You couldn't make it up dept. no.31: But if they appointed a creationist as Director of Science...

[fpb]

Boston College is supposedly a Catholic university.

It has recently appointed an atheist, member of a Universalist church, as its Director of Theology.

Comments

[bufo-viridis.livejournal.com]

Question is - does he know theology well?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

The question is rather, which theology does he know? The Catholic Church has grown by rejecting whole swathes of doctrine, making its creeds at once more precise and more profound. And each time that a doctrine was rejected, a schism was created. Do you imagine for a minute that this man will give a precise and accurate account of the grounds on which the Church rejects Universalism? Do you imagine that his account of Church dogma, supposing that he even delivers anything so restrictive, would be sympathetic, fair, or accurate? Do you imagine that he would ever call the reason to accept one doctrine and reject another by its proper name: intellectual honesty? Or do you not imagine, rather, that he would subject his students to a steady barrage of that anti-dogmatic, pseudo-tolerant, but really anti-intellectual kind of propagand of which they already have got far more than enough, since childhood, from the media?

[goreism.livejournal.com]

Given that he's a professor of Hebrew Bible one wonders how he'd have the opportunity to teach about the Trinity anyway.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Well, according to student reports (NOT the Lutheran professor you mention), he managed it in his very first lesson, so he must be pretty committed to his own vision of theology.

[bufo-viridis.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I have not imagined any of the above, because the issue, amusing as it is, did not concern me that much.

I can imagine hiring a guy of the other faith, who is well-versed in thology to teach it. If his ability to provide accurate and fair, even if not sympathetic, account of the dogma, is to be trusted, than he can be hired. The question if he can keep to the letter and the spirit of his contract, and the ability of his employers to check if he teaches what he is supposed to teach and not try to advance his own agenda, this question is open; but that's Boston College's problem.

As pathagonian said, it's rather amusing.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Check the link I provided at the end of my debate with goreism to see why it is that I expect nothing but bad news from Boston College. I did not even have to google it - the piece of outrageous news just turned up on my reading list this morning as I was debating the matter. I could find a dozen other horror stories about Boston College without effort. It is amusing, indeed - in a bitter, of-course sort of way.