Christian Higher Education


Book Description

Our world is growing increasingly complex and confused—a unique and urgent context that calls for a grounded and fresh approach to Christian higher education. Christian higher education involves a distinctive way of thinking about teaching, learning, scholarship, curriculum, student life, administration, and governance that is rooted in the historic Christian faith. In this volume, twenty-nine experts from a variety of fields, including theology, the humanities, science, mathematics, social science, philosophy, the arts, and professional programs, explore how the foundational beliefs of Christianity influence higher education and its disciplines. Aimed at equipping the next generation to better engage the shifting cultural context, this book calls students, professors, trustees, administrators, and church leaders to a renewed commitment to the distinctive work of Christian higher education—for the good of the society, the good of the church, and the glory of God.




Models for Christian Higher Education


Book Description

This is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable. This timely look at the state of Christian higher education in America contains descriptive, historical narratives that explore how fourteen Christian colleges and universities are successfully integrating faith and learning on their campuses despite the challenges posed by the increasingly pluralistic nature of modern culture. Written by respected representatives from seven major faith traditions -- Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Mennonite, Evangelical, Wesleyan/Holiness, and Baptist/Restorationist -- these narratives are also preceded by introductory essays that define the worldview and theological heritage of each given tradition and ask what that tradition can contribute to the task of higher education.




The Christian Academic in Higher Education


Book Description

This book offers a Christian engagement with the realities of academic life and work. Examining this topic from intellectual, institutional and spiritual perspectives, the author explores how the two identities – as a Christian and an academic – can both coexist and complement one another. The author provides a ‘road map’ for academics demonstrating the interaction between religious faith and the responsibilities, challenges and opportunities of university scholarship and teaching. Addressing questions such as the contentious nature of religious faith in the university environment, the expression of faith within the role of professor, and the consequences of consecrating oneself to learning, this pioneering and practical volume will be relevant to Christian scholars in any academic discipline.




Why College Matters to God


Book Description

A trusted first-year text at Christian colleges and universities Why College Matters to God is a brief, easy-to-read introduction to the unique purpose of a Christian college education. It has been widely used by Christian colleges and universities over the past decade because of its unsurpassed ability to be substantive yet accessible. The book draws on the insights of a wide range of Christian philosophers, theologians, historians, and scientists, but communicates key concepts in straightforward language that connects with a general audience. Brief enough to be paired with other texts, Why College Matters to God is an ideal introduction to the why and how of Christian learning for students, faculty, staff, and parents. The third edition preserves the qualities of the previous editions along with updated illustrations and new material on important topics such as: • Christian learning and the challenges of technology • Christian vocation, career preparation, and the liberal arts • Diversity and civility on campus • The habits of the highly effective college student




The Christian College


Book Description




Conceiving the Christian College


Book Description

This book is designed to help those who are interested in Christian higher education explore anew the unique features, opportunities, and contemporary challenges of one distinct type of educational institution -- the Christian college. What distinguishes Conceiving the Christian College from the many other books on this subject is its incisive discussion of a set of crucial ideas widely misunderstood in the world of Christian higher education. Now serving in his eleventh year as president of one of the nation's foremost Christian colleges, Duane Litfin is well placed to ask pressing questions regarding faith-based education. What is unique about Christian colleges? What is required to sustain them? How do they maintain their bearing in the tumultuous intellectual seas of the twenty-first century? Litfin's themes are large, but they are meant to refocus the conceptual challenges to Christian education in ways that will strengthen both the academic environment of today's Christian colleges and their impact on culture at large.




Faith and Learning


Book Description

Two dozen Christian higher education professionals thoroughly explore the question of the faith's place on the university campus, whether in administrative matters, the broader academic world, or in student life.




Building the Christian Academy


Book Description

Until Relatively Recently, the history of higher education in the West was the story of a Christian academic tradition that played a major role in both intellectual history and the history of the church. Over the last one hundred years, however, we have witnessed the progressive secularization of higher education. George Marsden goes so far as to suggest that the American university has lost its soul. But what was that putatively Christian soul? Precisely what in the Christian tradition has now been lost? And what should we know about that tradition as a condition of practical wisdom for the present?




The Christian College and the Meaning of Academic Freedom


Book Description

The Christian College and the Meaning of Academic Freedom is a study of the past record and current practice of the Protestant colleges in America in the quest to achieve intellectual honesty within academic community. William C. Ringenberg lays out the history of academic freedom in higher education in America, including its European antecedents, from the perspective of modern Christian higher education. He discusses the Christian values that provide context for the idea of academic freedom and how they have been applied to the nation's Christian colleges and universities. The book also dissects a series of recent case studies on the major controversial intellectual issues within and in, in some cases, about the Christian college community. Ringenberg ably analyzes the ways in which these academic institutions have evolved over time, outlining their efforts to evolve and remain relevant while maintaining their core values and historic identities.




Academic Freedom and Christian Scholarship


Book Description

The dawning of the third millennium finds many Christian colleges and universities in a search for identity. Coming to grips with the confused, often maligned topic of academic freedom is an essential part of this search. In this volume an unabashed defender of academic freedom offers well-founded advice to an academy that has seemingly lost its way. Drawing on forty years in higher education, including twenty years as president of Calvin College, Anthony Diekema reflects on the extensive scholarly literature on academic freedom against the backdrop of personal experience. He develops the larger philosophical framework necessary for thinking about academic freedom but also offers pointed advice gleaned from specific events and challenges to academic freedom that he has personally confronted. This balanced approach provides a seasoned perspective for those struggling with the subject of academic freedom in their own institutions. In the course of the book Diekema develops a sound working definition of the concept of academic freedom, assesses the threats it faces, acknowledges the significance of worldview in its implementation, and explores the policy implications for its protection and promotion in Christian colleges.