seminary<\/a>.\u00a0 And, after that, in the fall of 1993, I applied to the PhD programs at Yale, Duke, Emory, and the University of Chicago.\u00a0 I was accepted at none.<\/p>\nWhen I interviewed at Vanderbilt, I was actually laughed at by Professor Sallie McFague when I mentioned that I\u2019d like my dissertation to be about Jurgen Moltmann.\u00a0 At Duke, Geoffrey Wainwright was candid in my interview, and I remember his comments like it happened yesterday.\u00a0 \u201cAs an evangelical white male, you\u2019re not going to get in to this program,\u201d he said, \u201cAnd even if you did, there\u2019d be no job for you once you got out.\u201d<\/p>\n
It mattered not at these places that I had gone to Dartmouth, nor that I had recommendations in hand from Miroslav Volf and Nancey Murphy.\u00a0 My choice of seminary certainly damaged my application.<\/p>\n
In some ways, Fuller didn\u2019t help me much.\u00a0 For instance, when I went to the registrar to find my class rank in my MDiv graduating class, I inquired about my class rank, which I assumed would be among the top few of my class and would strengthen my PhD applications.\u00a0 I was told that class ranks were neither kept nor released, because ranking students wasn\u2019t particularly \u201cChristian.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, when I did enter a PhD program, at Princeton Theological Seminary, a decade later, I found that the landscape had changed.\u00a0 While still not on par with Yale or Duke, the MDiv program at Fuller was regarded as respectful, and I wasn\u2019t the only doctoral candidate with a Fuller degree.\u00a0 And one of my best friends had received his MDiv from Mars Hill Graduate School, before that school gained accreditation.\u00a0 True, he had to do a ThM for a year first, but his strength in Hebrew quickly impressed the OT faculty, and they let him in.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s another side of the coin.\u00a0 Dan may be too committed to Dallas Seminary to see it, and I think that Scot may soft sell it a bit, and that\u2019s the deserved perception of places like Fuller and Dallas Seminaries in the academic world.\u00a0 Fuller has, indeed, bolstered its academic reputation over the last several decades, but it was founded by a fundamentalist radio preacher, and it will take time for it to overcome that heritage.\u00a0 Dallas, known as a dispensationalist school, as Dan notes, has a similar image problem.\u00a0 In my own travels, I have experienced both thoughtful, perspicacious students from DTS, and I have been shouted at by DTS students who were more ideological than they were theological.<\/p>\n
Princeton Seminary has come a long way from its fundamentalist period in the early 20th century, then the pendulum swung far in the other direction, before coming to rest somewhere in the middle-left of mainline Christianity where it resides today.\u00a0 The Fullers and Dallases of the world have to be patient.\u00a0 But they also have to realize that holding to biblical inerrancy and dispensationalism will never gain the respect of the faculties at Yale, Duke, and U Chicago.<\/p>\n
I get asked a lot about where I think that people should go for seminary or doctoral work.\u00a0 My basic advice is this: Don\u2019t be naive.\u00a0 If you\u2019re going to a school that made its name on dispensationalism, you will be discriminated against by the top academic institutions.\u00a0 But, I can tell you from personal experience, that it goes the other way, too: Get your PhD from a mainline or secular school, and prepare to be written off by some evangelicals as being liberal (even if you\u2019re not).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At Jesus Creed, Scot has first asked, then responded to a question posted by Dan Wallace at Parchment and Pen.\u00a0 The bottom line of the discussion is this: Is there a bias in the academy, particularly graduate studies, against students from evangelical schools? I have a couple thoughts. First, my experience.\u00a0 I went to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10,39],"tags":[161,187,254,331,516,559,566,668,690],"class_list":["post-827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity-in-america","category-dissertation","category-theology","tag-dallas-theological-seminary","tag-dispensationalism","tag-fuller-theological-seminary","tag-jesus-creed","tag-princeton-theological-seminary","tag-sallie-mcfague","tag-scot-mcknight","tag-university-of-chicago","tag-yale-university-divinity-school"],"yoast_head":"\n
