Levicoff's List of Legitimate Unaccredited Christian Programs

In chapter ten of Name If Frame It, Steve lists a number of schools which he calls legitimate, stating "I feel comfortable in recommending them based on program design, faculty qualifications, and other factors that preclude them from being classified as degree mills." The schools listed are:

IN THE US:
Bob Jones University
Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary
Calvary Theological Seminary
Faith Seminary
Florida Baptist College
Independent Baptist College
Institute of Biblical Studies
Landmark Baptist College
Luther Rice Seminary
Messenger College
Midwestern Baptist College
Northwest Graduate School of Ministry
Seminary of the East
Southeastern Free Will Baptist College
World Evangelism Bible College

IN CANADA:
Briercrest Bible College
Catherine Booth Bible College
Faith Way Baptist Bible College of Canada
Institute for Theological Studies
Northwest Baptist Theological College
Ontario Bible College
Prairie Bible College and Graduate School
Regent College
Toronto Baptist Seminary


Almost ten years since NIFI was first published, I was curious as to whether Steve would still recommend the schools in this list. Could the list be expanded? Would the number of schools decrease if NIFI was published today?

Bring us up to date, Steve.

 

Of course, many of these institutions are now accredited. Granted, many of them are accredited with TRACS, so that doesn't change their status a great deal in Steve's mind. However, most of the Canadian institutions listed are now accredited by either AABC or ATS, and several are highly regarded.

Cory Seibel

 

With few exceptions, I would not recommend them at the same level as I would recommend regionally accredited schools. In a few cases, I would not recommend them today, period.

There are a few schools that would have joined the list had I written it today. If they had offered distance programs, for example, Norm Geisler's and D. James Kennedy's schools (Southern and Knox, respectively) would have easily made the list when they were founded - they had both solid financial backing (assuring they would be around tomorrow) and recognized scholars associated with their programs.

In some cases (such as BJU), the school's have maintained their credibility and financial solvency. However, I am much more careful today about covering the limits of their degrees. I have met BJU nursing graduates, for example, who find it hard to become licensed in other states due to the lack of both regional and NLN accreditation in BJU's nursing program. (BJU has always been a cautious recommendation. While the quality of their programs is unquestioned, I have always been opposed to the racial policies of the school.) In other words, I have become more concerned about people taking my recommendations of the few "unaccredited but legitimate" schools I profiled for granted, without them having done sufficient research to ensure that a degree from one of those schools would not hinder them down the road.

I would note, for the record, that accreditaton by TRACS has never been a major criteria in my mind. There are still enough questions that remain about TRACS that, despite their subsequent approval by CHEA, lead me to keep them in low esteem. In other words, for example, I thought highly of Northwest Graduate School (within the context of D.Min. programs) before they received TRACS' full accreditation, yet I still consider ACCS to be mickey-mouse despite their full accreditation by TRACS.

Past that point, I would not be able to comment on the entire list of schools that Russell provided. Remember, having decided not to do any further revisions or updates of NIFI, I have largely chosen to remove myself from this field. Therefore, I am unaware of the status of several of these schools, and do not know whether I would recommend them at this point or not. Some may have improved their quality, some may have stayed the same, and some may have gone down the tubes. I leave those evaluations to today's activists, having cancelled myself due to lack of interest.

 

Re: Re: Levicoff's List of Legitimate Unaccredited Christian Programs

That is certainly one of the problems with even high quality programs like BJU. Fair or not there are hurdles that are in some cases difficult to overcome. Where I work, someone with an unaccredited degree would never be employed if the degree was needed for the position. It would not matter that BJU was of high academic quality.

North

 

Re: Re: Levicoff's List of Legitimate Unaccredited Christian Programs

 

Talk phonetically--how else?

 

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Sorry, should have used the adverb "telephonically."

 

Re: Re: Re: Levicoff's List of Legitimate Unaccredited Christian Programs

Hey Bill,

Couple of things.

The 9 credit hour Applied Research Project seems quite similar to PhD dissertation requirements that I have seen in terms of what is expected (Chapter structure, etc) with the additional requirement of moving beyond the theoretical to the practical. I believe this si a revised format. Should be interesting.

Doctor of Ministry may well (I agree with you) bring to mind 'ministry' but it shouldn't really. When someone says PhD or Doctor of Philosophy we do not assume that their doctorate is in Philosophy. You doctorate (DMin) is in Biblical Studies and mine is in Christian Counseling.

