[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Re: Expectations in Summer Elem. Gk. (fwd)



> From:           Greg Daugherty <gdaugher@cscsun.rmc.edu>
> Subject:        Re: Expectations in Summer Elem. Gk. (fwd)
> To:             nt-greek@virginia.edu
> Date sent:      Thu, 16 Dec 1993 10:19:46 -0500 (EST)

> Forwarded message:
> From @CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU:owner-classics@UWAVM.U.WASHINGTON.EDU Wed Dec 15 16:35:11 1993
> Date:         Wed, 15 Dec 1993 15:27:00 CST
> 
> On summer Greek for seminary students:
> The policy of Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS
> (very closely aligned with Calvin Seminary) was that the
> seminarians know enough Greek to be able to use the handbooks
> or tools (helps?) and the commentaries to muddle through
> a few words of the Greek ... if they had demanded serious
> knowledge of the Greek or serious exegesis there would
> have been a mass exodus from seminary.  Small Greek and
> less Hebrew could have been the motto.  In other words,
> yes, I think 10 weeks CAN prepare seminary-bound students,
> the way things are.
> Kirk Summers
> Loyola University - Chicago

Kirk:

Please explain what you mean by "policy" of RTS.  The policy and the 
practice may be different, depending on the student population at any 
particular year.  When I received my MDiv from RTS, the policy and 
practice was to teach the languages and interpretation skills in 
detail, and to require serious exegesis papers using these tools.

The policy of the seminary is to prepare students with reformed 
backgrounds to preach in their respective churches.  Since these are 
primarily Presbyterian churches, the Westminster Standards defined the 
official policy of the seminary.

Yes, when I was there, there was much crying and gnashing of teeth by 
students who were ill prepared to handle serious language study (even 
English), and classes often missed the mark of preparing those 
students, but that was not the fault of the policy of the seminary.

Perhaps you meant "practice" instead of "policy," and at a particular 
point in time, not in the first 25 years of the seminary's life.

--
Bill Chapman              | (601) 325-2042
BillC@Housing.MsState.Edu | Mississippi State, MS  39762