Christian Worldview and the Academic Disciplines

Christian Worldview and the Academic Disciplines

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  • Author: Deane E. D. Downey
  • Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
  • ISBN: 1606085298
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 542

This book---an edited compilation of twenty-nine essays---focuses on the difference(s) that a Christian worldview makes for the disciplines or subject areas normally tauht in liberal arts colleges and universities. Three initial chapters of introductory material are followed by twenty-six essays, each dealing with the essential elements or issues in the academic discipline involved. These individual essays on each discipline are a unique element of this book. These essays also treat some of the specific differences in perspective or procedure that a biblically informed, Christian perspective brings to each discipline. Christian Worldview and the Academic Disciplines in intended principally as an introductory textbook in Christian worldview courses for Christian college or university students. This volume will aslo be of interest to Christian students in secular post-secondary institutions who may be encountering challenges to their faith---both implicit and explicit---from peers or professors who assume that holding a strong Christian faith and pursuing a rigorous college or university education are essentially incompatible. This book should also be helpful for college and university professors who embrace the Christian faith but whose post-secondary academic background---because of its secular orientation---has left them inadequately prepared to intelligently apply the implications of their faith to their particular academic specialty. Such specialists, be they professors or upper-level graduate students, will find the extensive bibliographies of recent scholarship at the end of the individual chapters particularly helpful. "Downey and Porter present a unique contribution to the perennial question of how faith interacts with the academic disciplines. Numerous factors contribute to this book's significance: the common conviction that one's Christian beliefs ought to shape the contents of one's teaching, the variety of perspectives and opinions, and the wide range of academic disciplines under discussion. The essays---originating among the excellent faculty of Trinity Western University---will deservedly be much used in undergraduate colleges and universities."---Hans Borsma J.I. Packer Professor of Theology, Regent College "Few faculty, Christian or otherwise, understand what their colleagues in other departments are doing or why. This collection of essays is not only an excellent introduction to the whole scope of academic enterprises but to the unique and important relationship between each discipline and the Christian faith. An important book not only for the entire range of faculty but for students yearning to understand both their Christian faith and what is being taught in the classroom."---James W. Sirf author of the Universe Next Door and, with co-author carl Peraino, Deepest Differences A Christian Atheist Dialogue "Christian Worldview and the Academic Disciplines is a book long overdue. It will serve as an outstanding textbook for interdisciplinary courses. But this book is more than that. Christian Worldview and the Academic Disciplines is a book that everyone concerned with Christian thought, especially in the context of the Academy, will want to read. I highly recommend it."---Craig A. Evans Payment Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Acadia Divinity College Nova Scotia


Christian Worldview and the Academic Disciplines

Christian Worldview and the Academic Disciplines

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  • Author: Deane E. D. Downey
  • Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
  • ISBN: 1498275249
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 542

This book--an edited compilation of twenty-nine essays--focuses on the difference(s) that a Christian worldview makes for the disciplines or subject areas normally taught in liberal arts colleges and universities. Three initial chapters of introductory material are followed by twenty-six essays, each dealing with the essential elements or issues in the academic discipline involved. These individual essays on each discipline are a unique element of this book. These essays also treat some of the specific differences in perspective or procedure that a biblically informed, Christian perspective brings to each discipline. Christian Worldview and the Academic Disciplines is intended principally as an introductory textbook in Christian worldview courses for Christian college or university students. This volume will also be of interest to Christian students in secular post-secondary institutions, who may be encountering challenges to their faith--both implicit and explicit--from peers or professors who assume that holding a strong Christian faith and pursuing a rigorous college or university education are essentially incompatible. This book should also be helpful for college and university professors who embrace the Christian faith but whose post-secondary academic background--because of its secular orientation--has left them inadequately prepared to intelligently apply the implications of their faith to their particular academic specialty. Such specialists, be they professors or upper-level graduate students, will find the extensive bibliographies of recent scholarship at the end of the individual chapters particularly helpful.


Christian Values and the Academic Disciplines

Christian Values and the Academic Disciplines

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  • Author: Floyd D. Crenshaw
  • Publisher:
  • ISBN:
  • Category : Christian ethics
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 228

Addresses the question, 'What role should Christian values play in the process of higher education?' This volume is a compilation of a series of Central Methodist College faculty presentations, each of which explores how Christian values are related to a particular academic discipline.


