Christian Higher Education in a Postmodern Age

Dr. John W. HawthorneSpring Arbor Community of LearnersSeptember 21, 2012

My Plan for This Morning

•Three Challenges to Consider•Two Sources for Solutions•One Resulting Image

CHALLENGE 1: “WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH KIDS TODAY?”*

– the data on today’s college students suggests some interesting shifts from past generations

*From the musical Bye Bye Birdie.Coming To Spring Arbor UniversityFebruary 7-10, 2013

The Beloit Mindset List 1976 (1954)• Cold War• Beatles and

Rock• Segregation• Atoms

2015-6 (1993-4)• War on Terror• Brittney not a

Mouseketeer• Blacks, Women,

as Secretary of State• Genome

Sequenced

2003 (1981)• Never a

Yugolsavia• Moonwalk

about Michael Jackson• Women on

Supreme Court• DNA in lab

Putnam and Campbell: American Grace

Putnam and Campbell: American Grace

Attitudes toward Same-Sex Marriage: May 2011

What’s Going On?Changing Social Dynamics: Diversity is Everywhere• Media Imagery• Social Networking• Engagement with those non-evangelicals

The Significance of Emerging Adulthood• Delayed Marriage• Identity Exploration• Experimentation

The Over-politicization of Religion• Two Decades of Harsh Language• Exclusionary Stances• Concern with the Institutional Church

David Kinnaman: You Lost Me (2011)Today’s Culture is Characterized by:• Fluidity• Complexity• Diversity• Uncertainty

Six Problems with the Institutional Church• It’s Overprotective• It Tends toward Shallowness• It’s seen as Anti-Science• It can be Repressive• It is Exclusive• It doesn’t allow Doubt

Bottom Line: We can adjust to these students or they’ll leave us alone

CHALLENGE 2: “RELIANCE ON WORLDVIEW LANGUAGE”

– integration, a valuable metaphor of decades past, may have challenges in this postmodern age

Modernity, worldviews, and the integration of faith and learning• Christian Colleges, Separatism, and the Fundamentalist-

Modernist Controversy (H.R. Niebuhr, “Christ Against Culture”)• A Curious Paradox: the battle with the broader culture was

fought on modernist terms through the appropriation of philosophical argument

• Two seminal works• Francis Schaeffer, How Shall We Then Live (1976)• Arthur Holmes, The Idea of a Christian College (1975)

• A distinctive Worldview offered to Christians as part of the toolkit of a stance against the broader world

The Limitations of the Worldview Metaphor in a Postmodern Age• “The Desegregation of Faith and Learning”• Ron Sider, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience (2005)• James K. A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom (2009) – moving from

“which Christian ideas drop into … mind receptacles” to “how a Christian education shapes us… into a certain kind of people”

• Christian Smith and the National Survey on Youth and Religion: Moral Therapeutic Deism and the incursion of popular culture

Bottom Line: We’re using Modernist tools to address Postmodern populations

CHALLENGE 3. “CHECKING OFF THE BOXES”

– moving from compliance/credentials to learning that transforms

The Institutional Life of Higher Education• Higher Ed as an Economic Gateway• Intense Focus on Credits, Grades,

Experiences• Faculty Too – Syllabi, Assignments,

Grading, Due Dates • Process over Learning• Separation of Academics and Co-Curricular

Completing the Obstacle Course?

Beginning College

Wipeout, ABC Television

Limited Impacts on Learning

• Arum and Roksa, Academically Adrift (2011) – Little Gains in Critical Thinking• Keeling and Hersh, We’re Losing our Minds

(2011) – Lacking a Vital Academic Culture• Bain, What the Best College Students Do

(2012)• Surface Learning• Strategic Learning• Deep Learning

SOLUTION 1: “SLIPPING ON THE CONCEPT”

– How Wesleyan thought reshapes our conversations about faith and learning

THE CLOCK TOWER

• The Wesleyan “Quadrilateral”• The Marks of the Spring Arbor

Concept

Tradition

Tradition

ReasonReason Experience

ExperienceScripture

Scripture

Community of Learners

Jesus as Perspective

Involvement in Liberal Arts

Critical Participation in Contemporary

World

WESLEYAN THEOLOGY AND EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

The Components of the “Quadrilateral”• The Arc of Scripture• Testing Tradition and Experience• Reason in Service of the other threeRole of the Holy Spirit• Prevenient Grace• “Spiritual Senses”• Ordinary Means of GraceChristian Higher Education as Spirit-Led Discovery

THE SECRET CAN BE FOUND IN THE MIDDLE

SOLUTION 2. “THERE IS AN ART TO FLYING …” *

– A Community of Learners at work and play

*From The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Life, the Universe, and Everything, by Douglas Adams, 1982

There is an art, [the guide] says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Pick a nice day, it suggests, and try it. The first part is easy. All it requires is simply the ability to throw yourself forward with all your weight, and willingness not to mind that it's going to hurt. That is, it's going to hurt if you fail to miss the ground. Most people fail to miss the ground, and if they are really trying properly, the likelihood is that they will fail to miss it fairly hard. Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties. One problem is that you have to miss the ground accidentally. It's no good deliberately intending to miss the ground because you won't. You have to have your attention suddenly distracted by something else when you're halfway there, so that you are no longer thinking about falling, or about the ground, or about how much it's going to hurt if you fail to miss it.

HOW TO MISS ACCIDENTALLY

Acknowledging the Challenges but Proceeding Anyway• Parker Palmer: “Don’t’ be Afraid” means Don’t

Be the FearAbandoning Control• Learning from our students• Engaging Difficult IssuesAvoiding Issues of Power and Authority

THE IMAGE: “THIS IS MY FATHER’S WORLD” *

– When authentic individuals are attentive to the spirit and engage the world in example and action we embody the very present Kingdom of God.

*Words by Maltbie D. Babcock, hymn tune by Franklin L. Sheppard

Verse 3

This is my Father’s world, Oh let me ne’er forgetThat though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the Ruler yet.This is my Father’s world. The battle is not done: Jesus, who died, who shall be satisfiedAnd earth and heav’n be one.

THE VERY PRESENT KINGDOM OF GOD

• “The Kingdom of God is at hand”• Critical Participation in the Contemporary

World of Spring Arbor University• Awareness of the “Quadrilateral” and The

Concept Provide Practice in Grounded Living• We can represent the Kingdom of God in the

broader society precisely to the extent that we do it here first

TWO SCRIPTURAL IMAGES

Paul’s Image of the Church as a Body (Romans 12: 4-13, 1 Corinthians 12: 12-31)• The Parts serve the Whole as they express

unique gifts• We’re in this togetherPaul’s Vision of Diversity (Galatians 3: 28-29, my paraphrase)There is neither professor nor student, there is neither freshmen nor senior, there is neither conservative nor liberal; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Christian Learners, heirs according to promise.

THANKS FOR LISTENING TO MY RAMBLINGS

QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS?