The Society for the Advancement of Ecclesiological Theology

May 27, 2009 by Gerald Hiestand

Keener and Bird on the Generalist vs. the Specialist

Michael Bird and Craig Keener have a nice piece in the online SBL Forum that discusses the tension between the generalist and the specialist. The essay is directed toward the academy, but I think it has relevance for the SAET vision.

As I wrote about here, the pastor-theologian—by the very nature of his calling as a pastor—cannot afford the luxury of isolating himself in one narrow field of study. Ours is a systematic task; we must construct for our people a cohesive world view—a way of thinking holistically and christianly about the world. Devoting ourselves to three years of study centered on one Greek verb (though important, no doubt) won’t get the job done.

Toward the end of the article, Bird and Keener offer a number of suggestions about how to advance the generalist agenda. One suggestion involves staggering one’s work between generalist and specialist topics. Modifying this slightly for the pastor-theologian, I recommend that we stagger our work between popular-level works and scholarly works. Writing to both communities forces us to be both relevant (popular level stuff) and informed (scholarly stuff). Too often, many pastors and scholars  write in only one genre. The result is often a popular-level theology that is not rigorously intellectual, and a scholarly-level theology that is not practically relevant. Writing both ways keeps one honest.

An additional note: Bird and Keener talk about the importance of the generalist reading primary literature, even if it means short-changing the secondary literature. This, I believe, is crucial for the pastor-theologian. As full-time pastors there is a temptation to bypass the primary material for the quick-fix summaries found in the secondary literature. But if we have to choose between the two (and we often do), our efforts are best spent in the primary literature. Anything less and our theology becomes derivative.

Categories: Pastor-theologian