Thinking Inside the Box

Thinking Inside the Box

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  • Author: Robert C. Walton
  • Publisher:
  • ISBN: 9780615539508
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 198

Secularism has become the religion of the university campus, and Christians are often subjected to ridicule and taught that what they have learned from their parents, (Christian) school, and church is not worthy of consideration by a thoughtful person in today's society. How are Christian young people to be intellectually and spiritually equipped for today's college campuses? Students must first understand that "all truth is God's truth." The world is not divided into the realms of the secular, where science and humanism reign and religion has no place, and the sacred, where beliefs amount to little more than unsubstantiated opinion not worth discussing in academic circles. Nothing about God's world may be rightly understood apart from His Word. Secondly, students must recognize that everyone has a worldview through which he interprets everything around him. Humanists love to picture their approach as objective and unbiased because it is based on science while dismissing Christian thought as subjective because it is grounded in faith. Nothing could be further from the truth. Everyone makes assumptions about the nature of reality, and those assumptions, whether secular or religious, are not subject to proof. Instead, they are spectacles that color everything he sees and determine how he understands all that he encounters. Thirdly, all worldviews are not created equal. Just because worldviews are not subject to proof does not mean they cannot be evaluated. In order for a worldview to be considered valid, it must be internally consistent, must correspond to the world of human experience, and must be able to be lived out in practice. Humanistic worldviews simply don't measure up. Only the Christian worldview, founded in God's Word, provides an adequate foundation for understanding the world as it is. If a worldview is like a picture frame through which one peers out at the world, a "box" inside of which a person cannot avoid thinking, Christians must "think inside the box" that God has given us. Fourthly, the Christian student must be equipped to discern the worldviews underlying the ideas that he encounters in the college classroom, especially since they are rarely stated openly. This is essential for believers to be faithful servants of Jesus Christ by "taking every thought captive" and learning to "think God's thoughts after Him." Only then will Christians be in a position to fulfill the Cultural Mandate and exercise dominion over every aspect of life to the glory of God. Finally, thinking about reality in the context of a Christian worldview has great apologetic value. While no one should expect to argue unbelievers into the Kingdom of Heaven, we must be able to give an answer when asked why we believe and act as we do. The people in the secular society have been brainwashed to believe that Christians are ignorant, bound by outmoded tradition, and incapable of dealing realistically with the modern world. A careful analysis of secular thought will demonstrate just the opposite, and students who engage in such a study will be able to stand up in the face of the inaccurate perceptions and straw-man arguments that the world so often uses against Christians. The book covers thirteen academic disciplines organized around four broad categories - Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Fine Arts. Each chapter seeks to explain how and why the Christian approach to each subject differs from the secular approach, and the consequences of each. While each section includes specific examples, the main focus is on the underlying assumptions that distinguish Christian from non-Christian thought. After all, the conclusions reached by unbelievers are hard to attack if their worldview is tacitly accepted. We want our Christian young people to be like the Bereans who, after listening to the Apostle Paul, spent their time "examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so."


Christian Contours

Christian Contours

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  • Author: Douglas S. Huffman
  • Publisher: Kregel Academic
  • ISBN: 0825436737
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 242

What does it mean to think and live Christianly in a world of competing worldviews? Christian Contours answers this question by inviting readers to consider the understanding of reality proposed by the Bible. Though it is easy to divide life into separate compartments (religious and secular, theological and practical), faith invites us to view all of life in the light of that Biblical understanding. Presenting a clear, compelling case for unity in essential Christian tenets, the authors of Christian Contours guide the reader through developing, internalizing, and articulating a biblical worldview. This robust worldview enables the Christian to be a critically-thinking participant in culture and to be a faithful disciple of Christ with both heart and mind.


