The Old Testament is not “old,” it is First. The First Testament was written to the first group of God’s People, Israel. One Book was written by One author with one message. The English reader tends to see the Bible as a series of books rather than the meaning of Bible: The Book. Compartmentalizing books...
Hummingbirds were the passion of Emily Dickenson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Mark Twain.
Christopher Benfey’s book A Summer of Hummingbirds traces the interconnectivity of these writers to their interpretation of the beating wings: the fleeting nature of human life. All had left behind their Christian roots seeing that “the old pieties no longer sufficed” opting instead for a patchwork quilt of personalized faith. Dickinson concluded “human life, all life, is a route of evanescence.”[1] She developed a view of existence centered in “birds, flowers, the shifting quality of light and of mind.” Roger Lundin’s review points out the problem of those fluttering wings: “the loss of belief left them riddled with phantom pain.”[2]
Amputees confess the ache of loss to be real. The mind actually creates a physical illusion to compensate for the missing appendage.[3] But doctors observe that while time may dissipate the sense of loss, it is the focus on something else that eventually eliminates phantom pain. Creating a trick, a “virtual reality” for the person who has lost a limb, may enhance a patient’s recovery.[4] The illusion of loss is exactly the problem faced by people who have the original taken away.
I use only Coffee-Mate® in my Dunkin’ Donuts® coffee: the packaging adds the large statement “the original.” Ask anyone who knows me well. I cannot stand substitute coffee creamer. One of the true things about aging is the idea that when we have the option, we are no longer interested in knock-offs. We want what we want; time is short! While situations arise where my beloved Coffee-Mate® is inaccessible, my taste buds know something is amiss. Substitution seeks to overcome, but can never replace, the original.
Genesis has had its share of imitators. Some will declare that since Genesis history was written later than Egyptian or Mesopotamian mythology, that Genesis is the “copy.” While “literary similarities” exist, “borrowing” does not have to be the explanation.[5] For over 30 years while teaching the book of Genesis from high school through master’s level students I have used a “compare and contrast” approach to learning. Just before going off to college, for instance, seniors were asked to find similarities and differences between pagan mythologies of the Babylonian Enuma Elish and North American Raven versus the Genesis record. I still have their brilliant summaries in my files. In an honest comparison, high school seniors discovered this truth: distinction is more important that similarity.
And for 20 years I have diagrammed an alternative approach on the white board. The original Truth recorded in Genesis 1-2 was distorted by sin because of Genesis 3 creating warped imitations throughout human history. One nation chiseling their distortion of the original 500 years prior to the actual record does not call Genesis into question. The differences are so pronounced, Genesis stands alone.
The pagan view is plainly magical—committed to ritual, attempting to placate unknown, unseen, unpleasant forces. Mythological tales are written in a poetic fashion, creating memorable stories, giving a token sense of human origins. But these tales are nowhere close to reliable. John Walton says it best, “Though its permutations vary from time to time and culture to culture, the paganism in each of us is inclined to fabricate a manageable deity.[6] The fantastic nature of the gods and their situations fit better in a graphic novel (read, “comic book”). Cartoons, though they reflect aspects of supernatural and natural worlds, are only hopeful of something other.
The biblical view is plainly mystical—the text is committed to an “other” sense of wonder and mystery. The creation account is striking. Genesis 1:1-2:3 is unique. A “matter-of-fact” style dictates a form of composition little known in the ancient world: historiography. Historiography reported events that occurred in space and time. Deuteronomy 4 captures the point:
For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. . . . Know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath, there is no other.[7]
Yahweh had warned against the rise of imitators.[8] This should come as no surprise since “correspondence is founded on metaphor . . . and that metaphor is the basis of all language and thought, as it is of all religion . . . Deep within each of us, the need for correspondence remains . . . the need to perceive ourselves as belonging to the cosmos.”[9]
Myth in the ancient world was a substitute for the local community concerning their gods and life’s origin. For most people groups, their creation stories gave direction for their priests to perform their ritual, magical ceremonies to maintain proper relations with the gods. Evil was co-equal and co-eternal with their gods. Time was cyclical; “Fate” controlled life.
Against the culture of the day, Genesis declares God is God alone. He personally plans and oversees all events (Providence). He controls all of life (Sovereignty). He gives direction to human time (History). He is unchanging giving certainty and security in the world (Immutable). He directs all of life toward His purposes (Teleology).
When I read about Dickinson, Stowe, and Twain this week I felt a deep sadness. My emotions are the same anytime I hear of folks yearning for truth, painful in their loss, settling for falsehood. In contrast to the views of the writers mentioned above, hummingbirds are a result of God’s direct creation. I suspect that if this little creature could speak she would say, “Listen to my wings; their sound is in praise of my Creator!”[10] So it is no surprise to hear Scripture so often compare those refusing to believe as “having no eyes to see, nor ears to hear.”[11] Amputation of The Truth, is simply rebellion against The Truth.[12]
Mystery shrouds human understanding, stands as a marker of Heaven, subjects accepted norms to One outside earth, and speaks best through Jesus who is “the mystery of godliness” (1 Timothy 3:16). [Originally written / posted at WarpandWoof.org 2 September 2009 ]
[1] Evanescence means disappearing, vanishing, or vaporous.
[2] As quoted by Roger Lundin in his review “Old Pieties No Longer Sufficed,” Books & Culture Sept/Oct 2009, 16-18.
[3] V. S. Ramachandran and S. Blakeslee. 1998. Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind (William Marrow).
