Over the past eight months I have read a number of blog posts and had a fair number of conversations via email and in person about the current state of the humanities in the West, and the likelihood–or lack thereof–of me finding a tenure track position when I have my PhD in hand. Earlier this summer there was a bit of a discussion in the biblioblogosphere about whether or not tenure was a good thing. I’ve also read numerous blog posts encouraging students not to go into the humanities, but instead to do something “better” (which is normally defined as having an easier time finding a higher paying job), like becoming a lawyer or an engineer, or doing something in a computer science field.

Given my present situation–a student currently without a program–I’ve been doing a great deal of thinking about my chances of finding a job (either now at a junior college or at a private high school, or later once I have my PhD). This whole process has caused me to reevaluate a great many things. I’ll give you the short version first: I’m not changing my plans. Now for the long version.

The idea that one ought to decide not to go into biblical studies or theology specifically, religion generally or the humanities even more generally, because there isn’t a lot of money in it is simply laughable. Plenty of people, regardless of personal faith commitments, do things that don’t make them a lot of money. Teachers are often underpaid in any field. Police and firefighters put their lives on the line constantly and are hardly looking at six digit incomes in most communities. A whole host of other occupations are filled by people who enjoy them and do them because they like them, not because they’re likely to make large sums of money. The argument that there simply aren’t enough jobs in our field is a much better argument, and one of which I am acutely aware.

Ultimately, however, I began this journey towards a PhD because I want to teach people the Bible. Whether I do so in a tenured position is absolutely besides the point. In fact, I personally think that tenure is silly. No other field has such job security. More often than not I think it allows bad teachers to continue teaching when they ought to be replaced by teachers who actually care about the students they’re teaching. Once again, in my opinion, if you want to write articles and books in a hole for your whole life, go do so–but don’t take a teaching position that ought to have someone who is more concerned with teaching students than pushing out that next article [UPDATE 8/25/2010, 7:55EST - Let me be clear, I do not mean by this to insult those professors who have achieved tenure (or are on the road to doing so) and who care about teaching their students. I also do not mean to suggest that research is unimportant. I greatly enjoy research and writing. My point is simply that if one is in a teaching position, the teaching ought to--at least!--be of equal importance to the research.] Publish or perish is the rule–but what about teaching the next generation of scholars/pastors/rabbis/etc?

For me, I continue on this path because there is only one thing in life I will be happy doing as an occupation: teaching the Bible and related topics to people. What shape that takes really doesn’t matter, as long as I’m teaching people. I think that the Christian Church needs a greater number of qualified scholars who are actively teaching both inside local congregations and inside the academy. There are, of course, other issues involved here that would require another post entirely to fully detail.

In summary, I’m passionate about teaching and I can’t imagine doing anything else. I also hope to be one of those people who God uses to edify his Church via helping people understand more about their holy book, the Bible.