Michael Pahl’s Statement Concerning His Dismissal From Talibanville, Oops I Mean Cedarville

Dr. Michael Pahl has been relieved of his teaching duties because he is unable to concur fully with each and every position of Cedarville University’s doctrinal statement. This decision was made following a review by the University administration and trustees prompted by Dr. Pahl’s recent book, The Beginning and the End: Rereading Genesis’s Stories and Revelation’s Visions.

Dr. Pahl’s orthodoxy and commitment to the gospel are not in question, nor is his commitment to Scripture’s inspiration, authority and infallibility. He is a promising scholar and a dedicated teacher, and will be missed by his colleagues and students. Nevertheless, the University has determined this decision to be in the best interests of its constituency at this time.

On a completely unrelated note, there’s this guy I know who is looking for a job:

A promising scholar and dedicated teacher, thoroughly orthodox in his Christian faith, fully committed to Scripture and the gospel, is looking for an academic position in New Testament studies and/or biblical theology.

Joking aside, I really am looking for such an academic position for fall 2013. If you are on a university or seminary search committee looking to fill a position in New Testament or Christian origins or biblical theology, chances are my c.v. has crossed your desk already, or it will in the near future. In the meantime, please check out my website and my curriculum vitae to find out more about me, and by all means feel free to contact me. I’d love to hear from you!

I hope those in a position to offer him at least an interview will do so.  Do so, and you won’t regret it.

Cedarville’s Absurd and Un-Christian Action Against Michael Pahl

Less than a year after Cedarville University hired theologian Michael Pahl, administrators relieved the associate professor of his teaching duties.

The issue at stake? A historical Adam and Eve, a debate that dates back to Augustine and has recently cropped up at evangelical schools such as Calvin College and Reformed Theological Seminary. But what appears new in Cedarville’s situation is the trustees’ requirement that faculty hold particular beliefs for particular reasons.

Pahl affirms the Ohio school’s doctrinal statement (recently augmented by trustees via theological white papers) regarding human origins, but his beliefs are based on a literary reading of Genesis 1 and 2.

“I hold to a historical Adam and Eve, though not on exegetical grounds,” Pahl wrote in his defense to trustees, which CT obtained. “My reasons are more theological in nature …. [T]he doctrinal statement does not mandate specific exegesis of specific biblical passages.”

Yet Cedarville administrators concluded that the theologian “is unable to concur fully with each and every position” of its doctrinal stance, according to an official statement they released with Pahl.

Micahel Pahl is one of the most conservative (without being a Fundamentalist) scholars I know either in person or by reputation. I’ve admired his work for a good while now and even, though he may dislike it, count him a friend.

There’s something seriously amiss with ‘academic institutions’ which are so rigid and so unbending and so willing to cater to an anti-intellectual clientele that they forsake the practice of Christian love and the acceptance of views which aren’t all that different than their own.

Do you know what these schools and their leaders are like? They are like the Taliban- requiring unquestioning obedience to a particular view.

This is WRONG. For shame, Cedarville, for shame.  Or rather, and more accurately, shame on you Talibanville University.

Pahl on Epehsians 6:10ff

This is the sort of thing Pahl writes and it’s the reason I’m glad he’s back to blogging after an all too long absence.

Remember Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness? That was an eye-opening book for me. Reading it was an apocalyptic event, pulling away the veil that separates this-world from the otherworld. For months afterward I saw demons in every dark corner and angels behind every inward nudge to pray. I walked around like a Perettian Green Beret, waging “spiritual warfare” by binding demons, tearing down strongholds, and calling on the forces of light to conquer the evil forces in the spiritual realm all around me.

I don’t think that way anymore.

Click on over and see why.  Welcome back, M.P.