Thursday 14 January 2010

Ron Choong's Visit to STM


Yesterday, we were very privilege to play host to Rev Dr Ron Choong's visit to the seminary where he also delivered a special lecture on The New Christian Apologetics - The Coherence of a Biblical Faith in a Neuroscientific Paradigm. More than 25 students and faculty packed the conference room.




Ron's lecture was very highly engaging and stimulating. He also challenged seminarians to venture into interdisciplinary studies embracing the study of sciences, philosophy and theology.

8 comments:

逍遥子 Odysseus said...

very good sir,,,

but I note that, most asian seminarians are very focus in their own area of research , so how to venture into inter-disciplinary study?

Kar Yong said...

I am not sure I am right in my observation as I am just a new kid in the block as far as theological education is concerned. As such, I stand corrected - seminaries in Malaysia and to a certain extent, most Asia seminaries too, tend to focus on producing pastors, and as such, the emphasis is on traditional theological disciplines like theology, biblical studies, etc. We do not pay much attention in cutting edge research, hence, inter-disciplinary studies are naturally not given the attention they deserve.

But that does not mean we cannot venture into this area - it may be a lonely path to tread at the moment as colleagues and students may not fully appreciate the need for this kind of research.

Would you be keen to do inter-disciplinary studies?

yourshoeah said...

I was very blessed and had my eyes sharpened at the talk- I did a paper on Natural Theology in my 1st year Theology class- and really appreciated STM's effort to broaden students (and to some extent faculty's) areas of coverage. I continue to believe that seminaries MUST engage with science, as it engages with other religions such as Islam, Buddhism, etc. Much more can and should be done to expose us students to the issues, concerns and intellectual landscape of the 21st century. We must be quick to adapt, otherwise we will always be two steps behind the world.

逍遥子 Odysseus said...

Thanks sir, for your cup of green tea....

I am interested in literary approach to biblical studies.is this considered inter-disciplinary?

Kar Yong said...

Hi Yoshua,
Yes, read widely - not just your hobby horse :-)

Kar Yong said...

Literary appoach is very wide. There is much to plough thorough the maze. I would suggest that you read widely, have a rather good grasp of various interdisciplinary studies before focusing in an area.

ret said...

does it matter to you that ron choong does not believe in the Adamic story. - he said that adam and eve did not exist but were part of early hominids that came to be out of theistic evolution.
He teaches crap and you guys lap it up. There have already been testy emails between him and some detractors in New York

ret said...

Does it matter to anyone that choong does not believe in a real adam and eve. he said that they didn't exist- but were part of early hominids who came to be out of evolution.