act at Wittenberg, I offer below several theses that I hope might prove provocative in how we—Christians committed to the flourishing of evangelical liberal arts colleges—might think about the relationship between our common faith and the scholarly life of the mind. For the most part these theses are historical and philosophical in nature; they involve a thicket of practical issues, which should certainly be addressed as well. In the interest of full disclosure, I should say I’m an unapologetic booster of the task of top-notch Christian thinking. Forsaking worldly wisdom does not mean shortchanging the life of the mind, but transforming it for God’s glory and humankind’s eternal gain. Many of these thoughts are not terribly original; I admit to being an incorrigible borrower of ideas more salient than my own. I should finally remind the kind reader that the nature of a thesis is to be provocative—not exhaustive—raising questions the power of which does not lie in immediate answers.
SCANDAL OF ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM
American evangelical Christianity possesses an extraordinarily rich range of virtues, but exemplary thinking has not been one of them. It is incumbent upon evangelical Christians concerned about the life of the mind to pause and realize how entrenched and self-defeating anti-scholarly and anti-intellectual sensibilities have been among them in the 20th century. As Mark Noll has written, “It is a scandal arising from the historical experience of an entire subculture. It is a scandal to which the shape of evangelical institutions have contributed.” This has resulted in a “tragic imbalance,” according to William Hull, provost of Samford University, in which “the dominant religion in America is almost destitute of intellectual firepower.” Os Guinness goes a step further, calling evangelicalism’s shoddy intellectual stewardship deeply sinful.
PROTESTANT REFORMATION A SCHOLARLY PHENOMENON
Viewed from the long perspective of Christian history, the anti-intellectualism of American evangelicalism is a historical aberration, and one that especially debases our Protestant heritage. Indeed, the Protestant Reformation was, if anything, a scholarly, university-driven phenomenon, started by professors (Luther, Melanchthon) and transmitted because of universities. The early reformers would be particularly dismayed by the sloppy, individualistic biblicism that informs much of contemporary evangelicalism, just as they were troubled by the freewheeling abuse of the doctrine of sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) among Anabaptist radicals in their own day. Melanchthon, the great, sadly neglected humanist scholar of early Protestantism, was such an enthusiast for knowledge that he once wrote that next to Jesus Christ, the humane studies (studia humanitatis) is the greatest thing God has given to humankind.
UNABASHED TASK OF PURE LEARNING
Like Melanchthon, Christians today should especially esteem humane and liberal studies. Christian colleges which adopt the mantle of liberal arts owe particular fidelity to a venerable academic tradition. Consequently, they should be wary of overemphasizing vocational and preprofessional programs that often have the effect of detracting from the liberal arts. There is no dearth of technical, state, community, and now cyber colleges ready to serve strictly vocation-equipping functions. Christian liberal arts colleges should recover a deeper, historically informed understanding of vocation (vocatio or calling) that unabashedly esteems the task of pure learning as its primary, God-given purpose. To call oneself a liberal arts college while weakening the liberal arts undercuts the very meaning of the term. In fact, in the Middle Ages, the original meaning of liberal arts or artes liberales (literally “the free arts”) was set up against its opposite: the servile arts (artes serviles)—the disciplines geared exclusively to vocational ends. As Aquinas wrote, “Only those arts are called liberal or free which are concerned with knowledge; those which are concerned with utilitarian ends that are attained through activity, however, are called servile.” In our age of consumer capitalism, liberal arts colleges should all the more regard themselves as a sanctuary from, rather than a way station to, the world of total labor and consumption that knows only the principles of rational utilization and personal gratification. It is not that we want our students to become unskilled, sneering anticapitalists—far from it. Yet we should desire that as business leaders, rocket scientists or whatever, they enter the workand marketplace weaned from consumer capitalism’s often imperial demands.
LACK OF FAITH-INFORMED SCHOLARSHIP
Christian colleges are not research universities, but they should not overreact and define themselves in deliberate opposition to research universities, for this gives research universities too much power over their identity. Christians have done a good job at criticizing the secularism, the disdain of teaching and the often soulless careerism that habitually goes on
Gordon Elected to Lilly Network
W
e are pleased to announce that Gordon College has been elected to the Lilly Fellows Network of Colleges and Universities, a consortium of church-related institutions. The primary goal of the network is to encourage national conversation “about the nature of the Christian academic vocation and the future of church-related higher education.” The program is housed at Valparaiso University in Indiana and is currently comprised of 65 institutions. Among them are Wheaton, Messiah, Calvin, Westmont, Notre Dame, Villanova, Georgetown, St. Olaf, Goshen, Boston College, Davidson, Holy Cross and Baylor. Members participate in an annual conference on church-related higher education and have access to additional faculty development and grant opportunities. The Network was a principal supporter of the book Models for Christian Higher Education (Eerdmans, 1997) and subsequent conferences based on that text. Models explored the philosophical approaches to higher education in the Catholic, Lutheran, Mennonite, reformed, evangelical, Wesleyan and Baptist traditions. Gordon’s Harold Heie wrote the primary essay in the book, interpreting the evangelical view of faith and learning. Thomas Howard served as a Lilly Fellow at Valparaiso prior to coming to Gordon and played a vital role in promoting Gordon’s admission to the Lilly Network.
SPRING 2001
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