A Christian Presence in Higher Education

Part of the thinking behind Edwards University is that there is a great need for a first-rate school that trains young Christians to think and work in a fallen world. As many evangelical institutions drift to the left, we would greatly benefit from a school that sets high academic and theological standards. While I do not speak a great deal about it, I am unshakably confident in the strength of Reformed Christianity and thus see it as the ideal foundation for such an institution. The Reformed worldview is incredible in its scope. It has a full and mature view of both the Christian faith and the outside world. It is thus an ideal starting point for a university.

We Christians very much need such a school today. We need schools that prepare men and women for ministry, yes, but we need schools that rigorously challenge their students. We don’t need another Christian school at which everyone’s an A or B student and professors routinely cancel exams or make them open-book. We need a return to the foundations of American education, when schools expected a great deal of their students. We should push against the current trends of grade-inflation and dumbed-down education. Students should be taught to think, not simply to do. They should be absolutely rock-solid in their understanding of theology, philosophy, history, literature, the sciences, and other disciplines. In an age when education is hyper-specialized and narrowly focused, there is a crying need for a school that will broadly educate its charges, and ready them to confront a world set against them. We need such a place. We need such a people. If you’re a young Christian academic out there, think about this. You may well be needed in just a few short years.