[4] https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6146136.stm
[5] Among the many books that could be mentioned in promotion of such a view, consider R. K. Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament, (Hendrickson, 2004); Walter Kaiser, The Old Testament Documents: Are They Reliable & Relevant? (IVP, 2001); K. A. Kitchen, The Reliability of the Old Testament, (Eerdmans, 2006).
[6] John H. Walton. 2001. The NIV Application Commentary: Genesis. (Zondervan): 55.
[7] Deuteronomy 4:32, 39 (ESV).
[8] Deuteronomy 4:15-19.
[9] “This is why something inside us responds spontaneously to metaphor, the heart of all poetry and, finally, of all language and all meaning.” Thomas Cahill. 1998. The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels. (Doubleday): 49, emphasis mine.
[10] Indeed all creation is commanded to give praise to its Creator: Isaiah 44:23; 49:13.
[11] For example, Deuteronomy 29:4; Jeremiah 5:21-24; Ezekiel 12:2; Mark 8:17-18; Romans 11:8.
[12] “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25).
Abstract: Universal truths found throughout the disciplines need to be taught through a biblical mindset. All realms, all studies should be subordinated under the authority of Scripture. These human spheres include such studies as word and image, time and place, history and culture, arts and communication, law and ethics, philosophy and literature, economics and politics, as well as mathematics and science. Biblical thinking will instruct the interiority of thought needed to build the infrastructure of ideas for future Christian leaders. Biblical thinking includes directed and discovered interdisciplinary implications for history, creativity, assessment, collaboration, coherence, and legacy.
Introduction
John C. Polkinghorne sets a distinguished interdisciplinary example as a theologian-scientist. Stressing the unity of knowledge as non-negotiable for the believer, Polkinghorne evangelizes with his words
The true university’s quest for interdisciplinary truth may be properly called “Christian,” not because of some imperialist attempt at takeover by the churches, but because those who seek the truth without reserve, whether they know it or not, are ultimately searching for the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ream, 53).
Polkinghorne pulls no punches—Jesus is the center of the learning universe. Education is not simply an access to knowledge but a development of wisdom. Reason and purpose are central to Polkinghorne’s argument, “Why?” being the most important question anyone can ask. Beauty in math gives example for the claims of interdisciplinary studies. “The indispensability of theology” (Ream, 61-64) gives the basis for properly interpreting all knowledge accessible because of God’s transcendent unity of all knowledge. “God is the ground of all reality, the integrating factor that ties together the multidimensional richness of human experience” (64). Philip Ryken, Wheaton College president, establishes the foundation for integration.
In conducting this exploration we will exercise our theological imagination. But we will also make deductions that are grounded in the prophecies of Scripture, governed by the principles of sound doctrine, and guided by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit as we gather together the strands of revelation that lead toward engagement in the liberal arts as an eternal enterprise (Davis, Jeffry, 295).
The intersection-unification of academic disciplines is dependent upon supernatural revelation for grounding and guidance. Biblical theology has its roots in supernatural revelation coming from The Eternal Godhead, The Eternal Word.
Biblical Theology
Reason and intelligence are effective, God-given instruments which cannot be dismissed (1 Kings 4:29-34; 2 Chron 2:12), though their use must be tempered with humility (1 Cor 8:1, 2; James 3:13). Reflection of God’s omniscience—He knows everything—is imprinted within people having been made in God’s image (cf. Ps 94:10, 11). Logic, rhetoric, and wisdom are patterns of thought resident within God’s nature mirrored in human nature (1 Sam 2:3; Col 2:2, 3). Humans certainly do not know all things (Ecc 7:23-25; Jer 33:3) nor do we always use our knowledge with discernment, wisdom and virtue (2 Peter 1:5-9). We must be careful, then, of the pride of knowledge and the snobbery of anti-intellectualism (Acts 18:24-28; 1 Cor 8:1).
Genesis three explains the ruination of God’s intention for knowledge described in Genesis one and two. According to innumerable Scriptural sources (Rom 1:18, 25, 28; 8:6, 7; Eph 4:17-19; 1 Tim 6:5; 2 Tim 3:8; Titus 1:15, 16) sin has adversely affected human intellectual capabilities. The corrective for people’s cerebral incapacitation is a renewal of the mind by the saving grace of Jesus (Rom 8:6, 7; 12:2; Eph 4:20-24; Col 1:21-23; 3:10; Heb 8:10; 10:16). While sin continues to distort truth, we must always be on the lookout for the kernel of verity, and allow the chaff of error to be blown away. In order to practice the oft-repeated phrase, “All truth is God’s truth,” we must reorder our thinking biblically.
How does this change in thinking occur? Both Ephesians 4:17-5:2 and Colossians 3:1-17 provide a pattern to follow. Depraved minds (Eph 4:17-19) are reformed by the grace of God at salvation (4:20-24; Col 3:9-10) and should be in a constant state of renewed thinking (Col 3:1, 2). Christians, more than anyone else, should be regularly, biblically exercising their mental faculties. Only in this way, can we lead lives that are semper reformata, reformans, reformanda—“always reformed, reforming, and to be reformed.”
Faith which is reforming has a factual base. It is objective, reliable belief based on factual confirmation, certainty shown by incontrovertible data (Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1-3; John 20:8; Heb 11:1). Some mistakenly believe faith is a “blind leap” or a “well-I-can’t-prove-it-but-I-know-it’s-true” mentality. Paul maintained that God offered “proof to all men” by raising Jesus from the dead (Acts 17:31). Christians believe in someone who did something—a real person who came in real space and time, died a real, physical death, and literally, historically rose again from the grave—Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
So “debated,” “argued,” “proved,” “disputed,” “explained,” persuaded,” and “confuted” are words of reason used to plead the Christian faith (cf. Acts 9:22, 29; 17:2-4; 18:4, 19, 28; 19:8, 9; 24:25). While the Christian faith is reasonable it is also something beyond reason. Clearly the work of The Holy Spirit is necessary to change individual’s thinking from a human-centered to a God-centered perspective (Romans 8:5-9; 1 Cor 2:10-16). The supernatural process of transformation is outside the scope of ordinary experience (Rom 11:33-36).
