Seminary Meme

Ryan at CommunalFeast tagged me with the Seminary Meme. Here are the rules and my answers:

This Seminary Meme is part of a competition sponsored by Going to Seminary and Eisenbrauns. If you’d like to be entered, simply answer the 7 questions below and tag 5 other people. You’ll also need to post this paragraph (links included) with your answers as the links will be tracked back to your blog and will count as your “entry” into the competition. On April 30th, 2008, one blogger will be selected at random to win a $100 gift certificate to the Eisenbrauns online bookstore.

1. Where do you attend seminary? Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Abilene Christian University (Graduate School of Theology), and Institute for Christian Studies (now the Austin Graduate School of Theology).

2. What class do you think has most impacted your spiritual life? Philosophy of Religion is the class that helped form my reasoning on faith. Wrestling through those issues (theodicy, existence of God, etc.) helped strengthen my faith and increased my love of Scripture and God.

3. What seminary professor has been the most influential while in seminary? That is a very tough call. Garth Rosell and Michael Weed are tied. Dr. Rosell's overflowing love of God and his absolute brilliance are still inspiring. He was also very encouraging regarding my academic abilities. Dr. Weed taught Philosophy of Religion, and other classes that were completely fascinating. Through this class I became friends with Pascal. He has been one of the most encouraging professors I have ever had, and really encouraged me regarding my ability for theological reasoning.

4. What is the greatest challenge you’ve faced in seminary? Location. When I started at ICS/Austin Grad I was living in San Antonio and commuted. When I went on to ACU I also commuted, but this was tougher. Part of the time I was driving from San Antonio to Abilene (about 4 hrs.) for school and from San Antonio to Austin to volunteer at our church. There were days I would go from San Antonio to Abilene to Austin. When I moved to Austin, then I was only commuting to Abilene, but that was still about 3 1/2 hours each way with the road taking me through lots of small towns.

5. What has been the greatest reward you’ve experienced in seminary? The whole experience was a great reward. I often hear of people refer to it as cemetery, and I have no idea of what they are talking about. I loved seminary, and I miss it. School is fun.

6. What are your plans after seminary? I would like to get a PhD in either philosophy of religion or church history.

7. How many times have you been asked question #6? A lot, but the intentions were always good (I think). I cannot honestly answer that because I did not keep count.

For the tagging part...I tag JeremyZ, Brian, BryanL, and two others whose names have both consonants AND vowels.