Theological Knowledge & Faith-Learning Integration

Many conservative Christian colleges and universities fail to regard Christian theology as a source of knowledge. A number of these institutions make the integration of faith and learning a central curricular and pedagogical goal. But it is hard to see how theology could be integrated with the sciences if theology doesn’t yield knowledge. I assume the sort of integration desired by such institutions is theoretical, and that such theoretical integration is possible only between disciplines that yield knowledge. If these assumptions are correct, then these conservative Christian colleges and universities are failing to satisfy one of their main educational objectives.

Christian Philosophers as Teachers

As a philosopher, I want to teach my students to think for themselves. As a Christian, I want to model for my students a commitment to Christ. If I had only the first goal, I would refrain from revealing my convictions to them. If I had only the second objective, I would introduce them to fewer criticisms of Christianity. But since I am a Christian philosopher, I strive to encourage my students to combine honest evaluation of Christianity with confident submission to Christ. In the future, I plan to be more sensitive to my students’ intellectual, temperamental, and developmental differences.

Getting the Hay to the Goats

In a recent talk to Presbyterian ministers, John Ortberg borrowed Garrison Keillor’s criticism of a Lake Woebegone minister whose sermons did not “put the hay where the goats could get it.” Ortberg said many Christian churches know how to reach the “goats” but don’t have any “hay” for them and many other churches have the “hay” but don’t know how to reach the “goats.” He put his Presbyterian denomination in the latter category and urged his audience to look for a movement of God’s Spirit that would enable their church to equip disciples to be effective teachers of the nations.

Can Theology Still be the Queen?

In “The Idea of a University,” Newman argues that since universities profess to teach universal knowledge and theology is a branch of knowledge, universities should teach theology as knowledge. Unsurprisingly, those responsible for the curricula of secular universities today deny the conclusion of this syllogism (and so also reject at least one of its premises). What is surprising is that though Christian colleges and universities should be able to affirm both the premises and conclusion of Newman's argument, many of them do not teach theology as a source of knowledge, but rather as a basis for mere faith or belief.