Building the Christian Academy [Paperback]

Mr. Arthur F. Holmes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 2001

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? Seeking to answer these questions, Arthur Holmes here explores the Christian tradition of learning, focusing on seven formative episodes in history that pertain to building and maintaining a strong Christian academy today. Holmes's fascinating treatment is set within the history of ideas -- the early church in a pagan culture, Augustine's formative influence on monastery and cathedral schools, the rise and decline of scholasticism, Renaissance humanism's contribution to the Protestant Reformation, the utilitarian view of education that accompanied the scientific revolution, and struggles with Enlightenment secularization -- and incorporates the educational thought of Plato and Isocrates, Clement and Origen, Abelard and Hugh of St. Victor, Aquinas and Bonaventure, Erasmus and the Reformers, Francis Bacon and John Milton, and John Henry Newman.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (February 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802847447
• ISBN-13: 978-0802847447
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #726,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars the debate goes on..., February 10, 2012

By 

Reid Mccormick - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Building the Christian Academy (Paperback)

"Biblical faith had not room for anti-intellectualism; instead, faith and learning were mutually supportive and mutually enriching."

The relationship between Christianity and higher education has been around for a very long time. And like any long term relationship, it has had its ebbs and flows. From the ancient Greek philosophers to modern day administrators, the integration of faith and learning has always been a deep debate.

In Building the Christian Academy, Holmes walks us through the history of Christian knowledge and wisdom. Eventually every philosopher and educator reaches virtually the same conclusion: education is more than just the transportation of knowledge from one to another. True Christian higher education enlightens us, shows us that all truth is God's truth, and challenges us to use our knowledge in the service of our Lord and others. Christian education has a leg up on secular education, because it provides the bonding agent for all truth.

It was interesting to go through the history of education both philosophically and organizationally. It is fun to see that the discussions we have today in American higher education are just continuations of debates that originated nearly two thousand years ago.

7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars BUILDING EDIFICES, INSTITUTIONS, OR LIVES?, August 21, 2002

By 

Dr. F. R. Bosch (CA, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Building the Christian Academy (Paperback)

Dr. F. R. Bosch an apologist, researcher, and lecturer who integrates [Biblical] faith and knowledge, is a full-time university professor in Southern California, U.S.A.

Prof. Arthur F. Holmes is to be commended for undertaking this immense project, and being able to narrow it down to nine chapters, and one-hundred and nineteen pages. That is a feat in itself. Considering the breadth of the subject, this is a good abridged and succinct overview of the unfolding historical, philosophical and environmental events of the western Christian Academies. The book focuses on the earlier historical evolution of higher education, while briefly addressing contemporary discussions, practices, and the state of present Christian Academies (colleges/universities).

Holmes' book stimulates interactive reading. It perhaps generates more questions than there are answers. This being the case, some may think that the book fails to discuss the pertinent areas fully. Others, may believe that the subject is dealt with from a too narrow perspective, or perhaps the topic could have been addressed from several Christian traditions, allowing the reader to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the subject.

In the next to last page, Prof. Holmes advises that Christian Academies "must return to the liberal arts" in an effort to educate and prepare the whole person. To accomplish this "Christian scholarship must be cultivated, and we must focus on the theological foundations of learning." This sounds good. However, if the "right combination" of what is being proposed could have been found and applied in the earlier Christian Academies, we would have the near-perfect combination today or its derivation. Instead, today's Christian Academies (colleges/universities) are trying to figure out the right combination.

It seems that Christian Academies need to reevaluate and revisit their original reason for being. That is, their commission statements, their vision statements, and their mission statements. There may be a need to find understanding of what it means to be in the world, yet not being worldly. It would also seem prudent to consider what it means that our thoughts are not God's, thus our ways are not His. As an ancient wise man said - We can prove all things, but is the Lord convinced?

The connotation of "building" in the title of the book conveys the thought that there is a [lasting] foundation that weathers the ideological and theological storms of time. The proposal of the Liberal Arts being the means to offer a "rounded" preparation - an education that ultimately leads students to become God-cognizant and make God-connections seems idealistic. Liberal Arts education alone is not going to cause students to make a God-connection. The history of Christian and non-Christian liberal arts colleges and universities have sufficiently demonstrated this.

It seems more prudent and realistic to advocate that a Liberal Arts education that takes place in the Christian context, where the foundational Biblical absolutes are taught is more likely to stimulate God-connections. However, the history of Christian institutions of higher learning seems to confirm that in their attempt to "adjust" to the times, they have compromised, and, sometimes, even rescinded their principal reason for being. Advocating what worked in the past and simply updating through accommodation will fall short of being successful.

It may be the "high-noon" for Christianity to recapture the Spirit of early-Christianity that led the Church and its early-academies. It caused them to rise not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of revelation and use the tools of the times to communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ. Twenty-first century Christianity must express the Biblical Absolutes in contemporary terms. It must rediscover how to communicate and apply its absolutes - Truth, while divorcing itself from the outdated tools of the past. If this is not possible, then it must cease to promote its Biblical teachings as infinite and absolute. This may sound brash, albeit, it is the stark reality. Either God is true and His Word is absolute or not. Christian Academies need to equip themselves to communicate a message that has not changed from a God that changes not, or they are fooling themselves.

Perhaps Christian Academies also need gifted "prophets" to proclaim God's pertinent words of how Christian Academies can make a paradigm shift to relate to the twenty-first century while retaining and embracing the distinctive absolutes of the Christian faith without watering them down, compromising, or allowing them to be regarded as outdated and no longer relevant to post-modernism, or what some are beginning to call post-Christian.