Biblical Scholar vs. Theologian

Greetings dear friends! It's great to see that you have taken a minute out of your busy life to check up on my life... or at least my blog! Today I will be writing about a phenomena that I have observed over the past school year here in Princeton--classifying! Now, I'm not talking about judging or labeling or anything with a bad connotation--just classifying classmates.

Classifying. Since we have a pretty diverse population here at PTS, we have this tendency to classify ourselves according to several criteria. I will do it to myself here:

Ashley. From Pennsylvania. Went to West Chester U. Majored in Psychology and Philosophy. Presbyterian. Ordination track. MDiv 2014. Unmarried (i.e. does not live in CRW). A tad liberal. Loves sports. Huge hockey fan (Go Pens!). Plays guitar. Can't sing. 

The more I think about it, the more it sounds like an "About Me" profile description. Not that this is an all inclusive list (and I'll be waiting for the sassy comments some of my friends will have to add), but I want to suggest that we make just one more distinction here at the seminary...

Biblical Scholar vs. Theologian. I can already hear the squeaky voices of people protesting, "They're not mutually exclusive!" And I totally agree, they're not. You can probably consider yourself in both categories. But in my experience with humans at seminary, you tend to have a burning passion for one or the other--a preference, if you will. Since most of us are only here for three years, you kind of need to pick which of the two you enjoy more (although I would argue it is less of a choice and more about just who you are)--Biblical studies or theology--and fill up your electives with those kinds of classes. I suppose, if you really want to be argumentative, you can propose the addition of Patristics, but I have yet to meet anyone who would fall into that category here at a Presbyterian school.

As for me, I definitely fall into the category of Biblical Scholar. I would choose reading the Bible or Hebrew over the Institutes, Dogmatics, or Confessions any day! And I very well may quote the Bible more than any other human I have ever met, which I guess can be kind of annoying at times.

The best part of all of this classifying is that I get to be friends with people who differ in every single category from me! No kidding, I am convinced that my best friend here differs in all of the categories (except the unmarried thing)! Anyway, it's a great community of Biblical scholars and Theologians, and I find myself in the midst of Theologians more often than not. Horray for diversity within unity!

Anyway friends, take care of yourselves and each other (especially those very much unlike you)! =)