Dr. Jerald F. Dirks received his Bachelor of Arts (philosophy) from Harvard College in 1971, his Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School in 1974, his Master of Arts (clinical child psychology) from the University of Denver in 1976, his Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) degree in clinical psychology from the University of Denver in 1978, and his sessions program certificate in Islamic studies from Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in 1998. In 1969, he obtained his License to Preach from the United Methodist Church, and he was ordained into the Christian ministry (deaconate) by the United Methodist Church in 1972. He converted to Islam in 1993 and completed the Umrah and Hajj in 1999. jeralddirksanddebradirks/#!bio-info-on-jerry ============================================================ Eddy: Dr. Dirks, what led you to leave the Pulpit? Dr. Dirks: When people ask me, I usually say there is a long story and short story. The short story is a good seminary education. The long story takes a little bit longer, but basically it’s one of the ironies of life. That the churches often take the most promising of their young ministers and they send them to really good seminaries. And in those really good seminaries, such as the one I was fortunate to attend, you are systematically exposed to the oldest existing texts of how the Bible once read. You are exposed to the changes that were made in those texts; when those changes took place; why those changes took place; where those changes took place. So once you receive that knowledge (of those changes); and those changes, by the way, raise serious, serious questions about such fundamental Christian doctrines like the trinity, the ‘Son-ship of Jesus Christ (pbuh)’, the crucifixion event, and the doctrine of atonement and the blood, all of these (fundament Christian doctrines) come into serious question when you look at the oldest manuscripts that we have of what the Bible once said. So that was one consideration. The other consideration is that you are given a very good grounding in the history of the early church. Eddy: Now, this is seminary school? Dr. Dirks: Yes. Eddy: When does seminary school come? Is that after Harvard? Dr. Dirks: First you do the undergraduate. I did four years undergraduate at Harvard and received my BA. Then entered Harvard Divinity School, which is a seminary. And that’s a three-year course of study leading to a Master’s in Divinity. Eddy: Ok. Gotcha. Dr. Dirks: The second thing you are exposed to is the actual history of the early Christian church. In terms of that, you are exposed to the decidedly geopolitical machinations (conspiracies/plotting/planning) that really went into defining some of the fundamental doctrines and dogmas of Christianity. And notice I said geopolitical machinations not theological considerations, not religious considerations, but political considerations that went in. You are also exposed to the tremendous breadth of knowledge, the tremendous breadth of opinion that existed within early Christianity. You know, it was not monolithic (uniform/solid). Eddy: Is this like the Christian fiqh (science or philosophy of law)? Dr. Dirks: Well, suffice it to say that there were many different branches to early Christianity. The branch that survived, basically, into modern times is Pauline Christianity. This is the Christianity that developed out of the teachings of Paul, or Saul of Taursus. Eddy: This is what is mainstream today? Dr. Dirks: Yes, Basically. But there were many other branches to early Christianity some of which survived for centuries before they eventually died out. And one of the fundamental distinctions that we can make is between Pauline Christianity, which was the Christianity that Paul took to the gentiles and the non-Jews, principally in Europe but also to a certain extent in Asia-minor, and we can contrast that with was is called the Jerusalem Church. This was the actual Disciples of Jesus and how they practiced and what they believed. There were decided differences between these two groups. But over time, because of geopolitical considerations, the different branches of Christianity were sort of systematically eliminated one by one. And when that was done, unfortunately, that was done often at the expense of destroying books that were once considered scripture by some of the branches of Christianity. So a lot of knowledge was lost in the destruction of these books. But these were the two fundamental reasons why I left the Christian ministry. It really boiled down to an issue of personal integrity (honesty/truthfulness/uprightness). You know, how could I stand behind the pulpit on Sunday morning and preach a sermon that I knew was at variance (change/disagreement/discrepancy) with the actual taproot (main root) of Christianity? Of course if I stood behind the pulpit on Sunday morning and preached what I had been taught in seminary I would be looking for a new job within a week. So this conflict existed. And as a result, to preserve my personal integrity, I left the act of ministry and pursued graduate school in clinical psychology. And by the way, approximately half of my graduating class from Harvard Divinity School walked away from the Parish Ministry upon graduation. So I wasn’t the only one. Eddy: Is this kind of like – have you heard of Bart Ehrman (biblical scholar and author of “Misquoting Jesus”)? Dr. Dirks: Yes. Eddy: The kind of people also who have gotten engrossed and really started to go deeper into studying the original texts and many of them come to the conclusion that you have; that a lot of this is not making sense. It doesn’t fit. Dr. Dirks: Sure. And the biblical scholar you mentioned (Bart Ehrman) is a good example of that. But there are many others as well. Eddy: Can you name a few that some people who are out there that are academics might recognize? Dr. Dirks: Well, Bart Ehrman is certainly one. But it is really almost any good biblical scholar knows. All you have to do is just pick up a good Bible commentary, such as the interpreter’s Bible Commentary, and begin reading it. You will be exposed in the process to ‘Wait a minute, this text originally read this way. And this was inserted into the text around 380AD in Spain’. This sort of information is there. It’s available to the public. But they have to really go out and study to find it. Eddy: That’s the thing. How many actually want to take the time to investigate instead of just blindly going along with whatever everyone else is going along with? Dr. Dirks: Yes. And it does take a great deal of time to try and do it on your own. https://youtube/watch?v=MO3ZCBO-Q98
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 18:39:58 +0000
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