινός, “new,” is, as you would expect, a New Testament theme-word:

They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority!”  (Mark 1:27; cf.  Acts 17:19)

New wine must be put into fresh wineskins. (Luke 5:38)

new covenant (Luke 22:20, 1 Cor. 11:25)

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  (John 13:34-35)

…be renewed [ἀνανεοῦσθαι] in the spirit of your minds, and clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.  (Eph. 4:23-24)

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old has passed away; see, everything has become new!  (2 Cor. 5:17; cf. Gal. 6:15)

Behold, I make all things new. (Rev. 21:5) 

These lines were spoken into a world rife with fatalism, depicted most memorably in the Sophocles play Oedipus Rex, but also present in various forms of Greco-Roman philosophy and religion. We’re stuck, in other words, and the most we can hope for is to be content with our lot. As we have seen, that is decidedly not the message of the Gospel!

As we move further into 2022, let us claim for ourselves individually and collectively the new reality made possible by God. It is instructive to see how intentionally Paul connects this new life in the Spirit with quality relationships and community. On the one hand, things that undermine fellowship dominate his catalog of “works of the flesh:” “enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, [and] envy” (Gal. 5:20-21). “By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (5:22-23a).

Hebrews 12:1 says, “Therefore…let us strip off every weight that slows us down” (Heb. 12:1). To one extent or another, each of us carries burdens and attitudes from the past that slow us–and with us, our community—down. But we are not fated to live in, much less to repeat, the past. Rather, we can, should we choose, be empowered to create new possibility in the present. That is, by the way, a most Wesleyan way of thinking. God desires to work in us now, not simply on some far-off day.

We live in a challenging time, a season that amplifies anxieties and fears, uncertainties and entrenchments. The faithful and productive response is to lay hold energetically of the promise of new life in the Spirit.

Please join me in praying for the Spirit to create new reality and new possibility in 2022, to empower us to set aside whatever holds us back, and to equip us to live ever closer to the standard of the new creation in Christ.

Grace and peace,
Dean Hill

Categories
January 2022 News Perspective Online Top Story

Letter from the Dean

In this video, Dean Craig Hill of Perkins School of Theology looks at the importance of acquiring knowledge of history, language and context as part of an excellent theological education. Part 1 of a 4-part series.   

Categories
December 2021 News Perspective Online Top Story

Letter from the Dean: “For such a time as this”

When Mordecai encouraged his daughter, Esther, as she faced a critical and frightening situation, he wondered if God had brought her to that unique moment “for such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14)

The phrase is widely quoted. The time in question was troubled, but God had already provided the means to meet the day’s challenge.

I feel strongly that Perkins is similarly called “for such a time as this.” Our institution is a vital means by which God is meeting deep needs today. It goes without saying that we live in a highly polarized society. Regrettably, this is increasingly also the case in theological education. A great many schools have a uniform party line. You know the day you matriculate what you are expected to think the day you graduate. That has never been true at Perkins.

This legacy is precious, and at no time more so than the present. For one thing, it is simply right. No single group or faction is perfectly righteous and therefore has the authority to exclude all others. No one can say truthfully that they have nothing to learn from all with whom they might legitimately disagree. More than that, it is sub-Christian. Jesus continually scandalized religious leaders by his association with those they regarded as outsiders. He explicitly extended the Levitical commandment to love neighbor to include non-Jews—even the despised Samaritans. Loving others is not optional.

It is also the best and most honorable way to educate. In a setting with a diverse faculty and student body, students have the opportunity to get to know a range of people as people, and not simply as stereotypes. They hear from them why they think the way they do, which more accurately informs all and, quite often, creates mutual understanding. It thus equips students to lead congregations in which disagreement of one sort or another is inevitable, and to reach across divides and to see beyond barriers. It also encourages humility, which is one of the most essential Christian virtues.

Let me put it another way. I quoted in my October online Perspective article the famous line from the jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.: “For the simplicity on this side of complexity, I wouldn’t give you a fig. But for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, for that I would give you anything I have.”  The goal of a Perkins education is not to make everything hopelessly complicated. The goal is to walk students through the complexities so that they might come to a much clearer (and, yes, often simpler) understanding of their faith. Such a faith has not dodged the complexities of history, interpretation, science, and other domains of human knowledge. It is for that reason all the stronger.

