Seminary faculty/alumni author collections

elnwood said:

Rosie Perera said:

Vanhoozer is listed in the "Friends of Regent" section on the regentaudio.com website, which means he has likely taught a class or two and is on the roughly same wavelength theologically as Regent. I'm including all such folks, even if they aren't on the faculty.

Rosie, what does it mean to be on the "same wavelength theologically as Regent," given that Regent is transdenominational and has Baptists, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Anabaptists, and Pentecostals? Can we speak of a distinct Regent theology in the same way you can speak of DTS's dispensational theology, or SBTS's Baptist theology, or is Regent's theology simply broadly evangelical?

Regent College's theology is broadly evangelical, and the theological atmosphere is one of charity towards differing viewpoints. That latter is not something commonly found at more narrow denominational schools.

That said, there are some certain things that tend to characterize the outlook at Regent:

• very strong on the notion that all vocations are holy callings, integrating faith and work,erasing or minimizing the lay/clergy divide; it was founded first and foremost as a college to educate laypeople theologically; only later was an MDiv degree added, and it remains a smaller percentage of the students, though all take classes together and are in community together; the idea of business as mission (not as a way of evangelizing but as a way of inherently doing good for God's kingdom)
• spiritual theology has historically been a core emphasis thanks to founding father James Houston who almost single-handedly woke the evangelical world back up to the study of it, which included reading the works of venerable Catholic spiritual writers who had long been feared or ignored by evangelicals
• approves of women in all levels of ministry (though there have been a couple of faculty members who are uncomfortable with this, they have not made it an issue to deter women from entering the MDiv program)
• strong emphasis on the arts in the life of the college and academic work; high quality art and a willingness to be edgy, not just pretty pictures and songs to illustrate bible stories; an art gallery is a major use of the architecture of the college (which is all in one building, to many people's surprise)
• positive towards the integration of science and faith (e.g., you wouldn't find literal 6-day creationists on the faculty, and nobody would bat an eyelash at someone who put forth that Genesis is consistent with a belief that evolution could have occurred under God's guiding hand, as Bruce Waltke has and got asked to leave RTS for it)
• most faculty (with one strong exception) would support a "heaven comes down to earth" view of eschatology (à la N.T. Wright), which results in a very this-worldly focus on concern and care for people (social justice) and the planet, the latter of which deserves a bullet point of its own
• very strong ethic of creation care / earthkeeping / environmental stewardship (particularly spearheaded by one certain faculty member, but almost all are on board with it)
• most important: a safe atmosphere to ask questions, examine beliefs we have taken for granted, and push the boundaries; we've got faculty members, for example, who question the notion of hell as a literal eternal fiery torment, and they are not being branded as heretics, though of course there are plenty who do hold to the traditional view;

John Stackhouse put this last and most significant aspect of Regent very well in this lecture at about 13:59ff: "Regent College is a place where people tend to flee from hostile intellectual and spiritual environments; we have people who are running away from fundamentalism; we have people who are running away from extremely intense religious cultures, whether Catholic or Mennonites or Christian Reformed or otherwise; we have people who are fleeing liberal Christianity; we have people who are fleeing the wide open deserts of secularism; and they come to a very congenial place, where any question pretty much can be asked; we don't require our students to be Christians, we just require our professors to be; and we as faculty don't feel obliged to agree with each other about everything; we do agree on the standard evangelical basis of faith that the college adheres to, but beyond that we disagree in a fairly lively and open way about lots of other things."

That's the general idea I meant by Regent's theological wavelength.

I should also point out that Regent College (in Vancouver) is not to be confused with Regent University, Pat Robertson's institution in Virginia. It's a common mistake people make. Regent College's theology is about as far from Regent University's as you can get. Regent College had the name first, so it's the other school's fault for the confusion. [:)]

Also, there's a Regent's University (formerly Regent's College) in the UK, which is completely unrelated to both of the above. And Regent College (in Canada) has no 's on its name.

abondservant said:

We didn't have any catholics though (or SDA, and very few pentecostals).

We had no Catholics or Orthodox on the faculty either, though some have come to teach at summer school (Bradley Nassif, an Antiochian Orthodox Christian, for example, co-taught a class with J.I. Packer on Orthodox-Evangelical relations). No SDA that I know of. Plenty of Pentecostals (Gordon Fee, Rikk Watts, Sven Soderlund on the main faculty, and probably others in summer school).

One of the cool things about Regent College is that it offers all kinds of interesting courses outside the mainstream of what you might consider seminary courses. Sure, it's got all the basics covered too: biblical studies, church history, systematic theology, languages, pastoral theology, etc. But then right there in the catalog alongside those, you also see courses like "Technology, Wilderness, and Creation," a course that takes place over a week long journey on an open rowing/sailing boat in the Gulf Islands; and "Reading the Bible with the Damned," a course that looks at Scripture through the lens of those on the margins who often feel rejected by the Church -- prisoners, poor migrant farm workers, and the like. And those are just regular-term courses. The Summer School brochure is filled with even more such interesting courses like "Food: Communion, Community, and Creation." Incidentally, Regent has created a 4-part condensed video version of the Food Course for use with small groups, a promo and sample of which can be seen here: http://www.regentaudio.com/products/food-forethought. I've taken that course and it had one of the most profound impacts of any course ever on me and how I live my life. From what I've seen so far of the 2-hour version of it, it does a wonderful job of capturing the essence of the course.