I have long been fascinated by the Diggers, a 1960s countercultural street theater troupe from San Francisco who staged inventive, interactive "plays" in which the public was not always aware it was an audience, much less a participant. The Diggers saw the arts as a vehicle for the experiential incarnation of truth in such a way that exposes peoples' true beliefs through action, subtly and powerfully challenging otherwise firmly held assumptions as a result. My favorite Digger story, as recounted by Peter Coyote in Sleeping Where I Fall, is of the Free Store. Yes, a free store. Their tagline was, "It's free because it's yours." They rented out a storefront in the Haight-Asbury district and stocked it with whatever food, clothing, and miscellany they could beg, borrow, or steal, and someone would man the store, but if a customer ever asked to speak with a manager, he or she would reply, "You're the manager."
One day, a woman came in and tried to shoplift, and Coyote told her, "You can't steal here. It's a free store." The woman looked panicked. Wouldn't you? Clearly confused, she dropped the items she'd gathered in her coat and ran out of the store. But a few days later, she reappeared, and this time, she casually poked through a rack of shirts, discarding one after another before finally settling on one she liked. Later that week, she returned to drop off a tray of doughnuts for other Free Store customers.
While I have longed to replicate the Free Store, for now I will settle with the Free Seminary--not quite the same concept, but to be done in a similar spirit. In light of the great expense of attending seminary, I have researched degree programs at several seminaries (Regent College, Eastern University, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and Fuller Theological Seminary) with the goal of developing my own curriculum for personal study with the aid of books from the public library until or unless God makes more formal study possible. Through this blog, I hope to engage others in discussion around what I am studying, courtesy of the public library, in the hopes of deepening my own learning, as well as helping others interested in taking a similar journey. This seminary is free because it's yours. The books belong to the public. The knowledge sought has been given to us by God in his creation and revealed Word. In words befitting the Free Store, "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live" (Isaiah 55:1-3a).
As John MacKay puts it, there are two kinds of approaches to such study of God and Scripture, that of the traveler, and that of the balconeer. As J.I. Packer summarizes it, "The 'balconeers' can overhear the travelers' talk and chat with them; they may comment critically on the way that the travelers walk; or they may discuss questions about the road, how it can exist at all or lead anywhere, what might be seen from different points along it, and so forth; but they are only onlookers, and their problems are theoretical only. The travelers, by contrast, face problems which, though they have their theoretical angle, are essentially practical--problems of the 'which-way-to-go' and 'how-to-make-it' type; problems which call not merely for comprehension but for decision and action too." I invite you to join me on the road.