The favorite comment I’ve heard about Perkins from an alum is this: “Perkins is a place of unlikely friendships.” At no point in my lifetime has the value of unlikely friendships been greater. Perkins is doing something increasingly unusual and countercultural—and therefore all the more important.

Perkins School of Theology has faithfully served the church since its inception. In that sense, it has always been at work at “such a time.” I do believe, however, that at no moment has the mission of Perkins been more vital, more essential, than it is today. That energizes me and, I hope, encourages you.

Categories
News November 2021 Perspective Online Top Story

Letter from the Dean – November 2021

“The internship was life changing for me.”

That sentiment, expressed by Perkins graduate Matt Gaston in this issue’s feature story about our Internship Program, brings vividly to mind my own internship experience.

I worked in churches part-time throughout college and then – as “field education” – during my first two years of graduate school. The seminary I attended did not require an internship, but the idea of having a more immersive and intensive supervised ministry experience appealed to me immensely. In particular, I wanted the chance to work under an outstanding mentor in a setting that would stretch me in new ways.

Through a class on evangelism, I became aware of the brilliant Anglican rector and scholar Michael Green, best known for his classic work Evangelism in the Early Church. Here was something I had not encountered before: a highly-educated (with top degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge), even-handed, and exceptionally articulate evangelist. His church, St. Aldate’s, was known for having a highly impressive ministry with students at Oxford University.

I contacted Michael out of the blue, and he suggested that I come over during my Thanksgiving break to meet with him and several others. I jumped at the chance. So it came to be that I moved to England that next summer and worked full-time under Michael’s direction as part of an amazingly talented staff for the following year.

Talk about being stretched. Michael constantly put me into ministry situations way outside of my comfort zone, such as speaking in grade schools, preaching in a youth prison, leading Bible studies for Oxford undergraduates, co-leading an adult seeker’s group, and even street preaching.

Along the way, I got the chance to interact with an extraordinary group of church leaders who came to St. Aldate’s, including Desmond Tutu, John Stott, David Watson, Billy Graham, and many others. At the same time, I attended seminars and lectures by leading scholars at the university. As you would imagine, it was an incredibly rich environment that greatly expanded my horizons.

My intern year helped me to imagine the possibility of a future ministry in which pastoral and academic interests were mutually pursued. It also helped this young man from central Illinois to believe that he might have what it takes to succeed in a place like Oxford. I returned there to pursue a doctorate three years later, which led to becoming a Fellow at Yale Divinity School, the chance later to spend a year as a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University, and ultimately to come to Perkins–none of which, I feel certain, would have occurred had it not been for the privilege of that internship.

Perkins interns serve in a wide range of places, from local churches to church-affiliated ministries and nonprofits. Their internships may expose them to far different settings than what I experienced at St. Aldate’s, but they do get a similar chance to take a deep dive into ministry, one through which new clarity, direction, understanding, and opportunity present themselves. It is part of what drew me here and one of the best things we do.

 

Categories
News October 2021 Perspective Online Top Story

Letter from Dean Craig Hill – October 2021

I am not surprised that there are disagreements in the church. That has always been the case. What both surprises and dismays me is the manner in which so many disagree­ments are conducted. In the sermon published last month’s Perspective, I contrasted the misleadingeven blatantly dishonest̶—tactics common to today’s political rhetoric with the example of Jesus. Most disturbing is the extent to which those same strategies have come to dominate discourse within American Protestantism broadly and within my own denomination, The United Methodist Church, specifically.

In the essay linked below, I have attempted briefly to bring to bear three critically important resources: perspective on our history, perspective on the wider church, and perspective on our sources.

Edmund Burke said that “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” You’d think that a movement that has seen as much splintering over the centuries as Methodism would face the present hour with an eye to its past, but that is hardly the case. It is as though substantial disagreement was an entirely new phenomenon, so we may freely disregard our own history.

