Blog Interview – Dr Stan Fowler – Heritage College & Seminary, Canada

Blog Interview – Dr Stan Fowler – Heritage College & Seminary, Canada 1

logo My thanks to Dr Stan Fowler who has agreed to be interviewed about Heritage College & Seminary in Canada.

1) Please introduce yourself and your role at Heritage College & Seminary.

Dr. Fowler My name is Stan Fowler, and I serve as Professor of Theological Studies.  I have also served as academic dean of the seminary in the past.

2) Tell us a little about Heritage College & Seminary.

Heritage College & Seminary is the public name of Heritage Baptist College and Heritage Theological Seminary (now you understand the shortened name!). Heritage began in 1993 as a merger of two Baptist schools in Ontario, and we are affiliated with the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada. We offer various theological certificates and degrees at both bachelor’s and master’s levels. We have about 300 students.

3) Are the courses full time, part-time or a mixture of both?

We have a mixture of full-time and part-time students. A majority of college students are full-time, but the majority of seminary students are part-time, often second-career students.

4) How do Heritage College & Seminary students fund their studies?

Buildings Landscape Students fund their studies out of their own or their parents’ resources. We have a limited number of bursaries and scholarships that provide assistance, and many students qualify for educational loans from a provincial agency. Some students are supported by their churches, and we hope that more churches will catch the vision for that.

5) Does Heritage College & Seminary take students from overseas?

Yes, we have some students from overseas. The number is not large, but in recent years the seminary has had students from Japan, India, and Brazil.

6) What type of ministry is Heritage College & Seminary intended to prepare students for?

All of our degree programs are oriented to preparation for vocational ministry as pastors, missionaries, worship and music leaders, or workers in Christian social service agencies. But some of our college students are preparing to go on to university, and we have many students in various programs who want to minister in non-vocational ways. We believe that theological education is valuable for the whole family of God.

7) When students leave Heritage College & Seminary what kind of ministries / jobs do they go into.

Most of our degree graduates enter some form of vocational ministry. Many of our college graduates begin ministry in associate pastoral roles like youth ministry and continue their education at seminary level part-time, later moving into lead pastor roles.

8) What is distinctive about what Heritage College & Seminary offers compared with other colleges in Canada and overseas?

Heritage Aerial 1 It is hard to describe distinctives, because there is so much commonality in what Bible colleges and seminaries do. I would say that our faculty is strongly committed to scholarship in service of the church—we refuse to drive a wedge between theory and practice. We are also strongly committed to the equipping of pastors who will preach the Word with accuracy, clarity and relevance, as seen in our brand new Graduate Certificate in Biblical Preaching. Our college has a highly regarded program in music and worship studies leading to both certificates and a Bachelor of Church Music degree.

9) Please tell us about the library and other research facilities.

We have a fully functional library with access to both print and online resources, and students have access to several other theological libraries within an hour’s drive of our campus.

10) Does Heritage College & Seminary offer a distance or on-line learning option. If yes, please tell us more about it.

Yes, we have some distance learning options available. Our college provides several courses with lectures on DVD, and online courses are in preparation. The seminary provides several courses each year in a multi-modal (hybrid) format that combines two days on campus during the term with online experience (including audio lectures) during most weeks. By using audio recordings of class days, several of these are available to be done fully online. We recognize that we must continue to find creative ways to educate students at a distance.

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My thanks to Dr Fowler for taking part in this series. The Baptist Review of Theology, a journal formerly published by Heritage College & Seminary is available on-line here.

Alan R. Millard on the Historical Accuracy of Daniel

Alan R. Millard on the Historical Accuracy of Daniel 2
Alan R. Millard on the Historical Accuracy of Daniel 3

In 2012 Crossway published an impressive collection of 21 essays defending the historical reliability of the Bible under the title Do Historical Matters Matter to Faith? The publishers have kindly granted permission for Theology on the Web to host Alan Millard’s contribution to that volume, dealing with the accuracy of Daniel’s account of Babylon:

Alan R. Millard, “Daniel in Babylon: An Accurate Record?” James K. Hoffmeier & Dennis R. Magary, eds. Do Historical Matters Matter to Faith? A Critical Appraisal of Modern and Postmodern Approaches to Scripture. Crossway, 2012. Pbk. ISBN-13: 978-1433525711. pp.263-280.

You can download a copy in PDF here.

Thomas McCall’s essay on religious epistomology (Chapter 1) is also available here.

Public Domain articles from Journal of Theological Studies os Vols 1-20 now on-line

Public Domain articles from Journal of Theological Studies os Vols 1-20 now on-line 4
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Journal of Theological Studies (old series) – kindly donated for digitisation

If you use archive.org you will find that the early volumes of the old series of Journal of Theological Studies are available there. Unfortunately, many of the articles are still in copyright because the term runs for 70 years after the death of the author (under UK copyright law). This means that in order to make the material available legally it is necessary to find the date of decease for each author. In 2014, if the author died before the 1st January 1944 then the article is in the public domain. If the material is anonymous, then the term runs 70 years from date of publication.

So, after a fair amount of research and the kind donation of a full set of JTS old series I have now completed scanning and uploading all the Public Domain material I can identify from volumes 1-20. It is possible that more will be available in due course as I continue tracking down the dates of decease of more of the authors and, of course, each year more will enter the public domain anyway. You can now access the table of contents here.

{Disclaimer: I am not a copyright lawyer, so you must check the copyright law for yourself and don’t rely on anything I say about it.}