On Undergraduate Theological Education

We share this from an email recently received from one of our institution's recent bachelor's degree recipients who has just enrolled in a well-known, well-funded mainline Protestant seminary in a large American city. We have edited to obscure identities and correct typos. We apologize if it appears self-serving, a move that our gentle readers will recognize is long overdue in regard to most postings on this blog, but we see it as a slice of life worth inspecting.

i'm sitting in a workshop right now that is required for all new students at [name of rich, mainline Protestant seminary]. we are currently going over hermeneutics; eisegesis vs. exegesis. sophomore year stuff. it is unbelievable how many people here do not know their bible or anything about it for that matter. the people that do know the bible relatively well are conspiracy theorists, talking about walmart and the kingdom's obligation towards stopping such scoundrels. i know that this is just my first couple of weeks here, but i just wanted to tell you, as the academic dean of ccu, how wonderful our program is there. i spent most of my time there complaining about the kinds of education that we were getting. well, i have quickly changed my perspective. between [various CCU professors named], i feel that i have received an extraordinary education that has more than prepared me for this venture into the graduate institution. i was speaking with one of my profs here who graduated from yale about greek stuff and he could not believe how much greek that i had received during my undergrad. and i definitely was among the worst greek students to ever pass through the halls at ccu. anyway, i just wanted to give you an update on my experience here in the [nickname of big city] and mostly to say thank you.

Our heart is strangely warmed.