Benjamin B. Warfield's essay, "The Religious Life of Theological Students," is a must-read for men desiring to pursue any form of theological study, whether formal or informal. The Master's Seminary made it available online as one of "the time-honored articles from past generations of theologians and scholars." Warfield's objective is to show that a minister must be both learned and religious. There is no dichotomy between a minister's intellectual and spiritual life. Here are some lessons I learned, with relevant quotations from the essay.
Knowledge and Godliness are both indispensable for Theological students
- "...the man without learning, no matter with what other gifts he may be endowed, is unfit for its duties. But learning, though indispensable, is not the most indispensable thing for a minister... A minister must be learned, on pain of being utterly incompetent for his work. But before and above being learned, a minister must be godly." p. 182
Every vocation must be done for the glory of God and that includes theological studies
- "...as students of theology your vocation is to study theology; and to study it diligently, in accordance with the apostolic injunction: "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord." It is precisely for this that you are students of theology; this is your "next duty," and the neglect of duty is not a fruitful religious exercise." p. 184
- 'Dr. Charles Hodge, in his delightful auto-biographical notes, tells of Philip Lindsay, the most popular professor in the Princeton College of his day—a man sought by nearly every college in the Central States for its presidency—that "he told our class that we would find that one of the best preparations for death was a thorough knowledge of the Greek grammar." "This," comments Dr. Hodge, in his quaint fashion, "was his way of telling us that we ought to do our duty."' p. 184
- "There is certainly something wrong with the religious life of a theological student who does not study. But it does not quite follow that therefore everything is right with his religious life if he does study. It is possible to study—even to study theology—in an entirely secular spirit... A truly religious man will study anything which it becomes his duty to study with "devotion" in both of these senses. That is what his religion does for him: it makes him do his duty, do it thoroughly, do it "in the Lord."" p. 185
- "...theology has as its unique end to make God known: the student of theology is brought by his daily task into the presence of God, and is kept there." p. 185
Study with all your spiritual life
- "...it is surely not all right with the spiritual condition of that man who can busy himself daily with divine things, with a cold and impassive heart... This is the great rule for a rich and wholesome religious life in a theological student. Put your heart into your studies; do not merely occupy your mind with them, but put your heart into them. They bring you daily and hourly into the very presence of God..." — B.B. Warfield, The Religious Life of Theological Students from The Master's Seminary Journal 6/2 (Fall 1995). p. 186
- "...the great danger of the theological student lies precisely in his constant contact with divine things... But it is your great danger, only because it is your great privilege. Think of what your privilege is when your greatest danger is that the great things of religion may become common to you!" p. 186-7
- "Do you know what this danger is? Or, rather, let us turn the question—are you alive to what your privileges are? Are you making full use of them? Are you, by this constant contact with divine things, growing in holiness, becoming every day more and more men of God? If not, you are hardening! And I am here today to warn you to take seriously your theological study, not merely as a duty, done for God's sake and therefore made divine, but as a religious exercise, itself charged with religious blessing to you; as fitted by its very nature to fill all your mind and heart and soul and life with divine thoughts and feelings and aspirations and achievements." p. 187
In your study, do not miss worshipping with your church
- "No man can withdraw himself from the stated religious services of the community of which he is a member, without serious injury to his personal religious life." p. 187-188
- "...you will draw out from the organic religious life of the institution a support and inspiration for your own personal religious life which you can get nowhere else, and which you cannot afford to miss—if, that is, you have a care to your religious quickening and growth. To be an active member of a living religious body is the condition of healthy religious functioning." p. 189
- "If there is no fire in the pulpit it falls to you to kindle it in the pews. No man can fail to meet with God in the sanctuary if he takes God there with him." p. 190
- "...the holiest personal life can scarcely afford to dispense with stated forms of devotion, and that the regular public worship of the church, for all its local imperfections and dullness, is a divine provision for sustaining the individual soul." — Sir William Robertson Nicoll, p. 191
In your study, be a serious man of God
- "...you must find daily nourishment for your religious life in your theological studies, you must enter fully into the organic religious life of the community of which you form a part. But to do all this you must keep the fires of religious life burning brightly in your heart; in the inmost core of your being, you must be men of God." p. 191-2
- "Keep always before your mind the greatness of your calling, that is to say, these two things: the immensity of the task before you, the infinitude of the resources at your disposal." p. 192
- "There is no mistake more terrible than to suppose that activity in Christian work can take the place of depth of Christian affections." p. 193
- "I am sure that if you once get a true glimpse of what the ministry of the cross is, for which you are preparing, and of what you, as men preparing for this ministry, should be, you will pray, Lord, who is sufficient for these things, your heart will cry; and your whole soul will be wrung with the petition: Lord, make me sufficient for these things." p. 194
May these inflame you not only to read the essay but to pursue lifelong theological study at the feet of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, by the Spirit, to the glory of our Heavenly Father.
Reference: Benjamin B. Warfield, "The Religious Life of Theological Students," The Master's Seminary Journal 6/2 (Fall 1995): 181–95. https://tms.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/tmsj6g.pdf