After I graduated from Biola University with a M.A. in Christian Apologetics I had my eye on doctoral programs. The program that topped the list was the Ph.D. in Religion, Politics, and Society at Baylor University. What led me to this program was a course I took at Biola that was taught by Dr. Francis Beckwith. This was a great class and I learned a lot. I looked at Dr. Beckwith as someone that I wanted to learn from.
To my dismay, there was a lot of controversy over whether Dr. Beckwith would be tenured or not. Because the decision to deny tenure seemed concrete, I had put Baylor out of my mind as a school that I wanted to attend. Last week, however, as I was browsing other blogs, I noticed on Dr. Beckwith’s home page that he is now tenured. The thoughts of completing that Ph.D. program once again formed in my head and I looked forward to the future.
Yesterday, though, Dr. Beckwith announced that he has now joined the Roman Catholic Church. Dr. Beckwith had previously been a Catholic, as was I. Unlike Dr. Beckwith, though, I do not see myself ever going back to the Roman Church, especially when this comes at a time where I am currently studying Baptist history and all of the death that came at the hand of Rome in a course with lectures by Dr. Ergun Caner, president of Liberty Theological Seminary.
I think it may be time to look for another Ph.D. program.
My name is Richard Smolenski and I am a theologian in training. I have an M.A. in Christian Apologetics from
I am not sure why the Doctors return to his origianl faith would cause you to decide not to consider Baylor. I am confident that he will not be teaching the Catechism of the Catholic Church(even though most would agree with 90 percent of it) at Baylor. I suuspect that mind that so helped you learn will still be the same one
JH
LOuisiana
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about Baylor. It is a terrific place with a vibrant intellectual community of Christians.
In response to the following text “…I do not see myself ever going back to the Roman Church, especially when this comes at a time where I am currently studying Baptist history and all of the death that came at the hand of Rome ….”
Does this mean that any institution/government that ever existed throughout history with a troubled past should be completely abandoned? If we all followed this logic, every member of the USA should abandon our national roots and form a new goverment, being that slavery was acceptable during its initial formation. Heck, even some US presidents owned slaves.
Surely your professor has some positive things to say about the Catholic Church. Its a miracle that the Catholic Church has existed for nearly 2000 years. By the way, corruption and evil practices existed in many Eurpeon goverment bodies during the middle ages. Thats why they are referred to as the “dark ages”.