From the Pen of the AGS President
FROM THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
AGS NEW WAY OF DOING RELIGIOUS FORMATION
Seven years ago a thorough process of getting into the office of a seminary president was administered by the Board of Trustees. It was a blending of community of faith’s discernment and the guidance of the Holy Spirit in search for the non-negotiable that shall warrant the sustainability and integrity of the office.
When some members of the Filipino faculty at AGS and leaders of the denomination nominated their choice for the position, there was hesitation in the part of the subject. Qualification for the position was a key issue. For one, it seemed that that the position called for an MBA degree and not one on theology. Besides the subject’s heart was set for teaching his chosen discipline at the Asia Baptist Graduate Theological Seminary in Baguio City and at the Philosophy Department of the De LaSalle University.
Also, he set a goal to write a book on philosophical hermeneutics within the period of five years from 2003 to 2008. Inspired by Kant’s moral dictum that “to secure one’s own happiness is a duty, at least indirectly; for discontent with one’s own condition, under a pressure of many anxieties and amidst unsatisfied wants, might easily become a great temptation to transgression of duty.” But while he found comfort with academic calisthenics such as reading prospectus and dissertations, the art of self-examination (Socratic quizzing) becomes his unrelenting habit.
Hence, faced with what he now admits, as a tempting option, he found himself in need of guidance. Having found that his interest is reading on selected books of course, he explored the proposal with honesty, openness, and a consenting gesture.
He also sought the view of his mentor–Dr. Tereso Casiño. His words were, “Allow me to view the struggles from a missiological . . . standpoint. That which gives opportunities to maximize influence as a Christian scholar and that would result in the optimum fulfillment of the Great Commission ought to be pursued. Any place that lessens the degree of influence. . . should be avoided . . . . the Great Commission is not simply a task that needs fulfilling; it is also a matter of stewardship that needs creative maximizing. . . .one should be careful about SELECTING not PREFERRING ministry opportunities. Biblical stewardship dictates that one should take ministry functions that are STRATEGIC ENOUGH to impact more lives not few.”
After consulting his wife who preferred the quite of private life, his children who took the opposite view, they being fascinated with titles, the members of his church board who took a resilient stance but felt also sad losing the subject as their pastor for the past twenty years, and the enthusiastic friends who felt that God has a new direction for his life other than what he had originally planned, came the response: “Why not?” But he also hastily added, please convince those with high enthusiasm about the presidency to turn their wish to cash for the school’s survival!
On a more serious tone, I believe Evangelical Seminaries in general and Alliance Graduate School in particular are on the look out to guard the Bible from generation to generation against the possible onslaught of ideologies–starting from the religious heresies of the first centuries down through the slander of the Enlightenment on biblical cosmology.
Indeed, the philosophical and theological controversies of today have produced Christians who are separating from or engaging, departing from or re-rooting in, suspecting or appreciating the Bible.
The issue on fidelity to the Word becomes noticeable especially because AGS as a learning community lives in the tension of the constant and changing. Each dimension is hard to decipher.
For instance most of the Universities in America today began as Christian schools. The Congregational Church founded Harvard College in 1636 as theological institution. Today the theological institution has become Harvard University. In the theology class they teach–God raped the Virgin Mary. That is why she conceived.
Yale University began as a Congregational institution to educate their ministers in their own way (Ibid). Princeton University started as a Presbyterian School—the denomination of the Christian and Missionary Alliance innovative founder Albert Benjamin Simpson.
These schools and other Universities in Europe were started by their Christian forbears: Oxford, Paris, Cambridge, Heidelberg, and Basel have their experiences to tell in the Judgment Day either in skeptical, mythical, poetical or literal manner. But we ask, had they departed from their original vision or had they just re-rooted?
Today, a University student of the College of Humanities may become initially aware of the challenge of post modernity especially that articulated by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. His disciples are now found in the prestigious Universities in the Philippines.
The whole argument of the movement could be said in this manner: (1) Literary text are indeterminable and thus inevitably yield multiple, irreducibly diverse interpretations (2) there could be no criteria for preferring one reading to another and [thus we are] cast into the darkest of hermeneutical nights in which all readings are indistinguishably gray.
Following the nihilism of his kababayan Nietzsche, there is nothing in the world, in the text that is not the creation of some human individual or community. This implies that the Bible does not speak of God; rather the Reader has placed God in the text.
The concept of God is the creation of the interpreter. If there is no ultimate reference that is God, where do we draw our essentials when faced with contradictions among us and in us?
There are two ways of responding to this serious challenge. One is the approach of apologetics where the logic of deconstruction is questioned. That is, if deconstruction’s claim is true then it just assumes a preference. In so doing the conclusion is arrived at by choosing criteria over against the other. The system becomes self-defeating. Is not pride the problem?
An example of the apologetic approach is the group of the Christian apologists under the tradition of Charles Hodge named Charles Hodge’s Society at Princeton Theological Seminary. The group is primarily organized to strengthen faith and combat false ideas right in the campus of the university.
