All for the glory of God

October 18, 9:44 PMRichmond Evangelical ExaminerJames Leasure

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Russ Murray, Nearly a PhD!
Photo by Russ Murray

Have you ever considered going to school for a Christian education?  How long would you like to attend?  How hard would you be willing to work?  Only a hand full out of hundreds of people will actually go to school for half of their lives.  Some will need to in order to accomplish all they have set out for in preparation for the rest of their life's work.  Russ Murray is one of them.

Russ Murray, a citizen of British Columbia, Canada has been in pursuit of the ideal packaged Christian education.  He has some very ambitious goals, and he realized long ago he would need the tools to accommodate him.  Russ wants to teach The Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he is not going to settle for anything less than being an authority in his field of study.  Just look at his credentials!
 

• Russ is a PhD. Dissertation candidate of Theology and Philosophy of Religion, University of Wales,  Lampeter United Kingdom.  He says he will probably wrap that up in the next week or two and have his grades by Christmas.

• He has a Master of Philosophy from University of Wales, Bangor  United Kingdom.

• Russ has a Master of Theological Studies from the Canadian Baptist Seminary at Trinity Western University, Langley, British Columbia Canada.

• His BA is in Biblical Studies, Columbia Bible College, Abbotsford British Columbia, Canada.

In Russ' spare time (which he says he really does not think he has) he writes in two successful blogs.  One of the Blogs is entitled Satire and Theology.  Russ says this blog reflects his personal views.  The second blog is Kingpin68.  King Pin 68 features Philosophical Theology, Reformed Theology and Philosophy of Religion.  Russ is also a student of martial arts.  And, as most of us do, he likes to socialize and enjoy the normal affections of life.  How all of this is managed is day-to-day for Russ.  And, of course, there are unexpected emergencies and occurrences which will demand Russ' time.

Question:
How long have you been a student?

Answer: (Not including primary grades through high school) "Since 1991 with post-secondary degrees with some breaks for not having MPhil and PhD advisers."

Question:
How difficult is it being a student in the British system, within Theology and Philosophy of Religion?


Russ' Answer:
"I live in BC, Canada and so I am a distance learning student (not called correspondence).
I do not have access to my adviser, except by email.
My MPhil was 40, 000 words and my PhD under final review is 125, 000 including footnotes.  With a British PhD, in my opinion, it is more work researching and finding enough citations than figuring out the philosophical issues.
The number of revisions is incredible. An idea, a paragraph, is worked over many times.  As well, each adviser and reviewer has a different take on one's work."

Question:
What are your plans after your final graduation?

Russ' answer:
"I would like to teach as a professor.
(I would also) Continue with blogging, will provide links (Russ networks among bloggers as a way of studying and sharing his results.  "Provide links" is to exchange hosting a link.  I.e.; Russ would post Richmond Evangelical Examiner's link on his blog in exchange for Richmond Evangelical Examiner to host a link to Russ' Blog.)
Perhaps interested in other forms of media...
Need to get out of debt."

Question:
Does your academic work influence your everyday life?

Russ' answer:
"Yes. My topic is the problem of evil, and I have found that I can apply theology to everyday problems.
Contrary to what some assume, theoretical theology and philosophy can have practical theological benefits.
The Bible and the historical Christ and his work provides the remedy to the problem of evil and therefore as I live, and as every Christian lives, there is a future. A future free from the problem of evil (Revelation 21-22)".


So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.  Corinthians 10:31 New International Version .