The Way Things Ought To Be

I'm not a seminarian, but I've heard that one of the difficulties of a seminary education is finding an unexplored topic of doctrine for your final thesis. Some of the titles for the papers I've seen are arcane and seem of little use for the minister's future service in the church.

Why not think and write on things much more instructive and important? Why not describe the way things ought to be in the church? For example, if it's true that the state has wrongly assumed much of the church's responsibilities, perhaps we need thesis papers like:

- If abortion were to end, or greatly diminish, how should a church be prepared to respond?
- How should the church address the woes of the foster care system?

Am I saying that doctrine is unimportant? By no means! I am not for diminishing a proper understanding of orthodoxy. At the same time, I see a great need for the church to understand more about orthopraxy.