Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

And about the same time that book was visible and everyone was talking about it, the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology held a conference on man the sinner, man the saint.

Dr. John Gerstner said, Professor Emeritus at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary was one of the speakers, and he had the subject, Man the Sinner, and in the course of that subject, he had occasion to refer to that book, and then he told this story that related to it.

He said that a number of years before, when he and his wife were traveling in the Far East, they were in Kashmir, and they had been on a shopping spree.

They were returning in a houseboat, a small craft, to their hotel, and their boat had just pulled up alongside another large junk by the shore.

And he said, you know, you're raising really interesting questions.

There's a new program that's starting at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary that has to do with the intersection of science and theology.

I think you should think about going into that doctoral program and doing that.

So this was a doctor of ministry, kind of terminal professional degree for ministers.

The shift away from international missions dates back to the mid-20th century.

Denominations like the PCUSA and the Episcopalian Church have grappled with missionaries' associations with colonialism with a broader uncertainty in mainline settings for how to talk about evangelism and how evangelism relates to mission more broadly and social justice specifically, said Scott Hagley, who teaches world mission and evangelism at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

Now, that's where the political correctness comes in.

Where, you know, is it even right for a white missionary like Jonathan to go to Nigeria and tell them about his American religion as if Jesus was from Indianapolis? You know, so you get this politically correct bull crap into your seminaries where, you know, we really shouldn't even be going overseas.

I had a visiting professor at that college who had an international reputation as a theologian, studied the Gospel of John under him, under which he explained the doctrines of grace in the Gospel of John, and I still resisted his brilliance.

Then I went to Pittsburgh Seminary, and the king of the Calvinists taught there, John Gerstner, who was the most brilliant theologian I've ever met anywhere in the world, and Gerstner didn't convince me.

That job came ultimately to Paul the Apostle, and I was driven to the Apostle Paul by Jonathan Edwards.

And it was reading Edwards that finally got me through, but I had this card that I had in my study in seminary that said, "You're required to believe, to preach, and to teach what the Bible says is true, not what you think it should say is true." And that convicted me, because I realized that my resistance to the doctrine of election was not exegetical, but psychological.

But we have a great lineup for the afternoon.

Our speaker is Dr. Robert Gagnon, who was a longtime professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary for more than 25 years.

And I was a scholar teaching at Wesley Biblical Seminary and the author of two books and working on another book.

But the leading voice and the world's expert on what the Bible says about homosexuality.

It's probably gonna be difficult to find." And so I bu- we built the library that way.

Uh, and I ha- One of my cousins was the librarian at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and, uh, when ministers would retire, uh, or die, the wife was left with, like all these books, and she would donate them to seminary, uh, and this happens all over, across the, the country.

And most se- most seminaries had about probably 95% of what was donated, and my cousin would save the others, and I'd go...

When I went up to visit my mother, uh, when, when she was alive, I would go and pick through them, and he'd box them up and send them-

Edwin VanDriel holds a Bachelor of Divinity in Theology, a Master of Divinity, and a Master of Philosophy from Utrecht University, as well as a Master of Arts, a Master of Philosophy, and a PhD in Religious Studies from Yale University.

He's the Director's Bicentennial Chair in Theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, where he teaches mainly in Christology, ecclesiology, and the interaction between biblical studies and theology.

He's written several books, including Incarnation Anyway: Arguments for Supralapsarian Christology; Rethinking Paul: Protestant Theology and Pauline Exegesis; and the book we will be discussing in this episode, The Incarnation is God's First Intention: Supralapsarian Christology for Faith and Practice.

My name is Kane Innes, and I hope you enjoy this conversation with Edwin VanDriel.