THE SCHOOL OF RELIGION IN THE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY + SAMUEL L. DUNN + Vice President for Academic Affairs Seattle Pacific University + DANIEL N. BERG + Vice President for Academic Affairs Western Evangelical Seminary Faculties in U.S. universities argue incessantly about the disciplines that should or should not be represented in the university curriculum. With the splintering of knowledge into 200 or more disciplines, much grist is available to support the fine grinding common to curricular disputations. Nevertheless, there is a small number of disciplines, 15 to 20, that almost all outstanding universities support. As examples, most outstanding U.S. universities have faculties and provide majors in English, history, philosophy, mathematics, psychology, music and biology. Most academics believe there would be serious omission in the curricular offerings if these disciplines were not represented in strength in the curriculum. Christian universities in the United States follow this common pattern of disciplinary offerings, with one exception. Christian universities always have a School of Religion. The School of Religion may fly under another name, such as the Department of Religion, or the Bible Department, but whatever the name, the presence of such a school or department is a standard feature in the educational landscape of the Christian University. It is 1 the thesis of this paper that a strong and prominent School of Religion is an essential characteristic of the Christian university. A weak School of Religion imperils the entire academic enterprise of the Christian University. A strong School of Religion must have faculty who: (1) teach primarily in the area of their doctorates, (2) maintain productive study within their disciplines,(3) publish in both academic journals and popular media, (4) are spiritually sensitive and mature, and (5) are proactive in the academic and spiritual development of all persons, including colleagues and students. The strong School of Religion will promote and develop an undergraduate curriculum with academic integrity. Terminal preparation for entry into ministries should not drive the undergraduate curriculum in religion. Rather, the curriculum should: (1) serve and challenge the full range of university students and professors and (2) introduce major areas of theological study to prepare students for professional, seminary and other graduate studies in religion. In this paper we will explain the characteristics of the strong School of Religion by treating its role in service to students, to faculty, to the sponsoring constituencies and the guilds. Finally, we will discuss the School of Religion as the theological rudder for the university. Notice the occasional usage of SOR for "School of Religion." 2 Service to Students The School of Religion is an academic entity. In a Christian university, however, its operation is guided by the mandates that guide us in all Christian activity. As we understand our Christian faith, we believe there are at least five such mandates. They are the mandates to creativity, culture, stewardship, worship, and evangelism. In our view, it is imperative that Christian university students be exercised in the interaction of human learning and these Christian mandates. The very purpose of the Christian university is to provide an intellectual context for all students-not just prospective ministers or missionaries-to discover and lend assistance to the reality of the rule of God. Only as students are helped to interact with these theological ideas at high cognitive and affective levels can the university expect to have a profound impact on their individual lives and, through them, on a global society. We maintain that this interaction is the particular facility of a strong School of Religion. Faculty members in a School of Religion are particularly charged to facilitate for students a systematic exposure to the major issues of the Christian faith. Students, while studying broadly at the university level, are brought simultaneously to encounter informed coursework in biblical studies, theology, faith development, history of Christianity, Christian ethics, and comparative religion. While the student in the Christian university should be encountering 3 Christian values in all classes, it is in SOR classes that the student will systematically confront concepts and paradigms upon which to found a life of contemplative and active service to God. In the statement above we talked about the cognitive and affective development of students. We do believe the faculty of the SOR has a significant role to play in faith development. This role is especially important for younger undergraduates, many of whom come to the Christian university as non-Christians, or come with poorly formed understandings of the Christian faith, or come from Christian traditions different from that represented at the university they are attending. The professors of the SOR willingly or unwillingly are often rendered a modicum of pastoral esteem with correlative expectations of pastoral care. Thus emerges the almost unique role of helping students expand their objectivity toward the Christian faith while at the same time fanning what flame of faith burns in their most profoundly subjective selves. Faculty in a strong SOR can use their learning to lead students in faith development with an enhanced precision. Arguing from this basis, then, every student in the Christian university must be required to have courses in the School of Religion as part of the regular curriculum. While we wish every student would have courses in mathematics, psychology, history and art, in the end we would make some sacrifices in other areas so that a sizable credit 4 requirement in religion can be sustained. To support this requirement, the SOR must have a qualified faculty of sufficient size to support the teaching loads necessary to provide this service and ministry to students. While the purpose of the Christian university includes both cognitive and affective development, and while the School of Religion