But pagan neighbors would see the difference in a nation given the supernatural revelation of God (Deut 4:5-8). Indeed, Yahweh expected his people would lead others to The Truth (Ex 19:5, 6). Solomon, who gained his knowledge from God honored His Maker by using his mind for the study of everything from botany to zoology (1 Kings 4:29-34). Unbelievers came from the great empires of the day to sit at Solomon’s feet and benefit from his wisdom (4:34; 10:24). As a result of his erudite witness some even came to faith commitment in Israel’s God (1 Kings 10:1-9).
Ecclesiastes, written by Solomon later in life, provides an examination and refutation of all worldviews apart from that of The Self-Revealing God. The apostles’ concern for Christian to know what and why they believe (1 Peter 3:15) is premised on the wisdom of Proverbs 22:17-21,
“Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, and apply your mind to my knowledge; for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, that they may be ready on your lips. So that your trust may be in the LORD, I have taught you today, even you. Have I not written to you excellent things of counsels and knowledge, to make you know the certainty of the words of truth that you may correctly answer to him who sent you?”
Reason, rightly controlled by Revelation, is a biblical perspective. Personal (i.e., the individual) and societal (i.e., the group) reason is normally the premise for Western thinking. Oriental influence suggests that there is a revelation based upon human tradition most often referred to as a myth or story. Some in The West suggest that reason interprets revelation. In each of the three cases human intellect in some way interprets thinking. Biblical thinking mandates that transcendent (i.e., outside) truth be the arbiter of all intellectual pursuits. Christians should be the first to encourage study and the last to be fearful of knowledge since God has established the study of knowledge as necessary for the Christian (cf. 2 Cor 10:3-5).
No better place can engender a Christian view of reason governed by Revelation than a biblical institution, taught by intentional Christian professors. Just as there is no bifurcation of secular—sacred so there is no dichotomy between the study of all things with The Source of everything. Interdisciplinary education in Christian venues can establish an answer to the questions, “How does everything fit together?” and “How does life make sense?” There is an intersection and unification of heaven and earth, supernatural and natural. From the very first statement in Scripture, unity and wholeness were necessary—“the heavens and the earth” meant “everything from A to Z” in the Hebrew mindset. There is a unity of Truth (Gen 1:1; Josh 2:11; 2 Kings 19:15; 2 Chron 2:12). All “truth” is inclusive within His “Truth.” Since God alone made “the heavens and the earth” (Neh 9:6; Prov 30:4; Isa 44:24) and the whole of creation gives Him praise (Ps 69:34) Christian thinkers must answer the question “how do our studies give praise to God?” Enter the need for interdisciplinary education.
Interdisciplinary Education
Clement of Alexandria answers the question, “How do our studies give praise to God?” In his writing Stromateis, Clement seeks to take fragments of knowledge and make them complete in Christ. He writes,
“The expert is the one who brings everything to bear on the truth. He culls whatever is useful from mathematics, the fine arts, literary studies, and, of course, philosophy, and protects the faith from all attacks” (1:9).
The Christian faith unifies truth since all truth has its origin from God. Christian educators, interested in the unity of all truth, are drawn to interdisciplinary education.
Objectives for IDSE The unity of all things under the Lordship of Jesus necessitates an educational process infused with meaning. Christians understand that pedagogical-andragogical practice is premised on mindset models. If one methodology is used to the exclusion of others not only does one framework usurp the educational enterprise but the multifaceted unity of God’s Truth is insufficiently enacted. If “the one and the many” are perfectly portrayed in The Trinity, it is incumbent upon the Christian educator to engage all of God’s creation within the unity-diversity model of The Trinity. Interdisciplinary studies education conforms to a broad, biblically based, Christian construct of the wholeness of God’s world. IDSE course objectives could include:
1. Biblically—The Scriptures interpret all disciplines (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
2. Apologetically—the Christian Faith is defended (Titus 1:9)
3. Ethnically—the unity of The Church is maintained (Galatians 3:29)
4. Experientially—the creation is open for exploration (Psalm 65:5-8)
5. Interactively—the student engages creational order (Psalm 8:5-8)
6. Relationally—the campus is involved in collaboration (Psalm 67)
7. Practically—the learning outcomes are for the common good (Titus 3:1, 8, 14)
Outcomes for IDSE Scripture maintains that the teaching-learning process goes both ways (Luke 6:40, Gal 6:6). Indeed, one Hebrew word lamad is translated as both “teaching” and “learning.” If all people are created in God’s image, with worth-value-dignity, then each person can contribute to their studies in a worthwhile manner. Choices of study formats can be created from various modalities including but not limited to: Field experiences, Lectures, Classes, Internships, Colloquia, Retreats, Seminars, Films, Overseas study, etc.
