Christian Humanism and Christ-Centered Education: The Redemptive Development of Humans and Human Creations

Abstract

Among Protestant colleges and universities, especially those associated with the evangelical movement, much as been written about the integration of faith and learning.³ In fact, integration language and the implied task have become the hallmark of serious Christian institutions. For instance, David Dockery writes, “The integration of faith and learning is the distinctive characteristic of Christian higher education.”⁴ Despite the important contributions of the project, however, we believe the language of “integration of faith and learning” does not prove helpful when considering the overall purpose of Christian higher education or the moral development of Christian students. Our conclusion stems not from past or recent critiques of the integration model.⁵ In fact, we think the recent criticisms largely miss the mark and at times misrepresent the diversity of those approaches which adopt the language. Instead, we are more concerned with the habits of thinking that such language may foster when considering the overall purpose of Christian higher education and Christian moral education than with the general integration model (which we will largely defend). Thus, in this chapter, we propose an alternative language that we believe provides a more helpful way to articulate the moral purposes of Christian higher education.

… the old education … may be summed up by stating that the center of gravity is outside the child. It is in the teacher, the textbook, anywhere and everywhere you please except in the immediate instincts and activities of the child himself…Now the change which is coming into our education is the shifting of the center of gravity. It is a change, a revolution, not unlike that introduced by Copernicus when the astronomical center shifted from the earth to the sun. In this case the child becomes the sun about which the appliances of education revolve; he is the center about which they are organized.

—John Dewey¹

To speak of Christ-centered liberal arts education is to make the claim that Jesus is the centerpiece of all human knowledge, the reference point for all our experience. It directs our attention to the only One who can serve as the centerpiece of an entire curriculum, the One to whom we must relate everything and without whom no fact, no theory, no subject matter can be fully appreciated.

—Duane Litfin²