Restoring the Vocation of a Christian College

Restoring the Vocation of a Christian College

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  • Author: Brad Pardue
  • Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
  • ISBN: 1725298104
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 372

Restoring the Vocation of a Christian College examines the vocation of a Christian institution of higher learning—to faithfully educate students—and how individual Christian teachers and scholars can participate in this process no matter their discipline. It surveys and engages developments over the last few decades in Christian worldview studies, Christian pedagogy, character formation, and vocational reflection. Through individual essays by college administrators, cocurricular staff, and faculty from a wide range of disciplines, it provides both thoughtful reflection and concrete application of these often abstract concepts to specific institutional settings and the actual classroom experience.


McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry: Volume 11

McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry: Volume 11

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  • Author: Wendy Porter
  • Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
  • ISBN: 1610971035
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 198

The McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry is an electronic and print journal that seeks to provide pastors, educators, and interested lay persons with the fruits of theological, biblical, and professional studies in an accessible form. Published by McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, it continues the heritage of scholarly inquiry and theological dialogue represented by the College’s previous print publications: the Theological Bulletin, Theodolite, and the McMaster Journal of Theology.


God First

God First

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  • Author: David R. Dunaetz
  • Publisher: Martel Press
  • ISBN: 0998617547
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 202

“God First” is the motto of Azusa Pacific University, a Christian college in Southern California. This Festschrift celebrates the life and teaching of Gary D. Lemaster and Michael M. Whyte in honor of 20 years of service to the school. Thirteen colleagues have written essays linked to the theme of “God First” to show their appreciation to Gary and Michael. The topics include Adaptive Leadership (Rukshan Fernando), Adult Learning (Paul Kaak), Missionary Credibility (David Dunaetz), Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Stephen Lambert), Servant Leadership (Kevin Mannoia), John the Baptist (Bekele Shanko), Innovation and Leadership (Jillian Gilbert), Faith and Creativity (Theresa Tisdale), the Festschrift that C.S. Lewis Edited (Roger White), Differentiation Strategies (Marshal Wright), Leadership Educators (Shawna Lafreniere), Reconciliation in South Africa (Shuang Frances Wu), and Characteristics of Servant Leaders (Enrique Zone). All of the contributors have benefited immensely from knowing and working with Michael and Gary who serve as excellent models of what it means to incarnate Azusa Pacific University’s motto “God First.”


Faith, Life, and Learning Online

Faith, Life, and Learning Online

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  • Author: Brant M. Himes
  • Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
  • ISBN: 1666705683
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 206

Faith, Life, and Learning Online is an invitation for faith-based institutions to take bold steps toward integrating a holistic mission of spiritual formation into the online learning environment. For Christian higher education, faith integration is a matter of mission, not modality. Regardless of whether learning happens in the traditional classroom, through hybrid models, or exclusively online, Christian universities have a missional mandate to continue their long legacy of forming students of competence and character. While traditional campuses continue to provide unique and meaningful opportunities for students to grow in their faith, online learning has opened new avenues for engagement and development of spiritual formation. As such, all Christian higher education institutions are now called to take advantage of this unique technological moment to continue to offer transformative opportunities for the holistic integration of faith, life, and learning in the online environment.


An Introduction to Christian Worldview

An Introduction to Christian Worldview

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  • Author: Tawa J. Anderson
  • Publisher: Inter-Varsity Press
  • ISBN: 1783595981
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 399

Everyone has a worldview. A worldview is the lens through which we interpret the cosmos and our lives in it. A worldview answers the big questions of life: What is our nature? What is our world? What is our problem? What is our end? As Anderson, Clark and Naugle point out, our worldview cannot simply be reduced to a series of rational beliefs. We are creatures of story, and the kinds of story we tell reveal important things about our worldview. Part of being a thoughtful Christian is to understand and express the Christian worldview. It also means developing an awareness of the variety of worldviews. An Introduction to Christian Worldview explores answers to questions such as Why do worldviews matter? What characterizes a Christian worldview? How can we analyse and describe a worldview? What are the most common secular and religious worldviews? Well organized, clearly written and featuring aids for learning, An Introduction to Christian Worldview is the essential text for either the classroom or personal study. ‘Readily accessible . . . a valuable resource for all Christians who desire a deeper understanding of the conceptual foundations of our faith.’ Steve Wilkens, Professor of Philosophy and Ethics, Azusa Pacific University