Student learning outcomes could include but are not limited to the following:
1. Create a Biblically-based, Spirit-driven intersection with contemporary culture.
2. Evaluate dominate cultural-truth claims through a Biblical lens.
3. Explore the experience of believing cultural agents with a Christian mindset.
4. Employ Scriptural guidelines to deduce a culture’s ethos.
5. Communicate Christian teaching as the synthesizing guide for culture decisions.
6. Assess The Church’s lifelong way of living with community customs.
7. Apply biblical principles that interact with the current culture.
8. Critique multiple cultural categories from a Christian vantage point.
9. Compose a Christian bibliography of current websites, journals, and books on culture.
10. Propose a project with intersects biblical teaching with cultural content.
In his letter to Gregory, Bishop of Caesarea, the Church father Origen said,
“I wish to ask you to extract from the philosophy of the Greeks what may serve as a course of study or a preparation for Christianity, and from geometry and astronomy what will serve to explain the sacred Scriptures, in order that all that the sons of the philosophers are wont to say about geometry and music, grammar, rhetoric, and astronomy, as fellow-helpers to philosophy, we may say about philosophy itself, in relation to Christianity.”
Origen’s words should prompt all courses of study taught by interdisciplinary Christian scholars to (1) initiate why a subject should be studied, without apology, through a biblical lens, (2) detail what syllabi, outcomes, objectives, and daily lessons contribute to any discussion from a Christ-centered point of view, and (3) create an interpretive approach to the subject explaining how the subject will be pursued, from what Christian vantage point.
Questions for IDSE Educational questions prompting biblical interdisciplinarity:
1. Do we ask ourselves, “How do I affect the biblical doctrine of coherence in my students, encouraging the intersection-unification of all things in the classroom?”
2. Do we teach knowledge or do we teach knowledge in relationship to our students, ourselves, and “the heavens and the earth?”
3. Do we ask, “How does God’s interpretation of His world show all things working together?
4. Do we view our students as grades in a book or do we remember that they may not have eaten breakfast this morning, had a fight with their parents last night, may be wondering what their life means, or are trying to make sense of “the heavens and the earth?”
5. Do we believe that all of life is interrelated and then give “pat answers” to our students’ questions about “the heavens and the earth?”
6. How does the biblical phrase “the ends of the earth” relate to my teaching? Do I follow the biblical pattern of arche to telos—“the beginning and the end”? Do we teach God’s original intention leading to His final consummation of all things?
7. When we speak of “integrity” do we understand and teach its connection with “integer,” “integral,” “integration,” and “intelligence” (comprehension of the whole)?
8. Do we use words in our teaching which provide “pointers” toward the God who made “the heavens and earth”: laws, prediction, sequence, possibility, direction, properties?
9. Do we separate spiritual, emotional, mental, physical, psychological aspects of our person without seeing them as the whole which makes us up?
10. Do we consider that all the aspects of our individual lives are interwoven within the fabric of “the heavens and the earth” for all people, places, cultures, and times? What do the implications of that question mean for my life and my teaching?
Examples of IDSE
Assignment Outcome Kevin is an Indianapolis environmental architect. In my class “Theology of Culture” I asked Kevin and the other class members to tie biblical themes learned in class with their vocation. Kevin’s interest in architectural landscaping introduced his classmates and me to biomimicry. Humans mimic biology in their building design. All of us were fascinated to discover that biomimicry exists as an industry. Kevin showed us pictures of a cathedral which incorporates plant patterns in its construction. A planetarium in Spain looks exactly like the human eye. The Turning Torso Tower in Sweden is built like a turning human torso. Desert bugs drink water from fog captured by their wingtips. Now builders recreate the bug’s wingtip coating on buildings to gather water from fog. The Galapagos shark is free of bacteria build up on its skin. Sharklet Technologies use the shark’s skin design to keep bacteria from clinging to hospital surfaces; it stops infections, saving lives. We were all so enthralled by Kevin’s presentation about biomimicry that his conclusion caught us off guard. Kevin said, “Frankly, up until now, I have always had a bent toward the tree-hugger, do-gooder side. Do the right thing, just because it is the right thing. But now I understand a theology of culture. Doing ‘the right thing’ is intimately tied to its Creator. I am a steward of The Creator’s creation and must manage creation well.”
Course Approach (Introduction to Philosophy Syllabus) Classic philosophical questions, arguments, models, and approaches will be understood not through human reason but thoroughly through Divine Revelation. Philosophy is the handmaiden of theology: the first is dependent upon the second. Assumptions are at the core of every truth claim. People develop their perspectives consciously or unconsciously, applying the end results in life, often without thought. It is therefore preeminent for the Christian philosopher to establish philosophical directives in Transcendent Truth. While the philosophical process is rigorous—intellectually demanding—it must be remembered that Hebraic wisdom begins with fear of Yahweh (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10). Philosophical study can be beneficial to the surrounding culture at the same time maintaining an antithesis with current cultural claims.
Reflective Questions Part of the final IDS portfolio assignment could include connections to at least one of the school’s core institutional outcomes through affective inquiry.
1. What Spirit gifting has been entrusted to me and how have I practiced my vocation?
2. How has biblical teaching made me re-examine something in my life or culture?
3. What has biblical teaching caused me to accept or become passionate about my vocation?
4. What has biblical teaching caused me to change or resolve to do in my life’s work?
5. How have course readings impacted my thinking about interdisciplinary studies?
6. How has course content prepared me to confront the needs and problems of non-profits?
7. How has course content prepared me to think more broadmindedly as a Christian?
8. How will an interdisciplinary studies degree help my church and community?
9. What class has had the most impact on my life and why?
10. How is the doctrine of coherence fulfilled through my interdisciplinary coursework?
Conclusion
Basil the Great wrote To Young Men, on How They Might Derive Profit from Pagan Literature:
“The greatest of all contests lies before us for which we must do all things, and in preparation for it, must strive to the best of our power, and must associate with poets and writers of prose and orators and with all men from whom there is any prospect of benefit with reference to the care of our soul.”