plays a special role in faith development, the immediate purpose of the SOR in the Christian university is not conversion. Non-Christians who choose to come to the Christian university should not be made to feel unwelcome, nor should their religion and faith be deprecated. The SOR faculty member can certainly teach from a Christian worldview and be explicit about the particular distinctives of Christianity. However, the strong religion scholar will hardly overlook the contributions of other religions to the theological dimensions of our world. Thus the SOR faculty member maintains an academic consistency that models both cognitive and affective values for the undergraduate. Service to the Faculty It is rightfully said that the faculty is the heart of the university. Just so, the heart of the Christian university is its Christian faculty. The one essential ingredient for mission accomplishment of the Christian university is a faculty committed to the Christian faith. This commitment must be complemented with an informed Christian worldview. Strong faculty in the Christian 5 university exhibit a curiosity about the foundational and operational nature of their discipline as it relates to the Christian faith. The integrity of both faith and scholarship requires such an informed perspective. To achieve this perspective, faculty members in all disciplines have to become, in a true sense, theologians. Unfortunately, many faculty members in disciplines outside the SOR have had little or no opportunity, before they join the faculty of the Christian university, to think systematically about the relationships between their disciplines and the Christian faith. Committed Christians, they have probably not attended a Christian university themselves, may not have been in churches that promoted the intellectual dimensions of the Christian faith, may have had limited exposure to various Christian traditions and world religions, and may not have had access to in-depth studies in religion provided by certain parachurch organizations. In fact, some beginning faculty members in the Christian university may not be as advanced as certain of their students in the formal study of the Christian faith. Fortunately, given time and opportunity these faculty can develop their own meaningful integration of the Christian faith with their discipline. Rather than letting such development happen haphazardly, the cognitive process in the spiritual formation of the faculty can be accelerated by help from the SOR. Informal assistance comes through the normal give and 6 take of academic life. At the coffee hour, over lunch, and in social settings, the cognitive understandings of the Christian faith held by the faculty of the SOR inform the discussions and thereby influence the thought and understandings of the other faculty members. The value of this kind of discussion in cognitive and affective development cannot be overemphasized. A second, more formal way in which the SOR can help other faculty is through the regular courses developed for students. University policies should allow and encourage faculty members to audit courses in the SOR without cost, thereby giving faculty members opportunity to access a systematic presentation of theological topics. A third way in which the SOR can help other faculty is through the delivery of courses designed specifically for the faculty. These courses, designed for older, adult learners, can treat topics specific to the SOR curriculum or integrative topics. They can be delivered to groups of faculty, giving faculty opportunity to interact among themselves at high cognitive levels. The Christian university should provide these services without charge to faculty as a normal part of the faculty development program. The SOR must be sufficiently staffed to provide this kind of service. As one indication of how this might work, perhaps the SOR could be assigned a certain faculty load credit within the university's faculty development program. Another 7 scheme might be the one-on-one assignment of specific faculty members to work with other schools (departments) on a long-term basis. An alert to the faculty of the SOR may be in order here. Because the SOR faculty enjoy an unusual expertise in theological matters, and because one's faith is a very personal matter, other faculty may be reluctant to engage the SOR faculty in serious theological dialogue. The SOR faculty must be sensitive to occurrences of insecurity among other faculty and must actively look for ways to elicit interaction and to encourage faculty development in religion. Service to the Constituency As creations of the community of faith, most Christian universities are supported by a denomination or other Christian constituency. The supporting constituency may be well defined or fuzzy. Whatever the case, the School of Religion can service these groups in important ways. Whatever the supporting body, it is manifestation of some form of a community of faith. As such, it participates in a specific Christian tradition with a particular history, theology, thought-style, and linkages to other traditions, including the larger culture. As with all communities of faith, the group's deepest understandings of itself are dynamic and are constantly in flux. New questions emerge as answers to old questions are found to be unsatisfactory. In light of changing conditions answers must be found that help 8 the group accommodate to the new conditions and new ideas while being true to their heritage. The supporting churches need individuals, then, who know and respect their traditions and who can do the intellectual work necessary to provide the new theological understandings. We assert that the faculty of the SOR is the natural resource upon which the supporting churches can and should call for the intellectual work needed to provide the new answers and new theological understandings. Through their research and through their interaction with the supporting churches, the faculty of the SOR can write, give talks, and shape discussions of doctrine. In fact, the faculty of the SOR may be the only