Methodism in America has seen many dissenting offspring denominations formed over the past two centuries. For example, the Southern Methodist Church[1] split in 1940 based on its inerrantist view of scripture, which to this day requires it, for example, to prohibit the recognition of clergy “if either spouse is divorced, or has been divorced, except in the case of innocent parties who have been divorced for scriptural cause” [porneia, “sexual immorality” according to Matthew 5:31-32]. (Link) Likewise, no women are allowed to occupy the pulpit (1 Timothy 2:11-15). The more you learn about the conduct of prior controversies, the more perspective you gain on their contemporary analogs.

Next is perspective gained by viewing the church broadly. If we look at only a subset of the larger whole, we will likely overemphasize differences and overstate polarities. The UMC is not representative of the full spectrum of opinion found in the wider church. Imagining that it is allows us to portray those with whom we disagree as our polar opposites. What is in reality a spectrum is thus portrayed as a dichotomy. This encourages the widespread but deceitful stratagem of tarring with the same brush everyone with whom one has any degree of difference. This latter phenomenon in particular has become distressingly common­place.

Finally, sources. When Methodists face thorny issues, the so-called “Wesleyan Quadrilateral” is often referenced. It suggests that we might appeal to scripture but also to tradition, reason, and experience when forming our stance on issues of faith or practice. The standard view is that conservatives prioritize scripture and tradition while progressives lean most on reason and experience. This is partly but by no means wholly true. An examination of how decisions have actually been made tells a far more complicated story, especially with respect to matters of ethics.

Gaining perspective can guide us toward more humane and fairand, frankly, more Christiandialogue in the midst of controversy. I explore all of this further in my article Perspective Is Essential to Faithful Disagreement. I hope you’ll take the time to read it and think prayerfully on it. Bringing it home, I end with a story that, I believe, shows how Perkins faculty have modeled civility and constructive dialogue in the past, and how we might continue to do so going forward.

Grace and peace,

Dean Craig C. Hill

 

[1] Not related to Southern Methodist University.

Categories
News Perspective Online September 2021 Top Story

Letter from the Dean: Sermon from the Feast of Beginnings

In his sermon at the Feast of Beginnings, the first worship service of the 2021-2022 school year, on August 25, Dean Craig Hill focused on the polarized atmosphere in the U.S. today. Surveys show that liberals and conservatives are increasingly segregating themselves. The division of opinion and narrowing of discourse fosters the development of extreme ideologies that demonize others and so justify violence, he noted. When our differences are magnified, that creates a climate in which those who see only differences are emboldened. If those who share common ideals, beliefs, and aspirations cannot see what unites us, that gives power to those whose very purpose is disunity and division.

“I know that’s challenging and that we all fall short, but let us realize how much our own defensiveness entraps us; our lack of self-knowledge misleads us; and our self-justifications corrupt us,” he said.

Read the sermon here.

Categories
June 2021 News Perspective Online Top Story

A Message from Dean Hill

On May 14, the Perkins community gathered at Moody Coliseum for a worship service in honor of the 2021 graduating class. This is also the occasion when we present annual academic achievement awards to outstanding current and graduating students.

Thanks to the spacious venue, we were able to gather in person, with masks and social distancing. Some members of the class of 2020 who couldn’t attend last year were also present. I think anyone in attendance will remember this momentous occasion: the first time the entire Perkins community was together, in person, in one place, praying, singing and celebrating.

At the close, I offered a benediction. It seems fitting to share this here, in the last issue of Perspective for the 2020-2021 academic year.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Philippi:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is beautiful, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—set your mind on such things.  (4:8)

As we step from this place, this beginning, into an open future of opportunity and promise, let us strive to:

Learn what is true, especially where truth eliminates prejudice

Embrace what is noble, especially where nobility challenges self-interest

Choose what is right, especially where right action requires sacrifice

Do what is pure, especially where purity of spirit overcomes double-mindedness

Seek what is beautiful, especially where the love of beauty frees us from mediocrity

Search out what is admirable, especially where that search leads to a life of purpose

Pursue excellence, especially where that pursuit benefits others

And commit to what is praiseworthy, especially where the commitment to the greater good sets us free from vanity.

So may we invest our time and talents wisely and honorably, living our best lives—learning, growing, creating, serving, loving well—and so reflecting the true image of God.

Amen.

Blessings to you and yours as we begin the summer season. See you this fall.

Dean Craig C. Hill