Christian Faith and the Academic Disciplines: Finding the Right Context for Discussion

Bob R. Agee

Introduction

Of the 4000-plus colleges and universities in the United States, approximately 1600 are classified as independent not-for-profit institutions. A careful analysis of this vital and important sector of American higher education reveals four categories: (1) secular independent institutions, (2) formerly church-related institutions, (3) church-related institutions, and (4) distinctively/intentionally Christian institutions. Using these categories, we can define the secular independent institutions as those which were begun without any interest in or involvement with any kind of religious order. The formerly church-related institutions were obviously those which were established by a church body or religious group but have severed ties with the founding church bodies at some juncture in their history. The church-related institutions represent those schools which still maintain some kind of structural or fraternal connection with either a denomination or a religious order of some type but in operation and practice exhibit little evidence of effort to live out a mission that reflects their religious heritage. The distinctively/intentionally Christian institutions are those which not only maintain some kind of connection with a church body but also show evidence of working diligently at thinking through what it means to be a Christian college or university and at carrying out their educational mission in a way that reflects a commitment to Christian principles and ideals.

At some point, every institution has to address its heritage and determine the extent to which it will take the responsibility for being faithful to that heritage. How does an institution that aspires to be a distinctively Christian college live out that dream? Richard T. Hughes takes that question a step further in his chapter in the book Faithful Learning and the Christian Scholarly Vocation (2003). He probes the question “How is it possible for Christian colleges and universities to mature into absolutely first rate institutions of higher learning while, at the same time, living out of the faith traditions that gave them birth?” (3) All too often, institutions which were started by denominations have turned their backs on their faith heritage or pushed the foundational concepts of their faith perspective to the periphery of their thinking and have chosen to become small imitations of state universities with a few assorted religious activities. As Hughes points out, in the quest for academic respectability, administration and faculty often sought ways for faith and the academy to “co-exist” rather than for the institution’s faith heritage to inform and guide the teaching/learning process. He further warns us that “If we frame the question in terms of coexistence…we have set ourselves up for failure and can surely anticipate that when our institutions achieve the levels of academic excellence toward which we aspire, the faith dimensions of our colleges and universities will inevitably wither away” (4). In the final analysis, we have to grapple with the question which he raises: “Is it possible to embrace serious intellectual inquiry precisely because of our Christian commitments, not in spite of those commitments?” (4)

All of us have heard and probably used various ways that a school addresses the aspiration to be an intentionally Christian institution. There are many pieces of the puzzle. No one piece of the puzzle guarantees success in our efforts although each piece plays an important role. We start by looking for faculty and staff who have the proper academic and experiential credentials and who attest to the fact that they have had a personal experience with Jesus Christ and are active in a local congregation of Christian believers. Within the life of the institution, provisions are made to confront students with the truth and the claims of the Christian gospel. Opportunities for ministry and service are made available for students, faculty, and staff. Programs, emphases, opportunities, and ministry personnel are evident in planning and programming the work of the college or university. Great emphasis is placed on providing a humane, caring atmosphere on the campus. The institution committed to being distinctively Christian is normally marked by a greater sense of community. Faculty and administration tend to be more interested in and more accessible to students while behavioral expectations and regulations help maintain a relatively controlled atmosphere on the campus. While these qualities and efforts will take an institution a long way toward being distinctively Christian, they will fall short of the depth of impact that is desirable. Ultimately, the effort must be made to address the way the Christian faith will be integrated into the overall academic program.

What Does It Take for an Institution to Be Distinctively Christian?

What does it take for an institution to be truly distinctively/intentionally Christian? Is there anything we can do that is genuinely unique to a campus serious about its Christian heritage? Is there any emphasis or program that can and should take place and that cannot and will not take place on other kinds of campuses? Being willing to engage in an on-going dialogue about the significance of the Christian faith to the bodies of knowledge represented by the various academic disciplines offered within the institution and by making that emphasis a major component in faculty development endeavors, we will make significant strides toward making our institutions distinctively/intentionally Christian colleges and universities.

As we begin to explore that proposition, perhaps we need to address another question. What does it take to be a quality institution of higher learning which dares to believe that it can make a difference in the lives of students and thus make an impact on society? That issue is very much a part of what it will ultimately mean to be a serious Christian college or university. If an institution neglects the pursuit of genuine academic excellence in the pursuit of integrating the Christian faith into the academic disciplines and into the teaching/learning process, the institution will fail both its faith heritage and its students.

