1. The Idea of a Christian College Arthur Holmes1

2. Chapter 5: Integrating faith and learning1

3. Integration vs interaction
Starting point: “the Christian college is distinctive in that the Christian faith can touch the entire range of life and learning to which a liberal education exposes students” (p. 45)
Integration—the ideal, but not reality
Interaction—the reality

4. Faith and Learning
“Faith affects learning far more deeply than learning affects faith” (p. 46)
4 approaches to the integration of faith and learning:
1. The attitudinal approach
2. The ethical approach
3. The foundational approach
4. The worldview approach

5. Integration: The Attitudinal Approach
One’s attitude is the initial and vital point of contact with the Christian faith
“A positive, inquiring attitude and a persistent discipline of time and ability express the value” that Christians find in learning because of their theology and Christian commitment (p. 47)

6. Integration: The Attitudinal Approach
The perspective: All truth is God’s truth, all beauty God’s beauty . . .
The motivation: “the Christian faith is the sworn enemy of all intellectual dishonesty and shoddiness” (p. 48)
The understanding: “education is a Christian vocation [and]. . . must be an act of love, of worship, of stewardship, a wholehearted response to God” (p. 49)

7. What is a liberal arts education today?
“A broad, general education that ranges across the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities” (p. 26)
The liberal arts are the arts “appropriate to persons as persons, rather than to the specific function of a worker or a professional or even a scholar” (p. 27)

8. Integration: The Ethical Approach
There is no value-neutral education
There is no value-neutral science
Language itself is value-laden
The ethical approach demands one explore the relationship between facts and values—the “middle-level concepts”

9. Integration: The Ethical Approach
3 questions necessary to integrate Christian principles into ethical discussion:
1. What are the facts, the causes, and the consequences? (requires science)
2. What middle-level concepts are involved? (requires theology and philosophy)
3. What policy or action is called for? (requires ethics)

10. Integration: The Foundational Approach
3 foundational disciplines
Mathematics
Philosophy
Theology
We have to have the foundational knowledge on which to build and with which to interact.
Interdisciplinary courses and dialogue are vital to the foundational approach.

11. Integration: The Worldview Approach
Intellectual polytheism (Arnold Nash)
What happens when we concentrate on the parts rather than the whole and come away with a fragmented view of life that lacks overall meaning (p. 57)
The university becomes a multiversity

12. Integration: The Worldview Approach
The characteristics of a worldview:
Holistic/integrational
Exploratory
Pluralistic
Confessional and perspectival
Worldview versus theology

13. Chapter 7: College as Community1

14. In Loco Parentis
The idea that the college has parental authority and responsibility toward its students
Modern concept: the college community

15. The dangers of the college community:
Excessive individualism
Intellectual hermit = liberal arts are irrelevant
Historical hermit = the past is unrelated to real life
Ethical hermit = devaluation of universal and lasting values in favor of doing “one’s own thing”
Excessive administrative control
Don’t allow for individual differences compatible with the common purpose of the community

16. The Basis of Community False idea: Love creates community Reality:
Love is a moral virtue, not a warm feeling
Love is an inner moral attitude and commitment
Community creates feelings of love
Community is created by values and purposes and a common task

17. The Basis of Community The unifying task: education
What the community isn’t:
A local church
An athletic or social club
A service agency
A vocational training school

18. A Climate of Faith and Learning
Plato: can virtue be taught?
Answer: yes. Virtue is a form of knowledge and can be taught like anything else.
Christian view: virtue is not just an idea; it is an attitude, something intrinsic
Teachers: should be Christian, be enthusiastic, be careful scholars, integrate faith and learning

19. God versus studies – which comes first?
This is the wrong question.
“If education is God’s present calling to students, then no question arises about whether God or studies comes first, for God is to be honored in and through studies. Compartmentalization has no place on the Christian campus” (p. 84)

20. Chapter 9: The Marks of an Educated Christian1

21. The Marks of an educated Christian
1. A Spiritual person:
An unreserved commitment to God and his purposes for us in this world
2. A moral person:
Qualities of character like love, fairness, courage, integrity, and commitment to justice
3. An intellectual person:
Breadth of understanding, openness to new ideas, intellectual honesty, etc.

22. The Marks of an educated Christian
4. An active, responsible person:
Responsible action in all areas of life: conscientious, helpful, decisive, self-disciplined, persistent, involved, intentionally an agent for change
5. A self-aware, self-evaluative person:
An honest appraisal of one’s strengths and weaknesses; no false modesty; no overconfidence; a willingness to work on the weaknesses and to use the strengths
Knowing what has to be learned, knowing where to learn it, and being able to learn from others

23. Are you an educated Christian?
1. Are you working conscientiously to become an educated person?
2. Do you see your education as your current vocational calling?
3. Are you working conscientiously to integrate faith and learning and to avoid compartmentalizing the areas of your life?
4. Are you preparing yourself to be a good steward in all areas of your life?

24. Coming up . . . Next Class: Exam 2 Stott Your Mind Matters (all)
Holmes – chs 1-5, 7, 9
W&M – be prepared to compare/contrast with Holmes
Stott -- basic points
November 1: PLP due