Theological Seminaries in South Africa

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by TomICAVols, Oct 5, 2005.

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  1. TomICAVols

    TomICAVols New Member

    I have read and heard that there are many seminaries/universities in South Africa that offer affordable and flexible distance Masters and Doctoral degrees in theological disciplines (some with no residencies). I'd love to do this once I finish my M.B.A. (my wife threatened to kill me if I tried to do both at the same time).

    Anyone have any information or experiences regarding these?
     
  2. cdhale

    cdhale Member

    I am currently enrolled with South African Theological Seminary (SATS), though I will soon drop my enrollment due to personal issues.

    I found them to be very helpful and knowledgeable. My advisor was quick to answer emails and make suggestions. I would recommend them absolutely.

    The price is hard to beat, as well.

    My program was the MTh.

    Since I had quite a few grad hours in the US in religion, I was given advanced placement and was only required to complete the Masters Dissertation.

    I was also considering the University of Free State, but SATS just came through quicker with answers, etc.

    Your theological leanings might make a difference on where you would want to study, as well.

    clint
     
  3. telefax

    telefax Member

  4. Bill Grover

    Bill Grover New Member

    I graduated this May from one.
     
  5. DesElms

    DesElms New Member

    Bill, it's just so good to see you up and posting so soon after your surgery! Your recovery seems to be speeding along. What a joy!

    Anyway... back to the subject...

    I'm becoming increasingly impressed with the already-mentioned-here SATS. As an aside, I just had a very interesting little encounter with them wherein I sent them a series of kinda' tough questions, and they responded immediately, as is their reputation. But somehow I didn't get the response. A couple weeks later I sent a second request and didn't get that, either. So a day or two ago I contacted a SATS higher-up and suddenly they were falling all over themselves to make sure I was properly responded to. They sent me copies of the original response showing that it had, indeed, been sent to me back when I first inquired... and said response was annotated by the principal himself... who also expressed concern over my feeling that I had not been responded to. Upon researching the email server logs on my end, I have a tenuous theory as to how the message receipt problem could have been on my end, though I'm unable to prove it one way or the other. I thought my spam filter was too tight, but I now think it might be something else and, if so, then it's certainly not SATS's fault. Given their most recent responses, I'm completely convinced that the original response really was prompt and that the screw-up was somehow on my end. And said original response just couldn't have been better. Thorough, thoughtful, helpful. I'm tellin' ya', I love these guys!

    If there's any possibility that SATS might interest you, we talked about it a lot in a thread a while back... er... well... actually, it's been talked about in several threads around here over time. But in the thread to which I'm about to refer you, I did a little research into SATS and its background (very little, I should add... very cursory) and was quite impressed. In that thread, also, some very nice things about SATS were written by someone whose opinion I greatly respect around here; and whose high opinion of SATS, therefore, really impressed me. Click here to see said thread.

    Also, if your question is about South African Christian Education, just generally, there's another link I have bookmarked from which you may or may not glean anything useful. Click here for that.

    I dunno if that helps, but it is what it is.
     
  6. Bill Grover

    Bill Grover New Member

    Thanks Gregg.

    I also much value the friendliness and helpfulness of Reuben and other good SATS folks. While personally I found, upon examination, the BTh and MTh curricula in Systematic Theology to be very weak in Bibliology and The Doctrine of God, and discussed those same judgments with Reuben, it must be remembered that I am very narrow minded on some matters that to me matter much.

    As a Pentecostal prof , in a faculty planning meeting , when I suggested that, " if Pneumatology is given two whole quarters of study, then Bibliology deserves at least one, " countered, "What do you expect from Bill, he's a Baptist":D
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 5, 2005
  7. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    Yeah, and teaching at a semi-Lutheran seminary. Uff da!

    All the good stuff about SATS is true.
     
  8. cdhale

    cdhale Member

    Yes it is good to see you Bill. Glad that you have been blessed. I pray your recovery continues to go well.

    Also, thanks Gregg, for adding the link to SATS. It just slipped my mind to do that earlier.

    clint
     

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