DEGREES IN DIVINITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22956, 11 August 1936, Page 13

DEGREES IN DIVINITY

XO THE EDITOR.

Sir,—Several correspondents have written in your columns about degrees in theology, but in spite of the many letters published I am not sure yet as to what is proposed. Is it to institute theological chairs in one or all of the four constituent colleges on the same footing as the chairs already in existence? Or is it to affiliate present and future theological seminaries with the University, the members of their staffs forming a faculty of theology? Or is it to get the senate to appoint a board of examiners to test the theological attainments of candidates who have or have not completed an academic or quasi-academic curriculum? Or what is it exactly? In our University no religious text could be imposed on a professor or student. He might be an Anglican, a Presbyterian, a Methodist, a Baptist, a Seventh Day Adventist. Theology, however, is usually studied by such as intend to enter the ministry of some particular church, and most churches would prefer to have their future ministers trained in their own institutions under approved teachers, rather than taught by those who might be regarded as theological free lances. Anglicans may teach theology at Oxford and Presbyterians may do so at Edinburgh; but a priest or Presbyter, a Congregationalist or Theosophist might waste his energies if appointed to teach divinity in any university college in New Zealand. Each denomination would still prefer to send its students to its own denominational college, and he might be left like a shepherd without any sheep. To affiliate the existing " schools of the prophets" with the University of New Zealand or with its "constituent colleges would conform more or less closely to the plan which was followed in the case of the University of London. A number of theological seminaries—King's College, Hackney College, New College, Regent's Park College, and others —are recognised as "schools of the university." A number of those on their staffs are recognised as " appointed teachers." There are examinations for external students as well as for internal students, the scheme of examinatiions being the same for the former as for the latter. Candidates may be examined for the degree of B.D. in the colonies and dependencies as well as at Home. No question is so put as to require an expression of religious belief on the part of any candidate, and no answer given by any candidate can be objected to

on the ground of its expressing any peculiarity of doctrinal views. Tht examiners may be Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, or others. They are changed from time to time, and the senate may appoint outsiders for the purpose. The examiners may be Anglicans, Presbyterians, 'Wesleyans, or Mahomedans, I suppose, if they conform with the regulations and pass the examinations. Dr Hunter mentioned a proposal to do in the case of the University of Sydney what was done in the case of the University of London. That may be practicable there. But the various colleges within the University of Sydney, like the various colleges within the University of Melbourne, are related to these universities much more closely than, say, Knox College and Selwyn College are related to the University of Otago, or to the University of New Zealand. Moreover, the denominational colleges in New South Wales and Victoria are concentrated in each case in one city, whereas the denominational colleges are scattered throughout New Zealand. The denominational colleges in Melbourne, being in one spot, can co-operate with comparatively little difficulty, and they have instituted a College of Divinity which has received a charter to confer degrees. Various theological seminaries—Queen's College, Trinity College, Ridley College, Ormond College—send up candidates for these, and the students meet on common ground, so far as the papers are concerned. Arrangements may be made for a candidate to be examined at any convenient centre on the appointed dates. Examinations have been held in all parts of Australia and New Zealand, and have helped ,to stimulate theological study in New Zealand and elsewhere. It might be possible to establish a college of this kind, with a similar charter, in New Zealand, but there has not been any definite movement in this direction. The inclination has been towards the creation of a theological department in the university, not to set up an outside institution. The creation of a special board of examiners for theological degrees apart from any teaching staff would suggest a parallel with certain universities which have granted medical degrees without having any real medical school. Any faculty of theology concerned with such a body would be on a different footing from that of the faculties now in existence in connection with the University of New Zealand. The non-existence of theological chairs and theological degrees in connection with the University of New Zealand may be a reproach to us, as Dr C. F. Andrews says, but conditions here do not lend themselves so. readily to the . institution of a faculty of divinity as some suppose. I have much sympathy with the Rev. C. B. Jordan in some of his ideas, and very full sympathy with him, in others, but I do not know why 'he should have mentioned the "favoured Rabbi Duncan" in speaking of Jews, unless he was making an unkind hit at the fact that that learned divine was an Aberdonian. —I am, etc., J. C. Dunedin, August 10.