HISTORICAL ANGLE

Apparently, my dissertation will require a chapter focused on my topic's historical angle. And each chapter should be 25 to 35 pages in length. 

To be frank, this prospect is not super exciting to me.

I am not even sure how much information will be available on the only historical aspect I really want to explore.

Since my project involves the teaching skills a pastor should have, I am somewhat interested in knowing how early in church history any sort of official training of church leadership began. When were the first seminaries established? What was done to train leaders before the advent of seminaries? 

I just did a little googling and - if the internet can be trusted - the first seminary didn't come about until the Reformation era, specifically in 1563. Before that, education of leaders took place in the local church, and especially in the larger cathedrals.

I'm not exactly sure where to start looking for information on what was happening in the early centuries of the church, before there were such things as cathedrals, but we shall see. 

ANOTHER MISSING CLASS

Here's another class that I think should be required for every seminary student: Basic Psychology and Behavioral Science. 

I think a lot of burn out, stress, and conflict in the life of a pastor could be stopped in its tracks by familiarity with the realities of:

• Confirmation Bias
• Cognitive Dissonance
• Framing
• Habit Formation
• Logical Fallacies
• Reciprocation
• Social Proof
• The Dunning-Krueger Effect
• Etc.

The class would be an easy sell because this stuff is flat-out fascinating.

Plus, it could all be incredibly useful for the "marketing" aspect of church life. 

There would be plenty of real-world case studies to look at and it would be fun to find examples of all the various human quirks of thought and emotion in the Scriptures. 

Once you are familiar with the concepts, you see them illustrated left and right throughout the Bible.