I think a lot of people involved in theological academics are driven by a competitiveness equal to professional athletes. There is this desire to over-excel in such a way that they out produce, or equally produce, by way of quantity and quality, with reference to their academic publishing (and other accolades). A constant need to prove to themselves, and others, that they are at the top of the game, and have achieved where most others have failed (or not even aspired to).
The irony of this type of drivenness is that it is antithetical to a theology of the cross.
Addendum: In the Eschaton will it matter more if you taught and were taught theology in the halls of the accredited and glamorously instutionalized halls of Divinity in first world countries, or if instead it was in a shack in Timbuktu? Seems to me that the model is all messed up. The Kingdom flips things upside down. Neither the halls of Divinity nor the shack is the point to this: it is simply a matter of Who theology is or isn’t about. Being poor in spirit is the way.