Conceiving the Christian CollegeThis 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. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Two Academic Models CHALLENGE To Understand More Clearly Our Own Identity | 11 |
The Centerpiece CHALLENGE To See More Fully Whom We Serve | 34 |
A Centered Education CHALLENGE To Keep the Center at the Center | 64 |
Its All Gods Truth CHALLENGE To Strengthen the Foundations of Christian Thought | 85 |
A Balanced Epistemology CHALLENGE To Preserve the Idea of Truth | 99 |
Integrative Thinking Prolegomena CHALLENGE To Understand the Integrative Mandate | 127 |
Doing Integration CHALLENGE To Sustain Our Commitment to the Integrative Task | 149 |
Faith and Learning CHALLENGE To Reinforce Our Commitment to Revealed Truth | 181 |
The Voluntary Principle CHALLENGE To Reconcile Institutional Commitments with Individual Freedoms | 214 |
Institutional Breadth CHALLENGE To Appreciate Our Institutional Uniqueness | 237 |
Our Place in the Academy CHALLENGE To Engender a More Congenial Academic Environment | 254 |
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Common terms and phrases
Academic Freedom affirm Alvin Plantinga anti-foundationalism argues Arthur Holmes believe Bible biblical C. S. Lewis Catholic CHALLENGE Chris Christ-centered education Christian colleges Christian higher education Christian Scholar's Review Christian scholars Christian Scholarship Christian thinking Christian worldview Church claims committed contemporary created order critical culture Dame Press dichotomist dimensions distinctively Christian Eerdmans epistemological Evangelical exists fact fact/value faculty faith and learning Father Fides et Ratio Grand Rapids historic Christianity human identity insist institution's Isocrates Jesus Christ John knowledge live Lord Mark Noll marketplace of ideas Marsden mean merely mind modern multiversity Nicholas Wolterstorff person perspective perspectivism philosophical Plantinga pluralism postmodern presuppositions question reality religion Religious Colleges requires says Schwehn Scripture secular slogan speak special revelation stance Systemic institutions Theodore Hesburgh theological things thinkers thought tian tion tradition Umbrella model understanding University Press Wheaton College Wolfe Wolterstorff word