The other approach is to get into an engaging dialogue with Derrida just like what Kevin Vanhoozer did in his book Is There Meaning in this Text? In that book Vanhoozer provides an alternative to the skepticism of deconstructionist by treating the word of God as communicative discourse of meaning.
Thus, you will be watching in the next decade a voluminous discussion on speech-act theory among Evangelicals as a postmodern approach to the doctrine of the Scripture.
The importance of responding to the challenge of deconstruction is that if Derrida’s philosophy persists in the thoughts of the next generation of enthusiasts, then it also means putting to death the author’s meaning of the text, including the truth of God and belief about God.
I think we in the Evangelical seminary should have a tour de force of language frameworks which other disciplines in the Universities are apt to use, in addition to the analytical ritual of Greek and Hebrew exegesis—which presupposition comes from the Wittgenstein’s analytical approach to language.
There may be a connection on Christians who were schooled in Sunday school departing if not shifting from the faith when they get to study in “secular” Universities. Some of them are pastors’ children. What they learnt in Sunday school was the literalistic rendition of the Bible with its framework from the positivist’s tradition.
The approach of course is what the children appreciate at the early stage. But then when they grow older they need an exposure with other perspectives.
In the same manner the seminary’s task is “to enable our pastors to discern with others the central aspirations of the Christian community from the Biblical text [by exposing them to] the ambiguous history of the Christian movement and other religious movements, the spiritual masters of the Christian tradition, and the basic theological tools which enable Christians to listen, reflect, think and assess for themselves what is required from them in order to respond adequately to God’s call in Christ”.
Pretty soon, the evangelicals in this land will have an economist-theologian, lawyer/theologian, psychiatrist/pastor, micro-entrepreneur/pastor, educator/pastor, medical doctor/pastor, theologian/politician, theologian/scientist, among others, in addition to what we already have. These are but few innovations so that the Gospel becomes to all peoples and generations. In this way innovation is defined as. . . .
Adhering to the reality that our being is inseparable from our becoming; hence a commitment should be made to continue the legacy that the seminary being rooted in the Word is to serve the church and the world.
The Word implies the World to such an intimate degree that one cannot be thought of without the other. For the World is not something simply added on the Word. To be rooted in the Word is always to co-exist with the World. For relationality is a primary category of beings.
Inherent in our human existence is the pervasive influence of culture in our lives. We are totally and inextricably immersed in culture and their design. Culture is not only an aspect of reality but a constituent of self.
Pop culture influences life. It provides models of reality, which govern someone’s perception. That is why media use them. The rich ones have exploited them. But the maneuvering of the culture did not escape the structural analysis of Karl Marx. He revealed, “The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class.”
Following the tradition of his teacher, Lumbera- a Filipino literary critic writes, “it is culture (popular culture) created either by the ruling elite or by members of the intelligentsia in the employ of the elite for the consumption of the populace”. Thus, malling culture came from the ruling elites in the economic sector inspired by the intelligentsia devouring the populace. In a sense, we are helpless patronage!
The latest is the global economic meltdown—a commentary of the failure of individualism in business. The social philosopher Jürgen Habemas has this to say, “The age of privatization is over. Politics not the market is responsible for promoting the common good. . . .[thus] the necessity of an international world order.” One cannot do enterprise alone; hence, the necessity of partnerships. Similarly, privatization of specializations either “religious” or “secular” is here to face the reality of connectedness in the forms of integration and relevance to varied communities. Call this contextualization, hermeneutics, or cultural redemption. The point is marketability of our messages which should include from the least of our individual subject to programs and the whole concept of an image of a relevant pastor or worker in a market place. To do this, the School should pursue cultural analysis. The purpose of which is to “search afresh for the presence of God in the different context of this world” in order to know how then should we live. If culture is the givenness of the learning community’s existence, what implications should one derive from this in relation to the school’s ministry to the world?
First, a positive regard to pre-understanding. It entails a realization of limitation. Because a person does not only come to know something by the act of consciousness–there are unknown variables at play in the process influencing judgment–then humility requires that each is to reckon with the reality of understanding as always coming from a particular point.
Therefore any articulation is not a-historical. The effect of which is a conscious awareness that one is limited. Thus by being aware of such limitation should lead to openness. The voice of the other could be worthwhile, enhancing the perspective of how the world works.
Relationality is the reason of AGS passionate pursuit of the “integrated curriculum.” That is, each subject is to be approached from a multi-disciplinary, multi-intelligence and multi-cultural perspectives to avoid the dogmatic pride and slumber.
Similarly, Dr. Ken Gnanakan writes about integrated course as, . . . one that is organized in such a way that it cuts across subject-matter lines, bringing together various aspects of the particular subject in an interaction with other areas of study in order to achieve the stated objectives and outcomes of the program. It views learning and teaching in a holistic way and reflects on issues in the real world making courses meaningful within their particular as well as wider contexts.
Further, Dr. Gnanakan mentions the guiding marks of an integrated curriculum as follows:
- A combination of subjects
- An emphasis on projects
- Sources that go beyond text books
- Relationships among concepts
- Thematic units as organizing principles
- Application to real life
The recognition of different voices should make one nurture dialogue in an atmosphere of mutual respect in relationship regardless of gender, looks, color, English pronunciations or dictions, the preference of the brain in the pursuit of truth about anything.
