However, a quiet trend toward bringing religiously informed thought back under the umbrella of higher education is gaining momentum. The intelligent design movement has brought new evidence to challenge the hard sciences in their devotion to Darwinism and other positivistic views. The monopolistic hold of the Modern Language Association spawned a backlash, with the creation of alternative language studies associations. Philosophers discuss theistic assumptions, while Christian societies and journals have increasingly appeared. One of the most profound movements is that of believing scholars gathering to discuss a Christian worldview in their discipline and the integration of their Christian faith with their calling to academics. One such event, the God and the Academy conference, will occur in the summer of 2000 (see our site).
Can science and the humanities be integrated with faith? Should they be? What is the purpose of higher education, to dispense only observable facts, to empower oppressed subgroups or to seek a transcendent set of truths and develop young lives? What was the role of the university--public and Christian--in the first place? We tackle these issues in our special focus.
The Place of Religiously Informed Scholarship in the Contemporary Academy Michael Murray A popular-level case for taking seriously the views of those scholars whose assumptions have starting points in faith. Murray calls for a stop to the ad hoc exclusion of such views and illustrates their veracity in the realm of philosophy.
Can we recapture the ivory tower? Gene Edward Veith Can we recapture the ivory tower? And why is this even important? Because universities shape the culture well beyond their ivy-covered walls.
A Christian Critique of the University Charles Malik In this reprint of the first three chapters of his book, A Christian Critique of the University, Dr. Charles Malik expounds on the nature of the university and the implications of faith and scholarship on that institution. Dr. Malik, now deceased, among his other accomplishments, a president of the UN General Assembly and an outspoken believer in Jesus Christ.
The Two Communities of the Christian Scholar Gregory Ganssle Christian scholars are caught between two worlds: the intellectual community and the church community. Often, according to Dr. Ganssle, these professors have difficulty in integrating the two and in knowing how or why it must be done. Ganssle offers some explanations.
Ministering in the Secular University (full book online) Joseph McRae Mellichamp In the past 100 years, Christianity has been relegated to the unimportant or trivial regions of the university. Today, there is no place in the university for Christian thought - no place in the curriculum for Christian ideals and no place in the university's research enterprise for Christian ideas. The issue must be addressed on two fronts - an intellectual front and a personal front. The intellectual front has to do with the appropriate role of Christianity in the university. The personal front has to do with how Christian academics attempt to impact students, associates, and individual universities for Christ. This book is for the serious Christian academic concerned with having an impact for Christ in the university.
A Call to Counterrevolution Gertrude Himmelfarb The Reformation of the church was initiated by a university professor, Martin Luther. Just as Luther effectively disestablished the church, so would later professors remove higher education from the church.
My Quest for Success Walter L. Bradley The personal story of Dr. Walter L. Bradley, professor of mechanical engineering, Texas A&M University, and how a personal relationship with the living God has changed his life. This article appears on his Faculty Office Web site.
A Christian University: Defining the Difference Mark R. Schwehn The author discusses the place and role of the Christian University. Schwehn states, "I shall mention four of the more recent and significant [cultural] changes [that affect the way we think of the idea of a Christian university], and I shall then move on to characterize what I think must be the features of, and to some extent the grounds for...a Christian university in our time.... Many American intellectuals have gradually moved from a sense that there exists in American society a simple, two-sided culture war to a more nuanced sense that we are in the midst of a reconfiguration of public discourse about a whole range of issues, including issues of religion and higher education."
The School of Sanctification John J. Haldane John J. Haldane explores the old-fashioned idea of the responsibility of Christian higher education in the personal formation of its students. This essay is adapted from the 1997 Education Sunday Lecture delivered at St. Andrews College, Glascow.
Academic Integration Page Christian Leadership's Academic Integration Page is designed primarily for articles which address the complex relationship of integrating one's Christian faith to the academic disciplines, for discussion of philosophical and theological issues which arise within the Christian faith related to academic integration, for exemplary models of Christian academic integration, and for articles primarily from (but not limited to) a Christian perspective that deal critically with the philosophic and academic credentials of a Christian perspective of the disciplines. See our introductory articles by Dr. Alvin Plantinga and Dr. J.P. Moreland.
Go here to see our past Special Focus features.