wfn.org | Intellectual Christians needed, says former scholarship

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Dec. 10, 1998	Contact: Linda Green((615)742-5470(Nashville, Tenn.
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By United Methodist News Service

At a recent event marking the 44th year of the Dempster Graduate
Fellowship program, scholars were challenged to become Christian
intellectuals for both the church and society.  

"The church greatly needs intellectual leadership," said the Rev. Thomas
A. Langford, retired provost of Duke University who received a Dempster
scholarship in 1955-56.  "Such leadership will not always be welcome or
given prominence, but the best service some can offer is to insist on
critical astuteness in investigating the faith by which we live," he
said. 

Past and present recipients were honored at the Nov. 21 banquet held in
conjunction with the American Academy of Religion and the Society for
Biblical Literature meeting in Orlando, Fla. 
	
"The love of truth is more significant than the possession of truth,"
Langford said.  "A true intellectual is simply a lover of truth, and one
whose love is enhanced by sharing the search."
	
Since 1954,  Dempster Graduate Fellowships have helped graduate students
move toward careers in theological education.  Many have become seminary
and university presidents, professors, and pastors.
	
"These recipients represent the best of United Methodist intellectual
thought and scholarship," said the Rev. John E. Harnish, a staff
executive at the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and
Ministry. The Division of Ordained Ministry administers the awards, and
funds are made available through the Ministerial Education Fund.
	
Among the 59 scholars attending the event were Ray L. Hart, one of the
first Dempster scholars, as well as five of the 1998 Dempster
scholarship recipients.
	
Sunja Choi-Chong, one of the 1998-99 recipients and a Ph.D. candidate
at Chicago Theological Seminary  said the  Dempster scholarship had
opened her eyes to her work and future roles in the public sphere.  "The
Dempster scholarship reassured me of my callings and responsibilities
that I felt when I first made the decision to study theology," she said.
	
A directory of all Dempster fellows was developed for the November
banquet. A second banquet is planned for Nov. 20, 1999, in Boston. A
collection of dissertations from Dempster fellows will be on permanent
display at Scarritt-Bennett Center's Laskey Library,  Nashville, Tenn.
	
The awards are named for John Dempster, a 19th century Methodist
preacher who helped found three seminaries related to the denomination.
The fellowships are "a significant commitment to future United Methodist
biblical and theological scholarship,"  Harnish said. There have been
190 recipients of the fellowships since 1954.
	
# # #
Note: Information for this release was provided by Kathy Gilbert, a
staff member in the Office of Interpretation at the United Methodist
Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
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