Through the years, higher education in America has defined its function as threefold: research, instruction , and public service. Society looks to its postsecondary educational community to conduct research in order to verify existing understandings and to expand knowledge in all the disciplines. The American public expects colleges and universities to provide quality instruction that will cultivate intellectual pursuit on the part of students, affirm the life of the mind, and equip students with the skills and knowledge both to know how to live and to know how to make a living. Our institutions at all levels of education are expected to be sensitive to societal needs and to develop programs that seek to meet those needs. All educational institutions in this country, particularly those which function at the college or university level, are expected to be contributors in all three areas of endeavor.

In fulfilling its threefold function, a college faces another dilemma: will it be a mirror institution or a mission institution? That is, will the school simply be a reflection of contemporary society, mirroring whatever social, moral, ethical perspectives can be found on any street corner in America? Will the academic content offered merely mirror what a student would find in any public or secular independent institution? Or, will the school dare to carve out a clear and compelling sense of mission that will guide all that takes place? Will faculty think about and work toward a deeper understanding of the significance of their personal faith to the body of knowledge which they teach? Will faculty and administration carve out a mission that is dedicated to the development of the whole person? A mission institution, particularly one which purports to be an institution with a Christian mission, will be significantly different from the rest of the academic community. The effort to develop an atmosphere conducive to learning, growing and developing is essential for quality learning to take place. Quality scholar/teachers who love students and who love to teach make for a quality place of preparation. That takes place best at a college or university serious about being a distinctively Christian institution.

An Important Distinction

As I have examined the many approaches operating on Christian campuses, I have observed that we often fail to distinguish between a faith and learning and a faith and disciplines emphasis. The faith and learning emphasis focuses on the way students ought to be applying the essence of the Christian faith to their role as learners. A faith and learning discussion will likely explore both the developmental needs of students and the current research on learning styles. That discussion can sometimes branch into discourse about the atmosphere that the faculty creates for the student and the way faculty ought to treat students. I have found that faculty members are usually far more comfortable talking about the way students ought to act and the way students ought to approach their classroom responsibilities than they are talking about the implications of the Christian faith within their particular academic disciplines.

A faith and disciplines emphasis, however, goes several steps farther. This endeavor calls upon us to think about the predominant worldview that shapes the philosophical presuppositions within our own academic disciplines. It calls us to ask questions of ourselves and each other about the relationship between conclusions reached within the disciplines and the philosophical presuppositions which guided the research that produced the body of knowledge. It challenges us to think more deeply about the content and essence of the historic Christian faith and the corresponding implications for the presuppositions and conclusions of our particular academic disciplines. I have discovered that faculty members tend to be more uncomfortable in this arena than they are in the faith and learning conversations.

What Is a Faith and Disciplines Emphasis?

Several decades ago, educators within church-related institutions, Southern Baptist and otherwise, began discussing needs and concerns within our ranks that could help us do a better job of communicating the Christian faith in our world. Groups such as the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, the Education Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Pugh Charitable Trust, and the Lilly Endowment began to promote the notion that schools which claim a Christian heritage should give fresh thought to what it would take for our schools to be distinctively Christian. At the same time, Christian scholars throughout the academy began to challenge us to stir new conversation within our faculties about the implications of the Christian faith to our various academic disciplines.

Discussions revealed an awareness that there are Christian faith issues in virtually every academic discipline. In the sciences, there are points of tension between the conclusions of science and traditional religious understandings as well as tension between the scientific methodology as a way of knowing and more intuitive ways of knowing. In the social sciences, there have emerged explanations of human behavior and methods for dealing with human behavior that appear to be in conflict with principles and ideals fostered by traditional Christian belief. In the professional disciplines, there are issues of practice which can and often generate tension between state of the art information and the ethics of how that information should be used in addressing issues. The way we understand our world, the way we understand and deal with human development, the way we define mankind's place on the planet, and the way we explain the pilgrimage and the destiny of humanity—all have significance for the Christian faith.

The fact of the matter is that there is no clear-cut, universally agreed-upon set of answers to the points of tension. While there may be general understanding of beliefs, it is inappropriate to try to develop some creed or dogma which tells us how these points of tension should be understood or resolved. We also face the dilemma that the academic world has frowned, for most of this century, upon the idea that a scholar’s religious beliefs ought to have anything to do with either his/her research or his/her efforts at teaching. George Marsden has reminded us in his book The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship (1997): “During the first half of the twentieth century talk about the ‘Christian’ character of the academic enterprise diminished, as it was increasingly recognized that to identify the project with any one religious tradition would be divisive. Religion came to be regarded as an extra-curricular activity” (17). He further describes how various denominations built ministries on the edges of campus, but the classroom was given up to a totally secular, often anti-Christian perspective. It does not take long to detect a prejudice against the idea of a Christian point of view in virtually any academic discipline in most secular institutions today. And though voices of prejudice may not be heard, almost certainly there are the echoes of effort to trivialize and marginalize a person’s religious beliefs as having little or nothing to do with the general understandings within an academic discipline.

