{"id":1901,"date":"2014-01-28T16:05:54","date_gmt":"2014-01-28T21:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/campus.cru.org\/faculty\/?p=1901"},"modified":"2023-07-18T21:11:04","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T01:11:04","slug":"the-wider-rationality-of-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/campus.cru.org\/faculty\/2014\/the-wider-rationality-of-christianity\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wider Rationality of Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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In my experience, a Christian student is incredibly encouraged just by the presence of Christian faculty.  But perhaps even more, he or she is encouraged by hearing things said in class that tie Christian knowledge to course content. Hearing knowledge inherent in Judeo-Christianity awakens them. It awakens others as well, because such truth is attractive.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Christian students and non-Christian students occasionally tell me they find interesting my mention of Christian principles, like the developmental sequence inherent in 2 Peter 1:5-7 and its relationship to education. Or when I occasionally mention a Scriptural principle from Proverbs when discussing principles of justice in the education of the poor.  <\/p>

I always know immediately the Christian students because their heads pop up. Yet, I\u2019m finding more and more non-Christian students  like the one last fall who thanked me because he had never had a class where you could talk about everything.  <\/p>

Yes, a few students will be hostile, even as this young man was at first.  Yet often, when I related something to the knowledge inherent in a Judeo-Christian position, even non-Christians admit they find it interesting even attractive.  <\/p>

Imagine for a moment, you have grown up a Christian and you are in an environment that, at best, ignores what you have been taught as the ultimate expression of truth and human nature; worse, in some of your classes that is openly denigrated.  <\/p>

Now imagine you are in one of our classes and you hear the following:<\/p>

  • a science professor dispassionately lays out five views of origins (naturalistic evolution, theistic evolution, intelligent design, old-earth, and young-earth creation) and then explains these are all the metaphysical hypotheses.  It matters not which one you believe as you work in your lab to map a particular gene sequence or to search the heavens for a new galaxy.<\/li>
  • a psychology or health professor has you read research that suggests that religious people are healthier. <\/li>
  • a math professor tells the story of Pascal, his mathematical breakthroughs and the fact that he sewed Scriptures in his clothes; or that Newton wrote more in theology than he did in science.<\/li>
  • an economics professor points out that even today as countries become more Christian, like South Korea and China, they become more prosperous. <\/li>
  • a history or education professor reveals that Western universities emerged from monastery schools and until the late 1800s all modern universities were Christian.<\/li>
  • a medical professor explains the similar history of hospitals.<\/li><\/ul><\/p>

    From my experience, even one or two of these occurrences for students is tremendously encouraging, sometimes enough to keep them from discarding their faith.  I have had students tell me they returned to church after hearing such from a professor. <\/p>

    We cannot underestimate what a few of these simple encounters might do to open the minds of students to the wider rationality of Christianity.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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    Mary Poplin<\/b>
    Professor of Education
    Claremont Graduate University in Los Angeles<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In my experience, a Christian student is incredibly encouraged just by the presence of Christian faculty.\u00a0 But perhaps even more, he or she is encouraged by hearing things said in class that tie Christian knowledge to course content. Hearing knowledge inherent in Judeo-Christianity awakens them. It awakens others as well, because such truth is attractive. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50274,"featured_media":75,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2438],"tags":[2814,2816,2815,2617,2581],"class_list":["post-1901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mentoring-students","tag-christianity","tag-discussions","tag-lectures","tag-mary-poplin","tag-students"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Wider Rationality of Christianity - Faculty Commons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/campus.cru.org\/faculty\/2014\/the-wider-rationality-of-christianity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Wider Rationality of Christianity - Faculty Commons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In my experience, a Christian student is incredibly encouraged just by the presence of Christian faculty.\u00a0 But perhaps even more, he or she is encouraged by hearing things said in class that tie Christian knowledge to course content. 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