by Dr. Tom Mach, Vice President for Academics
It is hard to imagine a time when our country has needed Christian higher education more than it does now.
Higher education began in the United States long before the country was even formed. The first college in colonial British America, Harvard, was founded in 1636 by the Puritans who had settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The clear purpose of the institution was to educate clergy to serve in the Puritan church, according to the Harvard University Archives website.
Interestingly, the mission of the institution included the “advancement of all good literature, artes [sic], and Sciences.” The Puritans understood how valuable the arts and sciences were in developing reading comprehension, critical thinking, speaking, and argumentation skills. Every one of these skills helped the Puritans properly understand, espouse, and articulate the truths of Scripture. The classical learning model established in the earliest version of Harvard was intentionally created to further the Gospel of Jesus Christ. An early motto adopted in 1650 was “For the glory of Christ.”
How far Harvard has fallen from its faithful beginnings.
From Eden to the Modern Classroom
You hardly need me to tell you what challenges Christian higher education is facing today. While Harvard chose the Latin word for truth, Veritas, as its first motto, it has long since given up on the concept. Secular higher education is no longer committed to pursuing truth. In fact, many deny either that truth exists or that it can be known, because any universal “truth” is considered exclusive and therefore, by definition, discriminatory.
While the “woke” agenda is a clear challenge, it is actually just a symptom of a far deeper and more sinister systemic problem: the rejection of biblical truth. Historians George Marsden and James T. Burtchaell wrote about the fall of higher education from its religious foundations to what we have today. They both found that universities rejected biblical truth in the name of academic freedom or to follow the lead of European higher education institutions. In pursuit of respectability, they sacrificed faithfulness.
When higher education severed its foundation in the timeless truth of Scripture, it set itself adrift. How could it be surprising, then, that most fields are not only secular but antithetical to Christian beliefs?
This division is the most drastic in liberal arts fields like English, history, sociology, and political science. Without the foundation of Scripture, these fields moved radically away from the truth. These fields are some of the worst examples of man’s Edenic attempt to put his own autonomy above God’s truth. But it need not be so.
The founders of Harvard had good reasons for including these fields in their educational requirements. They understood these fields develop our minds to think critically, to understand the revealed truth of the Word, to see the beauty of God’s creation, and to communicate God’s truth to a truth-starved world. The problem is that secular higher education doesn’t teach these fields with those goals in mind any longer.
Truth Recovered
At Cedarville University, our vision is “For the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ.” The authority of Scripture is the foundation for each of our programs, including liberal arts, education, psychology, and social work. Instead of discarding these fields because secular institutions have mishandled them, we redeem these fields in the light of biblical truth.
In history, we recognize that human actions have consequences because there is a universal moral standard.
In literature, we see the creativity and capacity for both good and evil in mankind because we were created in the image of God.
In social work, we understand that loving the disadvantaged as God does requires that we sacrificially serve them as our neighbors.
In education, we acknowledge that all learning is shaped by a worldview, so starting with the correct assumptions is critical to preparing a child well for the world around them.
And in a field like psychology, we learn the incredible complexity of the human mind and realize the devastating impact of sin on human beings. You cannot help men and women with emotional or psychological challenges without recognizing the deadly impact sin has on God’s plan for human flourishing.
At Cedarville University, we are committed to teaching and influencing these important fields from a biblical worldview, reclaiming them from those who have sought to separate them from the truth of God’s Word.
Our Outlook
Sound Christians are needed in these fields now more than ever. These fields shape our culture in profound ways. Every day, we face the temptation to lament what has happened to our culture and turn away, letting the Evil One control those fields. At Cedarville, we choose a different route. We train up and send out ambassadors of biblical truth into roles where they can be salt and light to a culture that is desperate for the truth.
The Bolthouse Academic Center will be our staging ground for these ambassadors. It will house critically important programs from the arts, education, humanities, psychology, social sciences, and social work. It will provide classroom and collaboration space for students with a God-given passion to change their culture for Christ.
It will also announce to the broader society that we will not back down. We will not give in to those who seek to strip Christ and His truth from these important fields. Rather, we are preparing standard-bearers who will not be conformed to this world but will allow the transformation Christ has wrought in them to influence these fields for His glory.