To make matters worse, few faculty members have been afforded the opportunity to think through the implications of the Christian faith to the presuppositions or conclusions within their chosen field of specialization in any kind of formal setting during their graduate experience. Most of the faculty in Christian colleges and universities received most, if not all, of their graduate education in totally secular settings. Because graduate education places heavy emphasis on objectivity and normally takes great care to avoid value judgments or value perspectives in the research, it seldom provides a forum where Christian scholars within the same discipline or across disciplinary lines can talk about the significance of the Christian faith and the teachings of scripture to the current understandings within the discipline. A careful analysis of the curriculum structure and the content of courses in graduate programs reveals that these opportunities have just not been available to the person aspiring to teach or do research. The end result can be a fine Christian person who is competent in his discipline but has not really come to grips with those issues or points of tension which really do make a difference in the way he treats the subject matter.

The painful reality is that merely putting a professor in the classroom who has appropriate academic credentials and is an active member of a Christian church does not guarantee that Christian education is going to take place. The complexity and multiple dimensions of contemporary life have fostered a tendency for us to be able to segment and fragment life in such a way that people can have strong religious beliefs which are compartmentalized for their Sunday or church existence but which have little to say to or about what they do on their jobs or in their neighborhoods. A faith-disciplines emphasis is designed to engage us in conversations and in dialogue with peers about what the issues are within our disciplines that have some connection with a biblically based Christian faith. Through those conversations and the debates and dialogue that may be stimulated, we may be moved to a new level of understanding about the significance of our faith to the discipline itself and perhaps catch a new vision of the significance of our disciplines in the larger arenas of life.

Such dialogue is never intended to produce a creed or some uniform set of answers or solutions to the dilemmas within our areas of specialty. In The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship, George Marsden quotes Robert Wuthnow, a respected Christian scholar, as saying, “Christianity does not so much supply the learned person with answers as it does to raise questions” (65). Educators who are serious about the effort to stimulate more and deeper conversation about the relationship between the Christian faith and the various academic disciplines, however, point out that these discussions can help to make us even more sensitive to our students and the biases, prejudices, and perspectives which they bring to the classroom. The dialogue with each other can help us think through how we can address the points of tension in a way that does not destroy a student's faith but rather helps him to move to new levels of understanding about life and his faith.

There Are Two Key Words to Keep in Mind As You Think about How to Address This Issue: Integration and Conversation

This article seeks to challenge and encourage faculty members to give serious attention to the effort to integrate their Christian faith into their academic disciplines and into their professional calling. So much of our approach to life promotes fragmentation and compartmentalization. Eventually, we evolve into thinking about life in fragments and compartments: we have a work life, a personal life, a family life, a church life, and a leisure life. We often live each of those fragments so separately that they seldom, if ever, intersect. In order to stimulate a new level of intellectual and spiritual energy for you in every area of life, you need to develop a growing faith that continually grows in its depth of understanding and its breadth of application that you are willing to apply it to the way you think about life, people, and everything you think and know. I have contended for years that the most effective teacher is one who is on a pilgrimage of growth and development, who is excited about that pilgrimage, and who assists students with their own pilgrimage of growth and development. When your faith is touching your academic world and affecting the way you think about applying your professional knowledge and skills, you are a stronger and more effective teacher.

There is also the challenge for faculty members to commit themselves to ongoing conversation with others within the profession about the issues of the integration of the Christian faith to the world of professional knowledge and practice. Dr. Harold Heie, former chief academic officer at Gordon College in Massachusetts, aptly writes:

There is a cancer that is growing rapidly in the Christian community, the cancer of polarization that ends conversation. The tragedy is not that Christians disagree with each other on some critical issues. In fact, such disagreement can be the bedrock of good education. The tragedy is that we find it increasingly difficult to talk to each other about our disagreements, so that we can learn from each other. Dialogue has too often been replaced by monologue. Conversation has often been replaced by contestation. The great new challenge facing Christian higher education…is to create structures that will overcome this insidious drive toward polarization and contestation. (68)

Understanding Faculty Resistance to the Emphasis

I have observed that there is often resistance and reluctance on the part of some faculty to add this emphasis to their professional considerations. There are a number of factors which contribute to this resistance/reluctance, including the following:

