By Filings on
Christian Living
Christian Colleges and Seminaries

“When some Christian universities are more about enforcing what to think than empowering students in how to think, the result is a generation of of uncritical thinkers easily swayed by whatever direction the secular winds blow.” - TGC

Discussion

Mon, 02/28/22

I’m generally in the “how to think” camp myself. However, for a university that is explicitly Christian, it should teach a fair amount of “what to think” to make sure students’ thinking is taught to align with the teachings of the Bible.

The big problem is where the line between “what to think” and “how to think” is drawn. Practical faith comes from applying the Word to real world situations as we live out our Christian beliefs. This should be using the “how to think” skills, as we understand that application is not in most cases going to be universal. The problem comes when trying to dictate the “proper” application for every situation, i.e. “you should think this about issue A.”

Interestingly, while I would have thought that most Christian colleges tried to use too much “what to think” back when I was in school in the 80’s, compared to universities that had a reputation for free speech (like, e.g., Berkeley), now their relative positions appear to me to be swapped. Christian universities might not be bastions of completely free speech (even in the optimal case, we want to limit things by Bible teaching), but the universities now attempting to really control and restrict thought and speech are the ones that previously fought against any such control.

Christian universities that put both categories of thought in their proper place now would seem to have an opportunity as compared with institutions of learning that are now so politically correct, that only one line of thought is tolerated.

Dave Barnhart

Mon, 02/28/22

I didn’t realize Gary North passed away. While I didn’t agree with him much, he was a brilliant man.

Tue, 03/01/22

Just realize that this article is biased. The author is the founder of Hildegard University, one of the Universities that the author is touting as taking a new approach to the current status quo.

Wed, 03/02/22

[dgszweda]

Just realize that this article is biased. The author is the founder of Hildegard University, one of the Universities that the author is touting as taking a new approach to the current status quo.

I agree. This article is really just a glorified infomercial.

That being the case, there is something to be said about teaching students both what and how to think. As Christians, be believe there is objective truth and morality as revealed to us by our Creator. Therefore, the task of the Christian educator is to help our students understand that Christianity is a whole way of life. It is a worldview. There is a Christian way of seeing the world and understanding one’s place in it. Further, in order to live out one’s Christian worldview and engage the culture, the student needs to develop critical thinking skills.

In my experience at PCC, we weren’t taught that Christianity was a worldview, but rather it was a set of imperatives governing what we did and how we dressed as students. Critical thinking skills were not taught; instead, obedience to established authority (parent, pastor, or college president) was stressed.