Academic Work & the Integration of Faith

The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) introduced a new course for instructors.

“This course gives [schools] the opportunity to engage new and tenure-track faculty in a robust conversation about the dynamics of participating in the intellectual and spiritual engagement of our CCCU students,” said Lorne Oke, executive director of the Center for Learning and Innovation at IWU. (CCCU Website source.)

For colleagues working at CCCU schools, I recommend the coursework.  Even though faith integration is more intentional to my teaching (in Bible, after all!), I learned new data and have a renewed framework for thinking about how I prepare coursework and present course material.

More importantly, I wish I would have "had this material" earlier in my career (for many reasons) - and - I hope colleagues I work with now will engage the material to open up new venues for conversation & collaboration.


Here are the course modules for any wanting to know more.  Contact your University administration to learn more.

·  Module 1: The History and Culture of Christian Higher Education

Content: William C. Ringenberg, Taylor University

Reading: The Christian College: A History of Protestant Higher Education in America (GrandRapids, MI: Baker Academic: 2006)

• Session 1: The Puritan Roots of the Christian College
• Session 2: The old-Time College
• Session 3: The movement Toward Secularization
• Session 4: The REconstruction of Christian Higher Education
• Session 5: On to the Twenty-First Century

·  Module 2: The Academic Vocation of the Teacher-Scholar

Content: Susan Vanzanten, Seattle Pacific University

Reading: Joining the Mission: A Guide for (Mainly) New College Faculty (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2011)

• Session 1: The Mission-Driven Institution and the Academic Vocation
• Session 2: The Vocation of Teaching: Brick by Brick
• Session 3: Faithful Teaching and Scholarship
• Session 4: Academic Citizenship
• Session 5: Balance, Rhythm, and Improvisation

·  Module 3: The Integration of Faith and Learning

Content: Douglas Jacobsen & Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen, Messiah College

Reading: Christian Faith and Scholarship:Expanding the Conversation (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004)

• Session 1: Scholarship and Hope
• Session 2: Worldviews and Biographies
• Session 3: Christian Traditions and Scholarship
• Session 4: Modes and Styles of Scholarship
• Session 5: Scholarship as a Christian Vocation

·  Module 4: Moral Development

Content: Perry L. Glanzer, Baylor University

Reading: Christianity and Moral Identity in Higher Education (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)

• Session 1: The Confusion of Contemporary Universities about Moral Development
• Session 2: The Quandary Facing Contemporary Higher Education
• Session 3: Three Approaches to a More Human Moral Education
• Session 4: Christian Humanism and Christ- Centered Education
• Session 5: Christian Humanism: Cultivating and Ordering the Great Identities