Seminary Professors

[CatechumenPatrick]

Hi all-
Here's a question I've had for quite a while and I'd appreciate any thoughts. In my undergrad and now in my grad work (at public universities), I've been surprised at how easy it is to meet with and communicate with professors. Many devote entire days to meeting with students, and many of the grad students go out to eat or drink with professors (including professors visiting to present a paper), in public and at house parties. It amazed me, when I was an undergrad and first realized this, that you could find the e-mail of almost any professor, ask them a question, and they would almost always (in my exp in philosophy) respond. I've had long and short discussions with a good number of philosophy professors I’ve never met, even though many of them are extremely busy and get 10-100 e-mails a day.

Yet there seems to be an opposite phenomenon with seminary professors (at least those without blogs et al—thanks Prof. Clark!). I've had many questions for professors of theology but I've never been able to figure out how to contact them. In fact, some of my close friends and relatives at various Reformed seminaries have, or currently are, experiencing the opposite of what I described in the previous paragraph: they cannot get a word with most professors at seminary, and, in fact, any communication outside of or unrelated to class is treated as brown-nosing and is often looked down upon. Now I'm not claiming these, nor my own, experiences are universal or even typical, but the fact remains that I at least can find no way of contacting most seminary professors (and it seems to me that they should be the most willing to be contacted, given that they are serving the church and it is the church who needs them, not just their students).

 

[cbryant]

I seen similar trends in my studies (both when working on my M.A. in Philosophy and working on my M.Div in seminary) and as best I can figure is that professors at Seminaries have more administrative duties or they have ministry responsibilities outside of teaching that encompasses their time. Another possibility could be the environment the come from. For example, a professor from the UK or Europe will be more reclusive than those from the United States. The reclusiveness of US professors could be a trickle down effect from professors who, when they were in seminary experienced reclusive professors and so the cycle keeps repeating. However, that is not to say that I do not have professors and have not had professors in Seminary with an open door policy. For example, I was working on translating a passage from the Hebrew and I was able to go to another professor and he was more than willing to help.

 

[greenbaggins]

They also have (usually) far more classes to teach per semester than their university counterparts, and far more writing assignments which involve far more scholarship, which absolutely swamp them.

 

[CatechumenPatrick]

They also have (usually) far more classes to teach per semester than their university counterparts, and far more writing assignments which involve far more scholarship, which absolutely swamp them.

I am not so sure that seminary professors either write more than university professors (say, in philosophy) or are more scholarly (whatever that amounts to). It is nice for you to stick up for seminary professors, but that doesn't warrant making blanket statements about the quality of work "seminary professors" do as opposed to their "university counterparts."

However, it still doesn't answer why many seminary professors do not even have contact information available, nor the general concern of some seminary students that their professors are isolated (or too busy for) from their students and even the wider church.

 

[greenbaggins]

I don't think I was "sticking up" for them. I am pointing out that seminary professors have too many classes to teach. And when I look at how much they are publishing and are engaged to publish, versus how much their secular counterparts publish, I find it uneven. That's just my impression.

 

[R. Scott Clark]

A lot of it depends on teaching load, student:teacher ratio, and the like. When I taught at Wheaton, I had a lot more students than I do here and I taught a lot more hours than I do here.

As a sem prof I have a little more time for students, but I also have obligations to three different constituencies: students/pulpit (ministers), profs (academics), pew (laity). Most university faculty are expected to write only for one of those groups: the academy. They are expected to publish different sorts of books than sem profs are expected to publish.

There is also something of a generational shift in writing. When I was a student, there were still univ profs who didn't write much if anything. That was true of sem profs. My WSC profs wrote very little. They taught more than we do now. Because of their hard work we have a little more time to write. We also have computers which make writing, in some respects, easier.

Some sem profs simply choose not to interact with students much. I had a prof, who shall remain nameless, who told us that he was simply not available to meet. He didn't like to meet with students. It made him uncomfortable.

My sense is that, with our student:teacher ratio (12:1) we're reasonably accessible at WSC but there are weeks when I'm preaching, doing a conference, teaching, hitting a deadline, when I just have to disappear.

I can't speak for other schools, but we're expected to be available for students and we want to spend time with students and do outside of class, off campus, at church, and in the home. It's one of the best parts of the vocation.

 

[Ivan]

My experience has been that seminary professors were much more accessible than college professors. When I compare my experiences at Southern Illinois University and the University of Wisconsin to my experience at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, I must say that I had much more contact with professors at SWBTS. There were exceptions, of course. I had a history professor at SIU that was always accessible. I spent a lot of time with him. He wanted me to pursue a career as a history professor. He practically signed me up for the Masters program! He was very disappointed the day that I told him I was going to seminary.

At Southwestern I could almost always find the professors I was looking for when it was a day that they taught. They were very accessible and personable...and some were liberal too! But even in a huge seminary like SWBTS professors made themselves available to students. I sense that it is the same situation today.

 

[fredtgreco]

My experience at RTS Jackson was that the professors were available, personable and very supportive. My experience could have been unique, because I was an older student with significant ecclesiastical (PCA) experience before I came to seminary. But I don't think so.

I spent a good deal of time simply talking with professors about issues, the Church, academic matters and ministry. I also found it was a two way street. They were open to hearing my opinions on matters that were not in their immediate area of expertise (an RE's opinion, the life of a businessman, certain PCA politics issues, etc.). I don't say that to show how great I am, but how humble, personable and helpful they were.

The professors were a great blessing to me. In many ways, we were colleagues in ministry more than a hierarchical chain.

 

[Ivan]

It is indeed a two way street. If a student thinks a professor is going to run after them and offer them pearls of wisdom, that student will be sadly disappointed. One must make the effort.

 

[Broadus]

My profs at SBTS were very accessible. Some had an open-door policy, and others had scheduled times that students could see them. Emails were always returned. It really wasn't an issue at all.

Bill