Ronald P.Mahurin, vice president for professional development and research at the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities recently spoke at "Christianity and the Soul of the University: Faith as a Foundation for Intellectual Community", a conference sponsored by The Baylor Institute for Faith and Learning and the Council of Christian Scholarly Societies held at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
The conference explored the role that reflective Christian faith can play in unifying the intellectual life of the university. This conference encouraged scholars to consider how their faith compels them to intellectual labor. Specifically, in the midst of a larger academic culture prone to fragmentation, the sessions reminded Christian scholars of the vision of the faith as a comprehensive, unsurpassable, and central account of human life and the world in relation to God. This vision calls academics to an intellectual and spiritual community that aims at comprehending and appropriating the all-encompassing Christian vision of life, and doing so not incidentally, but as an essential and unifying aspect of our academic disciplines.
With sessions such as "Reclaiming the Arts," "Christianity and Political Liberalism" and "The Struggle for Christian Identity through Curriculum," academicians from across the country explored Christianity with a renewed faith lens. Colleagues listened as Mahurin addressed "Christ-Centered Higher Education: What Does It Mean, and Where Is It Going?"
Mahurin outlined successful efforts by the Council to strengthen teaching and scholarship on campuses throughnew faculty workshops, disciplinary workshops, and campus-based faculty development programs. He also outlined some of the challenges facing Christian higher education, including developing critical listening skills, not just critical thinking skills; strategically allocating limited resources;understanding the shift in global Christianity to the south and east and considering how this shift will impact the work (and outlook) of Christian higher education in North America.
Plenary speakers included Jean Bethke-Elshtain, Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics, University of Chicago Divinity School; Joel Carpenter, Professor of History and Provost, Calvin College; Richard Hays, Professor of New Testament, Duke Divinity School; David Lyle Jeffrey, Distinguished Professor of Literature and Humanities and Provost, Baylor University; John Polkinghorne, President Emeritus of Queen's College and Professor of Mathematical Physics, Cambridge University. For a full view of scheduled speakers, click here.
Council of Christian Scholarly Societies
The Council of Christian Scholarly Societies (CCSS) is a vehicle for its member organizations to exchange ideas about their individual and common goals, activities, and procedures. CCSS provides a cross disciplinary forum in which its members can address major intellectual issues of the day. Through CCSS, member organizations provide practical support to each other and share the responsibility to nurture new generations of Christian scholars.
Baylor Institute for Faith and Learning
The Baylor Institute for Faith and Learning was founded in 1997 to assist Baylor University in achieving its mission of integrating academic excellence and Christian commitment, and its goal of becoming a university of the first rank committed to its Baptist and Christian heritage. The mission of the Institute is to serve as a local, national, and international house of study that cultivates careful reflection, rigorous scholarship, and vital practice that substantively unite the life of the mind and the faith of Christians.