The excessive emphasis on specialization, which has come to characterize the academy, contributes to a reluctance to venture outside our own disciplines. This results in a failure to see relationships between and within various bodies of knowledge and because of that failing, we do not encourage thinking about the interrelatedness of knowledge. There are very few opportunities for exploration of the relationship between literature, history, the arts, the sciences, much less the consideration of the relationship between the content and substance of the Christian faith to the presuppositions and conclusions of the various bodies of knowledge.
There is the lack of opportunity in formal academic settings to discuss the ramifications and implications of the content of the various academic disciplines to the issues and ideas that are part of our faith heritage. Most terminal degree programs are offered in totally secular settings in which such faith and disciplines dialogue is not provided.
The American approach to Christianity allows for a fragmentation and compartmentalization of life and thought, so that we have an inordinate comfort level with keeping our faith totally separate from intellectual and professional activity. We are prone to consider “faith” a purely private and personal matter and resist the idea of working through faith implications in an overt and conscious way or even to raise faith issues related to our professional responsibilities. We have separated the “sacred” from the “secular” so much that we have ended up translating our “separatist” tradition into an “isolationist” mentality. The general public wants us to keep our religion to ourselves and not to mix it into understandings of wholesome, effective business, industry, community, education or politics.
We ourselves are limited in the understanding of our personal faith. The Baptist and other Evangelical/Protestant understandings of the way a person becomes a Christian tend to emphasize the initial transaction resulting in “salvation.” We fail to heed the admonition to “Love God with all our hearts, all our minds, all our strength.” We tend to know far more about our academic disciplines than we do about our faith or our chosen church’s theological heritage. The end result is that we give far more authority to the content and presuppositions of our disciplines than we do to our faith commitment.

Where Do We Go from Here?

What is the best way to encourage faculty to engage in the ongoing exploration of the implications of the Christian faith to the various bodies of knowledge and to the teaching/learning process? How do we approach the exploration in a way that faculty feel affirmed and not threatened by the process? The best context for a serious faith and disciplines/faith and learning emphasis is within a comprehensive, systematic, and institutionally supported professional development program.

In looking at faculty development programs at Christian institutions over the past several decades, and very likely at many other Baptist institutions, you will find an on-going interest in probing the significance of the Christian faith to the educational process. Organizations such as the Association of Southern Baptist Colleges and Schools and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities devote considerable attention to promoting the notion that colleges and universities which aspire to be distinctively/intentionally Christian will make the integration of faith and learning a major focus on the campus.

The most effective faculty development program will be formal, ongoing, comprehensive, systematic, and mandatory. An effective professional development emphasis will plan opportunities for faculty to explore issues such as understanding the developmental needs of students; examining the current research on learning styles; improving instructional methods in light of the growing understanding of how students learn; using effective testing and measurement of progress; using technology in teaching and learning; identifying faith questions within the various areas of specialty; and offering opportunities for professors to hear presentations and interact regarding the implications of the Christian faith to the current issues within the various academic disciplines. Faculty members will be encouraged to continue their research and development within their particular academic discipline.

An effective professional development program will include a variety of opportunities. Faculty can form reading groups and discussion groups both within disciplines and across disciplinary boundaries to explore issues in all the concerns defined above. The faculty development committee can plan, and the institution can support, large-group presentations by leading thinkers to stir faculty interest in probing further and deeper in all areas of professional development. The study and conversation will take place in a non-threatening atmosphere where the faculty members are genuinely interested in learning and growing.

At Oklahoma Baptist University during the early 1980s, the faculty and administration worked together to develop a program whereby every faculty member (including the president and chief academic officer) was required to develop a professional growth contract annually. The growth contracts contained a faculty member’s assessment of strengths and weaknesses; stated development goals for the coming year, including personal, spiritual, and professional areas of concern; and stated activities in which the faculty member would engage. In the growth contract, the faculty member had the opportunity to request funds to assist in his participation in professional development activities. A faculty development committee was assigned the task of reviewing the growth contracts and making recommendations to the chief academic officer as to where funds might be distributed. Within the institutional budget, there were funds allocated for professional development, and over the years, we were able to raise additional funds for faculty development. With the understanding that neither the administration would see the growth contracts nor would they be used in the promotion/tenure considerations, the faculty voted overwhelmingly to make the program mandatory for all faculty. Over a period of fifteen years, numerous faculty members chose to complete their terminal degrees with institutional support and encouragement, became active in discipline specific academic organizations, and chose to do ongoing research and writing for publication. By incorporating the faith and disciplines and faith and learning concerns into a comprehensive professional development emphasis, faculty members found a more inviting comfort level for the discussions.