resource the churches can turn to for advice, for only the faculty in the SOR may have the intellectual ability and academic resources necessary to study the questions within their community context and present the relevant findings. As the sponsoring churches and groups tackle issues raised in all forms of Christian thought and life, the SOR becomes an exceedingly rich resource. In fact, ignoring and bypassing this resource will be done at the peril of the supporting group(s). The School of Religion faculty can also write and publish materials for the church, thereby providing for the layperson insights into the issues of the day. Writing from or in the tradition of the readers targeted, SOR faculty can have significant impact on the theological development of 9 the church. One must not neglect the preaching the SOR faculty will do. The preaching of a scholar will do something else alongside the illumination of the text. It will provide a model for prospective and active preachers. John Wesley spoke of "Learning fastened to the cross." Nowhere should this value be more visible than in the preaching of a Christian theological scholar. Service to the Guild As university scholars, the professors of the School of Religion share, with all faculty, a responsibility to advance and develop their disciplines. As they write and disseminate their papers and books through the normal channels of publishing, and as they present papers at professional meetings, the faculty of the SOR will be contributing to the body of knowledge available to other scholars and interested non-scholars. As new knowledge is developed and disseminated, faculty in other religion departments are enriched as well and will, in turn, do an even better job in their work of teaching, service and research. It must not be forgotten, of course, that the scholarly activity leading to a contribution to the guild will also enhance the professor's own understandings and will make him or her a better and more effective classroom teacher. The Theological Rudder Over time institutions experience mission shifts. In 10 terms of organizational behavior, such shifts can be expected and cannot be stopped. Even if an institution maintains the same formal mission statement over a long period of time, the understandings of that statement, the definitions of the words, the examples that are brought to mind and the paradigms invoked will inevitably change. Also, over time the institution's public and self-image will change, appearing as shifts in mission. Change in institutions, just as in individuals, is normal and natural. Lack of change, if such were possible, would be deadly. Changes in mission, strategies and tactics may lead to increased service, to higher quality and to broader or more focused service constituencies. On the other hand, change may be destructive, leading to decreased service, to lower quality and to a lessened ability to meet ultimate objectives. Christian organizations, even Christian denominations, are no exception. Even a casual reading of church history will reveal abundant evidence of the shifts in mission, goals, strategies and tactics of Christian groups of various kinds. These changes lead, in some cases, to enhanced Christian ministry and effectiveness, while in others the changes have led to obscurity or oblivion. As all other institutions do, the Christian university does and will shift its mission over time. Academically, intellectually, and in its understandings of its Christian mission, the Christian university is in constant evolution. 11 As a complex web of individuals, structures, paradigms, traditions, constituencies, students, donors, legal restrictions, personnel policies, theological understandings, socio-economic conditions, and on and on, a movement on any part of the web will be transmitted to all other parts of the university, resulting in change in the whole. While change in Christian universities will happen, the individuals in the organization and in its supporting constituencies are justifiably concerned about the very occurrence of change and the ways in which change takes place. Because the change affects one's most profound beliefs, people involved will be most comfortable when change can be tied back to Christian faith in ways that appear to grow naturally out of the traditions, experience and theological understandings of the community. It should be pointed out that some theological traditions appear to be more open to change than others. This is where the School of Religion plays a critical role in the life of the university. As individuals who best understand the theological traditions of the university and as persons who can articulate that tradition, the professors of the School of Religion have opportunity to guide the community in change. With the ability to look backward and forward and with its deep interest in preserving and developing Christian ministry, the SOR provides a rudder to the community as that community navigates the oceans of 12 institutional experience. This, in the end, may be the most important and critical role the SOR plays in the life of the Christian university. Summary and Conclusion In summary, we see the School of Religion as an absolutely essential division of the Christian university. It has a critical role to play in the intellectual and faith development of students and faculty, in the development of institutional identity, and in helping the institution maintain and yet develop its Christian mission. The School of Religion must be viewed as a natural resource for the university and its supporting constituencies. In response, the university must provide for the School of Religion the resources necessary to carry out its work at a high quality level. We call on all of us in positions of influence-faculty and administrators-who care deeply about the Christian university to provide the intellectual, psychological, spiritual and economic support for our brothers and sisters in the faculties of the Schools of Religion. As we help them we can be better assured that the university will meet its ultimate objectives. 13