Darrell:

You make two points that I found interesting: 1) an overt focus on Jesus stems from a reading that acknowledges diversity and 2) fundamentalism causes many students to leave the faith. But I don't think you made the connection to these to claims adequately, nor do I think that you fully appreciate the theological diversity within the Bible, particularly the Old Testament. (Granted, I know that you focus on the New Testament, and that you have some concern with revision within early Christian studies.)

Let's assume for the sake of argument that the near consensus of Old Testament scholarship is correct about the nature of diversity in the Old Testament (between the North and the South, family religion, Deuteronomic and Priestly theology, and pragmatists (e.g. Qohelet)), which creates a canon that is fully of contradictory viewpoints and theologies. There are a couple of ways to deal with historical Old Testament scholarship, here are two of many options: one can reject it almost entirely and engage in apologetics or one can acknowledge the supposed problem of diversity and self-consciously develop a center, which in the case of mainline churches and seminaries, is Jesus. Part of the Jesusology has to do with more mainline Christians who want to both incorporate historical scholarship along with a sincere belief. My impression is that EC movement more-or-less fell into a similar theology less intentionally.

And for many this obviates the epistimology that plagues fundamentalists, that the Bible must be true and the fear that historical scholarship leads one onto a slippery-slope. And with that presupposition in mind, many people leave the church because it is hard to dissassociate Christianity from fundamentalism (or conservative evangelicalism).

I hope and pray that you are able to mentor your students and to prepare them to think critically about these issues and to avoid the extremes of abandoning the faith altogether or of reading Josh McDowell. I also hope that we see more of your students at top-ranked places like Duke, Emory, and Vanderbilt in the coming years--I know that you are pushing them hard. And I know that several of your students deserve those coveted spots.