Customer Reviews

The Idea of a Christian College

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Idea of a Christian College is a concise work that kind of lays out why we have Christian colleges. In the first few pages, Arthur Holmes is quick to point out what the Christian college is not: a defender of the faith, a good education with Bible classes and chapels, or just a training center for Church-related vocations. Yes, a Christian college can provide these but to be unique, they need to offer more - much more.

A Christian college "should be an education that cultivates the creative and active integration of faith and learning, of faith and culture."

This book definitely targets professors and administrators working at a Christian college and even graduate students looking to get into the profession. This book is not really targeted for students or their parents, though I am sure some of them could benefit from it.

If you believe in Christian higher education or you want to look into deeper, I think this book is a great intitation. This book is a definite recommend but like most books, it is not perfect. It is more like a launching pad than a comprehensive thesis.

This book is well written and brief. (It's amazing how often those two go together!) The contents are as follows:

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Preface

1. Why a Christian College?

2. Theological Foundations

3. The Liberal Arts: What and Why?

4. Liberal Arts as Career Preparation

5. Integrating Faith and Learning

6. Academic Freedom

7. College as Community

8. Experience is not Enough

9. The Marks of an Educated Person

Suggestions for further reading

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The chapter on integrating faith and learning was especially good, as was the chapter on academic freedom. Refreshingly lucid thinking and writing: no stale ideas to be found.

An excellent evaluation of what a Christian higher education should be. My only regret is that I did not find and read this book when I was younger.

I really don't like this book. It is very opinionated and self centered. I was forced to read it for school but I would never ever read it again.

Like many books written by academic Christians, this one will be liked or disliked depending on one's political orientation. Conservative Christians will probably disdain it and liberal Christians will probably embrace it. The assumptions are based on Nature and not scripture (although it uses scripture). I wrote a lengthy critique here for those interested:

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For those uninterested, here are four sample quotations which will give you insight into the method of argument:

1) he suggests that to be a "defender of the faith" is not a Christian college's primary purpose (4);

2) that "good education plus biblical studies in an atmosphere of piety" is not what a Christian college exists for (5), and;

3) that "The relation between reason and revelation is therefore in principle no more antithetical than the relation between culture and church" (18).

4) that "Faith is neither a way of knowing nor a source of knowledge" (18).