40+ Years of Teaching–When the Teacher is the Learner

Last updated on: October 17, 2024 at 1:12 am by Ben Witherington

40+ Years of Teaching–When the Teacher is the Learner 2024-10-11T08:10:35-04:00 Ben Witherington

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What a long strange trip it has been (and still is), to quote the Grateful Dead. My career as a teacher began B.C.– before cellphone, and even before personal computer. My poor wife had to type my doctoral dissertation (twice) on our IBM Selectric 3 typewriter, using a Hebrew ball, and a Greek ball, and a symbol ball etc. Many years later when we were living in Ashland Ohio, our daughter who was in grade school, and had begun to learn how to use computers, was studying that typewriter and trying to figure out what it was and what it did. She said ‘Daddy, its a keyboard with a printer attached’. I said ‘you’re right honey, they’ve now separated these two things so they can charge you for the printer separately. My journey took me from teaching part time in my hometown at High Point College (now a major university thanks to the visionary leadership of my former youth ministers Nido!) while pastoring 4 rural Methodist Churches. I taught Jesus and his Gospels, and Paul and his Letters. And I quickly learned undergrads need more grace, and shouldn’t be graded like grad students. Only a year after that I took a couple of courses at Duke Divinity school and was asked to teach Wesley studies to local pastors for two summers. And then I was called to pastor a larger city church in the mountains– East Flat Rock UMC in Hendersonville. This was a year with no teaching other than in the church itself. And it was during that year that I got a phone call from the president of Ashland Seminary, which I had never heard of.; I asked when he called— is this Ashland Kentucky– NO, Ashland Oregon then— NO, Ashland Alabama, NO. It was a small town in the middle of Ohio— Ashland Ohio, and we spent 11 years in Ashland Ohio, where our two kids grew up. During that time I adjuncted at alma mater, Gordon Conwell, and interviewed there, and turneed down that job. In the early 90s I also interviewed at Wesley Theological Seminary in D.C. and was one of 2 finalists, and didn’t make the final cut. The Dean at the school called me to tell me that while my publications and presentations were better than the other candidate, they needed to make an affirmative action hiring. And they did. Finally, I got a call from Maxie Dunnam then President at Asbury Seminary. He told me I needed to get myself down to Asbury where there were many more Methodists to train. The advice I had gotten from my conference was ‘don’t take the job, as you’ll never get a job at a mainline school thereafter. They are too conservative.’ The irony of this advice became almost immediately apparent. I was due a sabbatical from Ashland, which Asbury honored in the Spring of 1996, when I went to Cambridge as a Robinson College Fellow, by that University’s invitation. Not long after I left for the U.K., the phone rang in my Asbury office. It was the Dean at Yale asking if I would please apply for their NT opening. Since I had no cell phone, and since the messages on my office phone were not relayed to me, I did not find out about this call until I got home in May. By then, someone else had been hired at Yale, since I never responded to the call. But it just showed that the proverbial wisdom of my conference advisors was all wrong– if God wanted me somewhere, he could open the door. And so it was that I began teaching in 1995 at Asbury and now have been there going on 30 years. During that time I also taught a bit at Vanderbilt Divinity School, teaching Revelation. When I set out on my full time teaching career I taught OT, NT, and Wesley Studies on 4 campus, including in Columbus, Cleveland and Detroit, fulfilling the role of a Methodist circuit rider. When I came to Asbury I was asked ‘which part of the NT would you like to teach, and I just laughed. ‘Yes the NT, I said.

I would be remiss if I did not say that I have learned much from my own students along the way, and have tried to treat them with care and respect. I’ve especially loved having very bright Biblical Studies doctoral students the last dozen or so years. From them I’ve learned a good deal. But I wanted to be sure to say that for me at least, one of the keys to being a good teacher is to continue to research and write, which is to say to continue to learn, and not just repeat the same material over and over, even though I’m teaching the same courses multiple times over the years. As a teacher one needs to convey one’s enthusiasm for the subject matter, and what better subject to enthuse about than the greatest book of all time— the Bible. My grandfather, James Arthur West, a deacon and a Sunday school teacher for many decades said this about the Bible–

“The book called the Bible contains the mind of God, the state of humankind, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. it’s doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It’s the traveler’s map, the pilgrim’s staff, the pilot’s compass, the soldier’s sword and the Christian’s charter. Here paradise is restored, heaven is opened, and the gates of Hell disclosed. Christ is the grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure. It is given to you in this life, will be opened at the judgment, and be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, rewards the greatest labor, and condemns all who trifle with its holy contents. This friend will all our needs supply. This fount sends forth streams of joy. This good Physician gives us health. This sun renews and warms the soul. This sword both wounds and heals and makes us whole. This book shows us our sins forgiven. This guide conducts us safely to heaven. This charter has been sealed with blood. This volume is the Word of God. Follow it!”

Amen to all that. While studying the Bible has sometimes exhausted me, I have never been able to exhaust it. It’s blessings are new every day. In short how you view the Bible will determine at least in part what you will get out of it, and whether it will provide you with resources daily to learn and teach with.

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