Encouraging the interiority of our students can be best influenced through a biblical-theological interdisciplinarity. The best people to encourage the process of biblical-theological interdisciplinarity are Christian professors who themselves have been changed by Jesus’ salvation who now have hope of their students’ change. Changing the world has always begun by the change of self. Examples of environmental architects like Kevin could be multiple. All Christian students should engage biblical thinking which directs them to discover answers to the following interdisciplinary questions:
• What has come before? History: Timeless Truths through timeless texts.
• Why do ideas matter? Creativity: Theory-practice from theorist-practitioner.
• When do people benefit? Assessment: Distinctiveness because of excellence.
• How do people contribute? Collaboration: Teaching-learning in life-service.
• Where do ideas converge? Coherence: Diversity within unity.
• Who will you leave behind? Legacy: Leaders out of leaders.
Louis Markos summarizes an approach to biblical interdisciplinarity, “Each nation has its Torah and its book of proverbs, and, though only the biblical manifestations of these elements carry complete authority, traces of God’s truth and presence are to be found in all of them” (From Achilles to Christ, xxiv).
Dr. Mark Eckel delivered a 90-minute power point presentation of this topic at the ABHE Annual Conference, Friday, 20 February 2014 in Orlando, Florida. A version of this presentation is published in the Fall 2015 special academic edition of Christian Education Journal.
The Mindset of Interdisciplinary Studies in Christian Higher Education
Sample Books and Book Chapters
Beck, William David. 1991. Opening the American mind: The integration of Biblical truth in the curriculum of the university. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker.
Benne, Robert. 2001. Quality with soul: How six premier colleges and universities keep faith with their religious traditions. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Blamires, Harry. 1978. The Christian mind: How should a Christian think? London: S. P. C. K. Reprint, Ann Arbor, MI: Servant (page references are to the reprint edition).
Carpenter, Joel A. 2003. The mission of Christian scholarship in the new millennium. In Faithful learning and the Christian scholarly vocation, ed. Douglas V. Henry and Bob R. Agee, 62-74. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Carpenter, Joel A., and Kenneth W. Shipps, eds. 1987. Making higher education Christian: The history and mission of Evangelical colleges in America. Northfield, MN: Christian College Consortium.
Chiareli, Antonio A. 2002. Christian worldview and the social sciences. In Shaping a Christian worldview: The foundations of Christian higher education, ed. David S. Dockery and Gregory Alan Thornbury, 240-63. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman.
Claerbaut, David. 2004. Faith and learning on the edge: A bold new look at religion in higher education. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Cosgrove, Mark P. 2006. Foundations of Christian thought: Faith, learning, and the Christian worldview. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel.
Craig, William Lane, and Paul M. Gould, eds. 2007. The two tasks of the Christian scholar: Redeeming the soul, redeeming the mind. Wheaton, IL: Crossway.
Davis, Jeffry C. and Philip G. Ryken, eds. Liberal Arts for the Christian Life. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Publishers, 2012.
Davis, Jimmy H. 2002. Faith and learning. In Shaping a Christian worldview: The foundations of Christian higher education, ed. David S. Dockery and Gregory Alan Thornbury, 129-48. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman.
Dennison, William D. 2007. A Christian Approach to Interdisciplinary Studies: In Search of a Method and Starting Point. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock.
Dockery, David S., and David P. Gushee. 1999. The future of Christian higher education. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman.
Dockery, David S., and Gregory Alan Thornbury, eds. 2002. Shaping a Christian worldview: The foundations of Christian higher education. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman.
Evans, C. Stephen. 2003. The calling of the Christian scholar-teacher. In Faithful learning and the Christian scholarly vocation, ed. Douglas V. Henry and Bob R. Agee, 26-49. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Gangel, Kenneth O. 2002. Any dream won’t do! Preparing defenders of the faith. In Called to lead: Understanding and fulfilling your role as an educational leader, ed. Kenneth O. Gangel, 195-208. Colorado Springs, CO: Purposeful Design.
Garber, Steven. 1996. The fabric of faithfulness: Weaving together belief and behavior during the university years. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Gill, David W. 1989. The opening of the Christian mind: Taking every though captive to Christ. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
________, ed. 1997. Should God get tenure?: Essays on religion and higher education. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Gushee, David P. 1999. Attract them by your way of life: The professor’s task in the Christian university. In The future of Christian higher education, ed. David S. Dockery and David P. Gushee, 137-53. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman.
Heie, Harold, and David Wolfe, eds. 1987. The reality of Christian learning: strategies for faith-learning integration. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Henry, Douglas V., and Bob R. Agee, eds. 2003. Faithful learning and the Christian scholarly vocation. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Henry, Douglas V. and Michael D. Beaty, eds. 2006. Christianity and the soul of the university: Faith as a foundation for intellectual community. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker.
Himes, Michael J., and Stephen J. Pope, eds. 1996. Finding God in all things: Essays in Honor of Michael J. Buckley, S. J. New York, NY: Crossroad Publishing Company.
Holmes, Arthur F. 1977. All truth is God’s truth. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
__________. 1985. Toward a Christian view of things. In The making of a Christian mind: A Christian world view and the academic enterprise, ed. Arthur F. Holmes, 11-28. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Mannoia, V. James Jr. 2000. Christian liberal arts: An education that goes beyond. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Markos, Louis. 2005. Wrestling in the academy: How Christian professors can train their students to grapple with ideas. Intégrité 4 (Fall): 16-22.