Lastly, with regard to coursework. One of the things I noticed with some programs I checked out was that they were a rehash of Masters level work. University of Sarasota (Ed in Counseling) and others rehashed Masters level work. I think many DL doctoral programs sometimes assume a level 'PhD' that in terms of structure may be accurate but not necessarily in a classical sense of building on undergraduate--building on Masters level. This is where advocates of the research doctorate see an advantage in their approach.

My own feeling (just opinion) is that you will have a DMin in Biblical Studies that is the equivalent of many other DL doctorates (PhD's/EdD's in different subjects) in terms of level of work required etc. Is your DMin in Biblical Studies a ThD from Dallas Theological Seminary...........no. But I somehow expect that a Capella PhD or Touro 40 credit hour PhD are not the equivalent of U of Michigan or U of Texas PhD. They are all accredited doctorates but the level of challenge and prestige may be different.

North

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Levicoff's List of Legitimate Unaccredited Christian Programs

 

Much learning will have then made you mad, huh?

 

No, it's like it says in the Athanasian Creed "the whole thing incomprehensible".
Seriously, North & Bill, the school's legit, they're letting you guys do what you want--that should be good enough for any reasonable person, and don't mind the rest!

 

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Yep! Russell's reference has its context in Paul's defense before Agrippa -Acts 26:24. Paul was going on about such as his blinding vision and repentance and Christ's resurrection, and fulfilled prophecy and the Gospel as a light to all nations and so forth. Whereupon the Roman official , Festus, interjected, "Paul, you are out of your mind, your great learning is driving you mad."(NAS). I am not as the blessed Paul in most every other way.

But I must be mad. Why else would I now labor at my desk, before Russell distracted me, over the issue of whether in Christ there are two personalities: divine and human. Did the Logos (John 1:14) join with a body (as Athanasius repeatedly says in The Incarnation) and as that flip-flopper Cyril seems to have held or are the Antiochians right that the Logos joined with a complete man? Isn't this "madness" for me to do this?

The dishwasher pours its water on the floor, my 74 Blazer's engine is in pieces on the porch, I need to prepare my school lessons for tomorrow, I should walk with Tonka my dane, but instead I soon will be irresistably (that for Russell) pulled back to my desk to resume wrestling with the issue of what got weary at
Jacob's well , and what died on the cross, and what does 'hypostatic union' really mean, and is Chalcedon cracked or am I?

 

Beel, Beel: Nobody believes Athanasius wrote the Quicunque vult; something being called Lutheran or Wesleyan isn't necessarily by Luther or Wesley.

 

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Sure, but something is called Wesleyan if it agrees with the particular distinctives taught by Wesley. Yet 'The Incarnation' written by Athanasius is anhypostatic wherein the Logos moves the body around * , but the Creed reads "Perfectus homo, ex anima rationali et humana carne subsistens."+ The creed in its incarnational definition much resembles Chalcedon. So, why should it be called Athanasius' Creed as it convey's not the Athanasian Christology of Logos-Sarx as opposed to the Logos-Anthropos view of Chalcedon? See: I am 'mad'!

* Christ's human part was "a body", 18
*The Logos was in union with " a body", 20
*the "body" was used as an instrument of the Logos, 43
*the Word of God took a "body."
*the Logos did divine deeds through the "body.",49,54

Why else would Apollinarius and Athanasius be good buds?

Just curious about creeds and Christ don't mean to be prideful and elbow out the real meaning of what Christianity is (ie, feeling close to a god)!

+had some help with the Latin. Church I guess never accepted tjhe Greek version.

 

Okay, guys, speaking as the only dude in this thread with a Ph.D. (regionally accredited or otherwise) - in religion, no less - this is the kind of horse manure that bores the shit out of me. This is a distance education board, not a theological board. And this kind of crap is booooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrring!

Remember the old riff, "If you've got it, you don't have to flaunt it?" Well, I'm delight to see who hasn't got it.

End of rant.

 

It's mostly my fault, sorry. A PhD in religion..and the discussion of religion bores you?...ah well!

 

(Die drei Studenten von Krakau) Euere Magnifizenz, Verzeihung!



--Ferruccio Busoni

 

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This thread requires the hermeneia glosson.

"How can one say 'amen' since he does not know what you are saying?" 1 Cor 14:16.

Steve, that Pauline remark certainly has to do with (distance) education