Liberal Bias in the Academy? (In Response to Jesus Creed)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At Jesus Creed, Scot has first asked, then responded to a question posted by Dan Wallace at Parchment and Pen.\u00a0 The bottom line of the discussion is this:\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/12\/08\/liberal-bias-in-the-academy-in-response-to-jesus-creed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Liberal Bias in the Academy? (In Response to Jesus Creed)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At Jesus Creed, Scot has first asked, then responded to a question posted by Dan Wallace at Parchment and Pen.\u00a0 The bottom line of the discussion is this:\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/12\/08\/liberal-bias-in-the-academy-in-response-to-jesus-creed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Theoblogy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-12-08T13:31:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-13T22:03:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.dartmouth.edu\/~gallery\/downloads\/images\/winter-800x600.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tony Jones\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tony Jones\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/12\/08\/liberal-bias-in-the-academy-in-response-to-jesus-creed\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/12\/08\/liberal-bias-in-the-academy-in-response-to-jesus-creed\/\",\"name\":\"Liberal Bias in the Academy? (In Response to Jesus Creed)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-12-08T13:31:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-13T22:03:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#\/schema\/person\/42ce41f0b36973114dad81e583450069\"},\"description\":\"At Jesus Creed, Scot has first asked, then responded to a question posted by Dan Wallace at Parchment and Pen.\u00a0 The bottom line of the discussion is this:\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/12\/08\/liberal-bias-in-the-academy-in-response-to-jesus-creed\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/12\/08\/liberal-bias-in-the-academy-in-response-to-jesus-creed\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/12\/08\/liberal-bias-in-the-academy-in-response-to-jesus-creed\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Liberal Bias in the Academy? (In Response to Jesus Creed)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/\",\"name\":\"Theoblogy\",\"description\":\"The Tony Jones Blog at Patheos\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#\/schema\/person\/42ce41f0b36973114dad81e583450069\",\"name\":\"Tony Jones\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d50708c3731048719806adf9c6f6df30?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d50708c3731048719806adf9c6f6df30?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tony Jones\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/tonyj.net\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/author\/tonyjones\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Liberal Bias in the Academy? (In Response to Jesus Creed)","description":"At Jesus Creed, Scot has first asked, then responded to a question posted by Dan Wallace at Parchment and Pen.\u00a0 The bottom line of the discussion is this:","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/12\/08\/liberal-bias-in-the-academy-in-response-to-jesus-creed\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Liberal Bias in the Academy? (In Response to Jesus Creed)","og_description":"At Jesus Creed, Scot has first asked, then responded to a question posted by Dan Wallace at Parchment and Pen.\u00a0 The bottom line of the discussion is this:","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/12\/08\/liberal-bias-in-the-academy-in-response-to-jesus-creed\/","og_site_name":"Theoblogy","article_published_time":"2009-12-08T13:31:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-13T22:03:43+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.dartmouth.edu\/~gallery\/downloads\/images\/winter-800x600.jpg"}],"author":"Tony Jones","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tony Jones","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/12\/08\/liberal-bias-in-the-academy-in-response-to-jesus-creed\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/12\/08\/liberal-bias-in-the-academy-in-response-to-jesus-creed\/","name":"Liberal Bias in the Academy? (In Response to Jesus Creed)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-12-08T13:31:24+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-13T22:03:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#\/schema\/person\/42ce41f0b36973114dad81e583450069"},"description":"At Jesus Creed, Scot has first asked, then responded to a question posted by Dan Wallace at Parchment and Pen.\u00a0 The bottom line of the discussion is this:","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/12\/08\/liberal-bias-in-the-academy-in-response-to-jesus-creed\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/12\/08\/liberal-bias-in-the-academy-in-response-to-jesus-creed\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/12\/08\/liberal-bias-in-the-academy-in-response-to-jesus-creed\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Liberal Bias in the Academy? (In Response to Jesus Creed)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/","name":"Theoblogy","description":"The Tony Jones Blog at Patheos","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#\/schema\/person\/42ce41f0b36973114dad81e583450069","name":"Tony Jones","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d50708c3731048719806adf9c6f6df30?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d50708c3731048719806adf9c6f6df30?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tony Jones"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/tonyj.net"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/author\/tonyjones\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}