Concerning the Theological Seminary
Concerning the Theological Seminary
Some said, “We want the Theological Seminary to be at a university level, consisting of departments, each with a department head, professors, assistant professors, lecturers, instructors… and each professor having his own office! A department for history, for example, a department for education, one for the New Testament, another for the Old Testament, another for theology, and departments for languages… etc.”
If we know that the Theological Seminary teaches more than 21 subjects, what would all those professors, assistant professors, lecturers, and teaching assistants do?
From a practical standpoint, the history schedule at the Seminary does not exceed six lectures a week at the most, and sometimes it was only four lectures taught by the late His Grace Anba Yoannis. So how can we establish for these four lectures a department head, professors, assistant professors, lecturers, and teaching assistants?! And where would the salaries for all these people come from? And what would their work be?!
The Department of Education and Psychology is in the same situation: merely four lectures.
The language schedules are likewise: the Coptic language, the Greek language, the Arabic language, and the English language each require no more than one instructor, except that the Coptic language may need two instructors, and likewise the Department of Theology may need two instructors.
The same situation applies to the Divine Liturgy and hymns… homiletics, and rites.
The same also applies to personal status, Church law, and philosophy.
Throughout the history of the Seminary, each subject was taught by only one professor. Indeed, very often a single professor taught two or three subjects.
Again we ask:
Where would the salaries come from for the dozens of proposed instructors? And where would the offices come from for all the proposed departments?
At this point, other theoretical solutions are presented concerning raising money and imposing this by decree on the monasteries and churches…!
Another practical obstacle then appears: Where would the professors and instructors come from?
Theoretical proposals are then made about sending missions abroad.
Our practical experience in this field is not encouraging. Many of the missions that we sent were influenced by Western thought and departed from the doctrine and faith of the Church. They returned with erroneous ideas, and some of them never returned. One of those who was sent even became an atheist and wrote a book on atheism entitled Man Is the One Who Created God.
I thought of a middle solution, namely establishing specialized institutes. The idea progressed for years, but practical obstacles arose. I hope that God will remove them through your prayers.
I wish that those who present theoretical proposals would live in practical reality and would not wander too much in imagination… There is no doubt that in imagination we see beautiful things when we close our eyes and dream.
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