Much Higher Learning

Each time I receive a new issue of World magazine, the first thing I do is flip to the back to read Andree Seu's column. I appreciate many of the thoughts in her most recent piece, Much Higher Learning: A Modest Proposal for a New Seminary. My favorite three paragraphs:

Build into the program safe opportunities to try things that fail, in pursuit of the glory of God. Follow the reading of edifying biographies with trips to the mall or city commons to preach, as Cornelius Van Til and Jack Miller did in Philadelphia's business district. Read sparingly books on the history of doctrine, and very sparingly books on the history of denominations. We don't have that kind of time.Works on church history are profitable if written by Spirit-filled men; there is no such thing as "brute facts." Study the Bible rather than theological systems, which are once-removed. God's power is in His Word, not in man-made constructions superimposed on it. Verse-by-verse is most helpful. All the rest will fall into place nicely.The advance of God's kingdom reign does not come from scholarship but from days of continuous praise. ("You are . . . enthroned on the praises of Israel"—Psalm 22:3.) Allot enough time for a reading assignment to encourage the student to praise and pray his way through the book. The act of storing knowledge without immediate responsive worship is toxic to the soul. There is no subtler snare than intellectual pride.