Dr Paul Holloway, Professor of New Testament at Sewanee's School of Theology, blasted the university's decision. In a blistering letter to the editor of The Sewanee Purple, Professor Holloway wrote, "I am writing to express dismay at Sewanee's recent awarding of an honorary degree in Theology to Tom Wright, former bishop of Durham and now professor of New Testament at St. Andrews University in Scotland. I am the current professor of New Testament at the School of Theology at Sewanee, and Wright's receiving an honorary degree during my tenure is a professional embarrassment. Some of the readers of this letter will know Wright as an outspoken opponent of LGBT rights and a vociferous critic of the Episcopal Church for its progressive stance. I find Wright's position on these matters offensive and harmful. It is an affront to the School of Theology in general and to its LGBT community and its allies in particular."

Holloway went on to say that his complaint is that Sewanee has recognized Wright as a scholar in his discipline, when in fact he is little more than a book-a-year apologist.

"Wright comes to the evidence not with honest questions but with ideologically generated answers that he seeks to defend. I know of no critical scholar in the field who trusts his work. He contradicts what I stand for professionally as well as the kind of hard-won intellectual integrity I hope to instill in my students. I feel like the professor of biology who has had to sit by and watch a Biblical creationist receive an honorary degree in science."

Holloway added that Wright was voted his degree under a previous administration before he became professor of New Testament. "He was voted that degree when he was simply another conservative Church of England prelate of the sort we used to court. (A few of these are still in the pipeline!) But a number of things have changed. Not only are there a new administration and a new NT professor, but Wright has since retired as bishop and found a job at an under-funded Scottish university anxious to attract young full-fee-paying American Evangelical men questing for old-world cultural capital. My only consolation is that the embarrassment of Wright's honorary degree was overshadowed by the even greater debacle of the stridently propagandistic Eric Metaxas, who was tapped to speak at this semester's convocation."

Holloway concluded his rip at Wright by saying that he hoped Sewanee would seriously rethink who it gives honorary degrees. "I am afraid that after last week they will bring a little less honor. "

The fact that Holloway doesn't think Wright is a scholar is ludicrous. Besides unnumbered volumes he has authored over the years, Wright has written an 18 volume New Testament For Everyone Set, along with Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon (The New Testament for everyone). He recently gave a lecture to Anglicans in Charleston SC at a Mere Anglican Conference which this writer attended. Wright got a standing ovation from the nearly 1,000 present. Holloway would not even qualify for an invitation.

The deeper question is this: what is Sewanee's department of theology filling its students heads with to take into the world and pulpit? Wright is the right stuff (though in fairness some conservative scholars have taken issue with him over his interpretation of St. Paul). He is nonetheless recognized as a real scholar and has had invitations to Rome to meet the Pope and his entourage of papal theologians. He is no lightweight, which is more than can be said for Holloway.

When I searched Amazon for Holloway's writings, I found one single monogram on the Consolation of Philippians, and this man has the nerve to criticize the prolific N.T. Wright!

One blogger excoriated Holloway saying, "Setting aside the caustically contemptuous and intolerant tone of the letter, as well as its open hostility to Christian orthodoxy, here's the gist of what Professor Holloway says: 'N. T. Wright disagrees with my views on particular matters and he represents theological positions that contradict my own. That offends and embarrasses me. Therefore, Wright is not a real scholar and he doesn't deserve an honorary degree.' It doesn't take a Ph.D. in logic to see how silly this "argument" is.

"Nor does it take a genius to see that if Professor Holloway's letter makes the rounds among moderate-to-conservative lay and clergy graduates of The School of Theology, they just might decide to send their money to other institutions. I'm aware of persons who have made just that decision before this letter was even written. This letter will simply underscore that they made the right decision. And there are others for whom Professor Holloway's letter may be the straw that breaks the camel's back when it comes to financially supporting The School of Theology. I doubt that's the outcome the Sewanee administration had in mind when they issued the invitation for Bishop Wright to speak and receive an honorary degree!"

Indeed. Sewanee long ago fell off the orthodox map in matters of faith and morals, but alumni have consistently turned a blind eye to what has been going on fund raising aggressively to keep the liberal progressive agenda alive at the university.

Another blogger noted, "In the meantime, I expect the Sewanee authorities are rather pleased with this letter as it demonstrates a number of reasons why budding NT scholars will want to choose Sewanee over faux underfunded universities such as St Andrew's."

There can little doubt that fifty years from now, students will still be reading and interacting with Wright's writings for their doctoral theses while Holloway's works will lie forgotten on dusty shelves, his theological views having succumbed to the prevailing zeitgeist.

END