In today’s academy, for variegated reasons, voices from different quarters find agreement on this point:
Christian perspectives should be sequestered from true academic pursuits. Jesus, if he is relevant at all, is certainly not welcome in its academic enterprise.
Proponents of this perspective, even some Christians, argue for this position because—and this list is hardly complete:
1. A foundational commitment to Christ betrays the spirit of free academic inquiry.
In Alvin Plantinga’s famous article “On Christian Scholarship” he notes that a deeply cherished truth in today’s academy is that the “only path to wisdom is that of the roaming, free-floating intellectual who has seen through the pretensions or naïveté of those who do make serious intellectual and moral commitments.”
Plantinga debuffs this, however, making the case that every scholar brings basic presuppositions to each study.
Nevertheless, some Christian academics feel that if they bring Christian presuppositions to their academic inquiry they betray academic integrity.
Along with Plantinga, Duane Litfin counters,
“It is not uncommon to hear members of the academic establishment call Christians into question from its secular presuppositions. But the Christian scholar’s task will sometimes be to turn the tables by calling the secular establishment into question from Christian presuppositions.”
We all bring presuppositions to our studies. At the heart of our commitment to confident pluralism is recognizing the presuppositions inherent in every discipline.
2. Christ is relevant for religion departments, but not the Liberal Arts, or Sciences.
Most campuses have chapels, and multiple religious student groups, but Christian thought is to remain there, in the realm of religion.
3. Only “facts” belong in the academy.
Lesslie Newbigin explains the roots of this from the Enlightenment:
“The thinkers of the Enlightenment spoke of their age as the age of reason, and by reason they meant essentially those analytical and mathematical powers by which human beings could attain (at least in principle) to a complete understanding of, and thus a full mastery of, nature-of-reality in all its forms. Reason, so understood, is sovereign in this enterprise. It cannot bow before any authority other than what it calls the facts. No alleged divine revelation, no tradition however ancient, and no dogma however hallowed has the right to limit its exercise.”
4. Science (read “naturalism”) has proven there is no need for God.
For example: the September 28, 2014 edition of the International Business Times headline reads: “Stephen Hawking Declares That Science Can Prove God Does Not Exist.”
Other arguments can be put forth by those who believe Jesus should be sequestered from intellectual consideration on campus, to deny a spot at the table for any religious truth claim.
This is not the place for a more complete list, nor for a thoughtful response to each – doubtless Christian philosophers and scholars do this far better than we — but if Jesus is the one who is before all things, the creator of all things, the sustainer or all things, and the goal of all things, then he must be relevant to the pursuit of knowledge, to disciplines such as biology, anthropology and English.
Precisely how Jesus relates to psychology, math, or art, is a fair question, and an important pursuit, but beyond the scope of this work–other than to offer a set of questions that you can bring to your discipline (see next set of Missional Moments).
Put simply: it is foundational that Christian professors see Christ in his full glory, as the Lord of the earth, and resist the tide, whatever the rationale, to sequester him to the margins, outside of the realm of academic pursuits. It is also essential, for the scholar and teacher, to live with integrity – that state of wholeness where faith blends beautifully with work, where Christian identity infuses everything one does.
In the following Missional Moments, we’ll suggest some ways we can “with confidence and humility” bring a distinctively Christian perspective to the pluralistic university we serve.
Rick Hove and Heather Holleman