The experience at Oklahoma Baptist University and other approaches used at various Christian institutions make it apparent that the most effective approach to a faith and disciplines/ faith and learning emphasis takes place in the context of a serious, comprehensive approach to professional development. Having looked at a number of models for professional development emphases, I have concluded that the most effective faculty development effort flows when the faculty vote to make it mandatory and the administration is willing for the faculty to administer the program. I have also observed that faculty development programs are most effective when the institution is willing to invest financial resources in helping faculty with their growth programs.

If the professional development program is to have the desired impact on helping the institution take giant steps toward being distinctively/intentionally Christian, there should be serious, guided scholarly efforts to identify the major issues within the various academic disciplines that have implications to the Christian faith. The effort will be made to evaluate and identify some major tenets of the Christian faith that have some relevance to a faculty member’s academic specialty. Faculty will focus on the learning process and the developmental needs of students and will discuss with each other a Christian understanding of students and of their educational process.

The most important force in guiding an effective broad-based professional development process on a campus is the committee to whom the task is assigned. The faculty development committee is responsible for planning presentations and activities that will provide healthy and meaningful settings for these conversations and studies to take place. That committee becomes the champion for the importance of professional growth and development growing out of the conviction that none of us knows all we need to know nor have we learned all we need to learn to be the most effective we can possibly be at our assigned task. The administration’s willingness to assign the responsibility and trust the committee to do its work of pushing each other toward higher levels of excellence helps create an atmosphere of trust between faculty and administration that is most desirable. The willingness to engage in faith-disciplines and faith-learning exploration is a growth issue, both intellectually and spiritually, and growth seldom takes place in brief sporadic encounters or as afterthoughts.

As a whole, there is a great need for faculty members to develop a comfort level with serious exploration of these issues. While there are many scholars within the academy who are venturing into the questions and probing possibilities, there is still much to be done. Are you willing to become serious enough about the faith-disciplines emphasis so that you can become a champion for the emphasis on your campus and a major player in the larger arena of Christian higher education? Institutions that determine to be distinctively Christian stand in such a unique and challenging place as schools devoted to prepare people of character and values for effective work in a wide variety of professions.

Conclusion

It is imperative that faith and disciplines and faith and learning issues be addressed in the context of collegial, mutually respectful, and loving conversation. If we want a healthy stimulating community of inquiry, we will work at creating opportunities for faculty and administrators to sit together in non-threatening settings and share thoughts, insights, concerns, and convictions with each other. And how long do we do a faith and disciplines emphasis? Is this something that we will do because the president has planned a special conference to address the concern or because the Board of Trustees has expressed an interest in seeing faculty engaged in the venture? When the conference is over, will the information simply be stored in our memory of meetings attended or will it have a lingering effect? It is my hope that faculty will decide to make this an on-going component of faculty development programs.

The issues are so numerous, and the Christian faith so comprehensive in scope and application, that it will take more than a single lifetime to exhaust the topics of concern. Younger or newer faculty members have had even fewer settings to address the issue and need opportunities to learn from those who have grappled with these concerns over the years. Older faculty members can always learn from those who have more recently come through the maze of preparation. Most of us have not begun to learn all there is to know within our disciplines or about how the other disciplines may touch or have significance to our own. Few in our ranks have reached such a level of maturity in our own personal and professional development that we cannot or do not need to learn from our colleagues and their pilgrimage.

Any institution will be well served to make this emphasis a topic of long-term consideration. We are one giant step closer to being distinctively Christian colleges and universities when we engage each other in this kind of dialogue. It will enrich our personal and professional lives and make us more effective at what we do. It will take us miles down the road toward offering education that is genuinely Christian in substance and content.

Works Cited

Heie, Harold. “Integration and Conversation.” The University through the Eyes of Faith. Ed. Steve Moore. Indianapolis, IN: Light and Life Communications, 1998.

Hughes, Richard T. “Christian Faith and the Life of the Mind.” Faithful Learning and the Christian Scholarly Vocation. Eds. Douglas V. Henry and Bob R. Agee. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003. 3-25.

Marsden, George. The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship. New York: Oxford UP, 1997.

BOB R. AGEE <bob_agee@baptistschools.org> is the Executive Director of the Association of Southern Baptist Colleges and Schools and President Emeritus of Oklahoma Baptist University. He holds the D.Min. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University's George Peabody College for Teachers. He has served as a professor, dean, and vice president at Union University before serving for sixteen years as President of Oklahoma Baptist University. He serves as consultant to educational institutions on long-range planning, leadership development, and fundraising and has led numerous workshops in Christian colleges and universities on faith-and-disciplines and faith-and-learning issues. He is the author of numerous articles for educational and other professional journals and is co-editor of and contributor to the book Faithful Learning and the Christian Scholarly Vocation (Eerdmans, 2003).