Migliazzo, Arlin C. 2002a. Conclusion: A prudent synergy: pedagogy for mind an spirit. In Teaching as an act of faith: Theory and practice in church-related higher education, ed. Arlin C. Migliazzo, 313-336. New York, NY: Fordham University Press.
__________. 2002b. Introduction: An odyssey of the mind and spirit. In Teaching as an act of faith: Theory and practice in church-related higher education, ed. Arlin C. Migliazzo, xix-xiii. New York, NY: Fordham University Press.
Nwosu, Constance C. 1999. Integration of faith and learning in Christian higher education: Professional development of teachers and classroom implementation. Ph.D. diss., Andrews University.
Plantinga, Cornelius. 2002. Engaging God’s world: A Christian vision of faith, learning, and living. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Poe, Harry Lee. 2004. Christianity in the academy: Teaching at the intersection of faith and learning. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker.
Ream, Todd C., Jerry Pattengale, and David L. Riggs, eds. Beyond integration? Inter/Disciplinary possibilities for the future of Christian higher education. Abilene, TX: Abilene Christian University Press, 2012.
Riley, Naomi Schaefer. 2005. God on the quad: How religious colleges and the missionary generation are changing America. Chicago, IL: Ivan R. Dee.
Ringenberg, William C. 2006. The Christian college: A history of Protestant higher education in America. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker.
Schaeffer, Francis A. 1971a. Escape from reason. Reprint, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press (page references are to the reprint edition).
__________. 1971b. The God who is there: Speaking historic Christianity into the twentieth century. Reprint, Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press (page references are to the reprint edition).
__________. 1981. A Christian manifesto. Westchester, IL: Crossway.
Sinnema, Donald. 2001. Beyond integration to holistic Christian scholarship. In Marginal resistance: Essays dedicated to John C. Vander Stelt¸ ed. John H. Kok, 187-207. Sioux Center, IA: Dordt College Press.
Walsh, Brian J., and J. Richard Middleton. 1984. The transforming vision: shaping a Christian world view. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Sample Articles
Agee, Bob R. 2004. Christian faith and the academic disciplines: Finding the right context for discussion. Integrite 3 (Fall): 3-12.
Badley, Kenneth Rea. 1994. The faith/learning integration movement in Christian higher education: Slogan or substance? Journal of Research on Christian Education 3 (Spring):13-33.
Brantley, Paul. 1994. From Athens to Jerusalem and points beyond: The continuing search for an integrated faith. Journal of Research on Christian Education 3 (Spring): 7-12.
Burton, Larry D., and Constance C. Nwosu. 2002. Student perceptions of the integration of faith, learning, and practice in a selected education course. Paper presented at Educating for Life: Fifth Biennial Symposium of the Coalition of Christian Teacher Educators, Grand Rapids, MI., 24-25 May. ERIC, ED 476 074.
__________. 2003. Student perceptions of the integration of faith, learning and practice in an educational methods course. Journal of Research on Christian Education 12 (Fall): 101-35.
Clouser, Roy A. 2003. Is there a Christian view of everything from soup to nuts? Pro Rege 31 (June): 1-10.
Clowney, Edmund P. 1970. The Christian college and the transformation of culture. Christian Scholar’s Review 1 (Fall): 5-18.
Coe, John H. 1994. An interdependent model of integration and the Christian university. Faculty Dialogue 21 (Spring-Summer): 111-37.
Dennison, William D. 2006. In search of a starting point and a method for interdisciplinary studies in the context of Christian theism. Pro Rege 34 (September): 10-23.
Estep, James Riley Jr. 2002. Can a Christian be a dean? Toward a theological approach to academic administration in Christian higher education. Christian Education Journal, n.s., 6:35-54.
Gustafson, Loren T., Gary L. Karns, and Lisa Klein Surdyk. 2000. Teaching through the eyes of faith: An investigation of faith-learning integration in the business classroom. Research in Christian Higher Education 7 (July): 1-19.
Lawrence, Terry Anne, Larry D. Burton, and Constance C. Nwosu. 2005. Refocusing on the learning in “integration of faith and learning.” Journal of Research on Christian Education 14 (Spring): 17-50.
Lyon, Larry, and Michael Beaty. 2005. Integration, secularization, and the two-spheres view at religious colleges: Comparing Baylor university with the university of Notre Dame and Georgetown college. Christian Scholar’s Review 35 (Fall): 73-112.
Lyon, Larry, Michael Beaty, James Parker, and Carson Mencken. 2005. Faculty attitudes on integrating faith and learning at religious colleges and universities: a research note. Sociology of Religion 66 (Spring): 61-69.
Matthews, Lionel, and Elvin Gabriel. 2001. Dimensions of the integration of faith and learning: An interactionist perspective. Journal of Research on Christian Education 10 (Spring): 23-38.
Patterson, James A. 2005. Boundary maintenance in evangelical Christian higher education: A case study of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities. Christian Higher Education 4 (January-March):41-56.
Ream, Todd, Michael Beaty, and Larry Lyon. 2004. Faith and Learning: Toward a typology of faculty views at religious research universities. Christian Higher Education 3 (October-December): 349-72.
Thompson, Thomas J. 2000. Bridging the gap: Faith, learning, and living in Christian professional programs. The Cedarville College Tenure Committee. Retrieved 3 February 2007 from https://cedarville.edu.
