The Seminary as a Textual Community: Exploring John Sailhamer's Vision for Theological Education

By Stephen G. Dempster

John Sailhamer (1946-2017) is known for his careful scholarship on the Hebrew Bible and his focus on the compositional strategies found in the text of Scripture. Perhaps less well-known is his comprehensive vision for theological education.

In part one of this volume, editors Ched Spellman and Jason K. Lee present a previously unpublished

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fontes Press
• Release date: May 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781948048583

Book preview

Part One:

Hermeneutics and Theological Education

Chapter 1: The Nature, Purpose, and Tasks of a Theological Seminary

John H. Sailhamer

The following paper is a discussion of the nature, purpose, and tasks of a theological seminary. ¹ The approach it envisions is conservative, in that it values past efforts to construct a comprehensive seminary curriculum, though it is anything but an attempt to preserve the status quo. Along with many others who are currently rethinking the nature and purpose of a seminary education, we agree that in large measure present seminary programs at best often lack a cohesive center and are otherwise often incoherent or, in some cases, irrational. ²

The underlying purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical and reflective basis for designing a coherent and cohesive seminary curriculum (both explicit and implicit). As such the paper is, at places, admittedly abstract. The point of these abstract discussions, however, is always and only to ground our thinking about seminary education in biblical and social realities. The fact that our actions and programs, if rational, are linked to abstract principles and revealed truth, makes this aspect of curriculum design mandatory for a theological seminary, especially an evangelical one. The purpose of a theological seminary is directly linked to its nature as a part of the Christian Church and that, in turn, is related to certain fundamental principles. Thus, we will begin with a broad discussion of the seminary within the context of the church and the Word of God.

This paper will also argue that the nature and task of a Christian seminary is fundamentally hermeneutical—teaching the written Word of God. However, the approach taken in this paper will attempt to develop further the nature of that task by applying insights gained from contemporary analysis of social structures (particularly the role that authoritative texts play in the formation of text-communities) and hermeneutical theory (phenomenology of texts and text theory).³ By viewing the written Word of God as a component in a larger whole of the the seminary text-community, it is argued that all departments which participate in the seminary curriculum share the same theoretical task (interpretation of texts) and differ only with respect to the aspect of the social structure (text-community) where it is applied. Thus, the actual responsibilities of every department are fundamentally practical.

We will proceed in two stages. First, we will discuss the nature and purpose of a theological seminary within the context of the church. Second, building on these earlier conclusions, we will discuss specific aspects of seminary education as they relate to the seminary’s task in the