It means allowing the book, the person, and the circumstances to speak in a moment we call dialogue (quizzing). The risk is the suspension of one’s comfort zone to allow an unexplored world i.e., innovations to thrive over modern prejudices that tend to pre-judge a person, an author, or circumstance without having the benefit of inquiry in dialogue.
Jesus healing of the sick man in the pool in the Gospel of John chapter 5 illustrates the fact that the illness of the man for thirty-eight years is not so much about his inability to catch first the opportunity to dip himself in a troubled water that heals but an enslaving pre-understanding that such tradition is the only way to survive.
Ironically, that which promised human being healing imprisons the man in the quagmire of competition described well in the Olympics of the disabled—the invalids, the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed in verse 4. The man’s invalidity is his being a victim of his circumstances.
Now Jesus came to his rescue but had to ask him this apparently insensitive question, “Do you want to get healed?” The man replied with the old paradigm, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me.”
Obviously, this kind of answer stereotypes the kind of answer pastors and Christian workers out there in the field. “Wa koy kwarta!” [ literally, "I have no money"] Jesus response was, “Rise, take up your pallet, and walk.” It is a metaphor for taking a new paradigm of living .
It is a declaration to depart from a system of living that limits the potential of the person. To rise, to take pallet, to walk is to conduct life away from the pre-understanding that imprisons ones potential towards self-actualization. The school is here to facilitate healing of this kind. In this line, one can say, AGS is committed to bringing the best of you and in you.
Similarly, innovation in business parlance is about:
creating value and increasing efficiency, and therefore growing your business. It is a spark that keeps organizations and people moving ever onward and upward.
Second, that we adopt an inoculation rather than quarantine approach to education. Whereas quarantine isolates an individual who has the toxins or virus so to avoid contamination, inoculation exposes a person to a disease in measured doses so that the destructive effects of the disease are mitigated. In effect, the inoculated individual is immune while the unexposed person is vulnerable to infection.
AGS location at 101 Dangay St., Veterans Village, Quezon City, is inoculated–rubbing elbows with the populace of the village, and the three malls, the SM North City, the TRINOMA, and the Walter Mart. We do not stay in monastic dormitories. We stay with people. We have the curriculum, the research center, faculty, library, and acceptable facilities at AGS.
The task of the school is to prepare leaders who will be in the “secular world” to become salt and light in a manner that do not turn them off. An example of the approach is that of the Biola University’s Talbot Theological Seminary. It has two well-respected professors in philosophy namely, J. P. Moreland and Scott Rae, who envisioned to send 100 Masters of Arts in Philosophy graduates into the best doctoral programs in the English-speaking world namely, Notre Dame University, UCLA, Cornell, University of Arizona, and Oxford.
Their goal is to place once again the Bible in academic courts. Today, they are reaping the fruit of their labor as in the last twenty years, metaphysics—the study of ultimate reality, for a long time the preserve of the Christians is back, thanks to the discontents of post modernity.
Similarly, AGS, through the eight graduate degree programs recognize by the Commission on Higher Education, would send out inoculated graduates to the virus-infested sectors of society to become the agents of transformation in the Philippines, Asia and beyond. To do this AGS began to offer classes to professionals in the marketplace and continuesly explore the challenge of “Educational highway” [ladderization and bridging programs].
Also, the AGS community is into the area of social marketing. Social Marketing is the use of marketing principles and techniques to influence a target audience to voluntary accept, reject, modify, or abandon a behavior for the benefit of individuals, groups, or society as a whole.
Beginning 2006, the School had succeeded in building her social capital by servicing different Christian organizations with the initial innovative Master of Ministry program at their doorsteps from the Philippines, South East Asia to Europe.
Now, the Resource Development Office has the tall order in translating the social capital to economic capital. This one needs the concerted efforts of the student body, the Alumni, the faculty, staff, the Management Team and the BOT. In other words, the realization of the vision-mission of the school is not the job of one or three people but the concerted effort of the whole AGS community. Having said that, AGS is committed to aid in the transformation of individuals and community, scholarship, innovations and discipleship in Christ.
In today’s dispensation, the by-words are “Change”, “Bridge-building”, “Transformation”, “Servant Leadership”, and “Innovation.” By innovation, we are challenged to set aside any framework that imprisons an organization and individuals so one is able to realize his/her potential to self-actualization. In the concept of an Alliance Ricoeurian scholar from Africa, the tradition must exist in what Ricouer calls the “uninterrupted continuity” in time, like an oak tree which year by year changes, but is still, over the years, the same tree.
In our case, AGS sticks to the tension of scholarship and ministry, residency and innovation in order to serve the Lord and His creation in today’s context– in the Philippines and beyond.
By: Jonathan V. Exiomo, Th.M., Th.D. [was a Ph.D. student at the Loyola School of Theology and a student under the preparatory Ph.D., Philosophy Department at the ATENEO DE MANILA UNIVERSITY while at the same time an M.A. candidate in Religious Studies on Paul Ricoeur at MARYHILL SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY-Manila]