The Village M. Night Shyamalan’s 2004 film asks the question, “Can we escape the world by creating a world of our own?” We enter The Village to find ourselves watching what seems to be some early American settlement. We are drawn to the gentle ambiance of an idyllic country setting. We are introduced to a community whose life seems simple. We then confront a foreboding. A group of adults, horrified in multiple ways by earthly experience, have established this outpost, a terrestrial utopia. The question that haunts us all is the point of The Village, “If I retreat away from the world, who in the world will help when I need to return?”
We may want to retreat from the world but none of us can leave it. In one way or another our world 
impacts how we think, how we live. Every prophet, every apostle gives biblical warning: we are all susceptible to the world’s thinking. But what is “worldly thinking”? Scripture teaches “worldliness” is unthinkingly adopting the perspectives, ethics, or attitudes of cultural systems without bringing them under the judgment of God’s Word.[i] Preparation for battle with views antithetic to God’s Word should be expected since the Christian life is “warfare” against an enemy.[ii] Preparation to think Christianly in life includes training to know whether to enter or avoid the movie theatre.
Training includes knowing the cultural systems. The suffix “ism” on a word indicates cultural belief; a systemic, systematic view of life. “Individualism,” for instance, cries “Me! Me!” focusing full attention on self. Relativism (“Let me!”), hedonism (“Please me!”), and materialism (“Give me!”) also exemplify perennial cultural attitudes.[iii] Movies can embody those viewpoints. Individualism is nowhere better portrayed in films such as About a Boy or Into the Wild. Hedonism’s focus on pleasure is fully portrayed in all its debauchery in Hangover or American Pie. [iv] The impossibility of utopia is explored in The Beach. Materialism is skewered in Wall Street. Relativism is defended in The Invention of Lying. Naturalism, the world is all that we have, is trumpeted in The Day After Tomorrow. Aware of different views helps the Christian to properly view true Truth from cultural error.
“Culture” (L. colere) comes from a word which means a field or garden needing cultivation from a farmer (L. colonus) on an estate
(L. colonia) in a colony creating a culture or civilization which gives honor or veneration to its beliefs or institutions (L. cultus) creating a way of life. Every individual and institution has a point of view. Questions can help the individual movie viewer to be well armed, thoughtfully engaging cultural institutions.
Based on the definition for “worldliness” above, Christians can ask of each movie, book, idea, or activity:
Take, for example, three beliefs impacted by culture: success, power, and compassion. Is success material and external or is it 
immaterial and internal?[v] A movie that might suggest success is not always what we see is The Family Man, starring Nicholas Cage and Tia Leoni. Given a glimpse of how his life might have been different, a rich, powerful man must decide if he should give up fame and fortune for the love of family and friends. Is power usurping control or is it use of authority for others’ good? A movie which questions the domination of others is Sweet Smell of Success, starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. A tabloid journalist commandeers celebrities’ lives by what he writes about them in his paper. One man finally stands up to the tyranny for the sake of those he loves. Is compassion meeting the needs of people or working with people who have needs? A movie whose storyline incorporates a young man into a loving family is The Blind Side, starring Sandra Bullock. Compassion can change one life, and by it, the lives of many others not by meeting needs but by meeting people.
The Treasure of Sierra Madre should warn us all to avoid adopting cultural attitudes. “I know what gold can do to men’s souls” 
points to our penchant for greed. The movie warns us about our character, the internal barometer which regulates our choice of good or evil. Humphrey Bogart plays Fred C. Dobbs whose avarice creates his malevolent meltdown. One famous line suggests a warning about our character, adopting ethics which will tear lives and dreams in two.
“Conscience. What a thing! If you believe you got a conscience, it’ll pester you to death. But if you don’t believe you got one, what could it do to ya?”
We watch the answer to Dobbs’ question in a movie which makes us think, careful not to adopt the attitudes of our culture. “Can we escape culture by making a world of our own?” Shyamalan’s question in The Village is answered every time we watch a movie. We cannot escape the world because the “world” is us.
Mark believes that everyone has a point of view and our POV comes through in everything we do. Dr. Mark Eckel has been teaching teenagers how to establish their own convictions since the 1980’s.
[i] “World” in Greek can mean a human society, corrupted by sin, identified by the systems, principles, or beliefs which are anti-God [John 12:31; 15:19; 16:33; 17:14; 1 Cor 2:12; 3:19; 11:32; Eph 2:2; 6:12; Col 1:13-14; 2:20; James 1:27; 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17; 3:1, 13; 5:4-5, 19.]
[ii] Ephesians 6; 2 Corinthians 11.
[iii] By “perennial” I mean these ideas are ubiquitous, seminal, universal. The ideas are not limited to our time but are identical throughout all time.
[iv] Movies such as these I have not personally seen and base my comments on reviews of others.
[v] For a full explanation of the concept see https://warpandwoof.org/rewards/
Submission is a role taken for ordered benefit. Each person in The Trinity fulfills a role, working for a common goal, setting the standard for mutual submission (for example, in salvation, Eph 1:3-14). Goals indicate an order; order necessitates authority. Submission assumes an authority. Humans have been given both authority to rule and authorities to...
Over the last three days I have posted these statements on social media:
“Racism” is not the direct result of history, nationality, ethnicity, nor privilege. Racism is the direct result of sin in our hearts.
“Greed” is not a result of big business, banking institutions, capitalism, or economic class. Greed begins in every human heart.
“Hate” does not originate in ethnicity, nationality, political persuasion, or economic class. Hate originates in every human heart.
My focus is the same: human problems begin with our sinful selves.
Some evangelicals believe correction for our problems begins “outside” (my biology, environment, psychology, privilege, etc). But if that is true, then we will subscribe to the source of fixing problems through external intervention (government, law, policy).
The only true change against privilege, negative home situations, or psychological dispositions is the saving grace of Jesus. The gospel changes our “hearts” then motivates us to “do good” (Titus 2.11-14 leads right into Titus 3.1, 8, 14).
If we begin by believing that “doing good” is our first response to sin then our view of salvation begins with us rather than with the redemption we need found only in Christ.
If “doing good” has solely a human origin then humans get to define “the good.” Motivation of “doing” belongs to the individual. What is “good” for me may not be “good” for you.
But if “doing good” is a focus on others because of Another, then the origin of and motivation for “good” is prompted by Someone who is Good. “Good” now has a standard.
Only the exclusivity of the gospel allows for the inclusivity of help. If we don’t have the first, then the second is up to the whim of the individual or institution. [See my essay on exclusivity – inclusivity.]
Some Christians want to pawn-off policy issues with trite bumper-sticker theology. But if we do not have a biblical foundation for government, law, policy, etc. then biblical truths will not permeate the culture.
My students have heard me say this for decades: “My environment – biology – psychology may accentuate my behavior but it is not the root cause of it” (Mark 7.21-23).
I agree with my friend Stacey “certain outward forces or institutions perpetuate, promote, and propel the indifference of the human heart.”
If you would like my pictorial overview of a cultural – versus – Christian viewpoint concerning sin, salvation, and service, click this link: christian-versus-cultural-views-of-sin-salv-serv
Another of my many mantras classes have seen goes like this, “The problem is not out there (I point to things around me) but in here (I point to my chest).”
True change, lasting change, eternal change has a Source outside us which changes us inside.
Mark, like the rest of the human race, has many internal struggles. But Mark also knows that the human race will be saved not by themselves but through the sacrifice of Jesus. Click the link for The Comenius Institute to see some of Dr. Mark Eckel’s activities.
It was midnight when she called. I heard the crashing of Lake Michigan waves mixed with Chelsea’s emotions smashing against the shoreline. My daughter recounted a conversation she had had with a young atheist, for whom her heart ached. She cried explaining the fellow classmate’s desire for something or someone to meet his expectation. For all her college years Chelsea referred to herself as a “female Apollos” using the “apologetic of hope” with her peers. My daughter knows hope, lives hope, and gives hope to others.
In her Mystery and Manners, a writer’s self-description, Flannery O’Connor explains the core of any good story, storyteller, and story-reader:
“…people without hope do not write novels…I’m always highly irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality and it’s very shocking to the system. If the novelist is not sustained by a hope of money, then he must be sustained by a hope of salvation, or he simply won’t survive the ordeal. People without hope not only don’t write novels, but what is more to the point, they don’t read them.”[1]
Simply said, reality demands hope in a supernatural world. “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” for example, causes one to gasp aloud in response to the depth of human sin and the necessity of divine grace. Hope to overcome the first is impossible without the second.
Hope is at the core of reflection. The Old Testament words for “hope” mean to look forward to with eager 
expectation.[2] Often translated “wait,” Christians base their anticipation of the future in whom they wait. “Hope in God”[3] is the command based on the fact that Yahweh is “the hope of Israel.”[4] Even Job in his agony declared, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.”[5] “Wait for The Lord” the Psalmist says twice in Psalm 27:14, overloading the sentence in Psalm 130:5, “I wait for Yahweh, my whole person waits, I wait in His Word.”
Why would we reflect if we have no hope, no expectation of Someone or something beyond ourselves? Glenn Tinder masterfully exposes the bankrupt nature of human hope as so-called “progress” in his essay The Fabric of Hope. Likening our experience to an actor in a play, he says we know that there is a world outside ourselves on stage. That life transcends the drama. There is a world outside the theatre, so our hope is
“an orientation toward eternity, presupposes a degree of detachment—the detachment inherent in the consciousness of belonging not only to an earthly city but to a heavenly city as well. . . .”[6]
Our troubles in this world cannot be overcome by empty political promises of “hope” which have no certainty, separated from history and transcendence. Micah 7:7 says what we mean, “I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”
Hope can come in many forms, but always outside ourselves. Luke Wilson stars in a movie to ponder just such an idea: Henry Poole Lives Here. Sometimes the inexplicable occurs to give hope to the hopeless. Full of Christian imagery and truly caring believers, Henry is altered when he is forced to confront that which he cannot explain. After suffering his own devastating loss, Mark Pellington created a film to reflect upon the realities of life lived after loss.[7] Henry Poole Lives Here is an example of reflection leading to hope.
My preaching days began when I was 13. The first sermon I ever wrote began this way: “A person can live 40 days without food, 3 days without water, 5 minutes without air, but not one second without hope.” Here is to Flannery O’Connor, my daughter, and all those other “apologists of hope.” May their stories, their poems, their films cause many to reflect and so, to hope.
[1] Flannery O’Connor. 1957, 1997. Mystery and Manners. (Noonday, reprint):77-78.
[2] John E. Hartley. 1980. qawa. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. (Moody): 2:791-92 and Paul R. Gilcrist. 1980. yachal. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. (Moody): 1: 373-74.
[3] Psalm 42:5, 11; 43:5; 130:7
[4] Jeremiah 14:8; 17:13; 50:7.
[5] Job 13:15.
[6] Glenn Tinder. 1999. The Fabric of Hope: An Essay. (Emory University): 123. Tinder’s philosophical commentary should be read by all interested Christians intending to invest their life in political life.
[7] John Anderson. “After a Devastating Loss, A New Subtext.” New York Times 10 August 08: AR9. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/movies/10ande.html retrieved 27 January 09.