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Beyond Luther College: how 'Christian' are they?

Date 12/2/2004 12:00 AM | Topic: Features

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Travel Agency Last week, Chips opened discussion regarding Christian faith at Luther: how it is taught in the classroom, where it should be fostered and why the religion department approaches its courses the way it does.

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Cheap Hotel This week we broaden that discussion by presenting views from students and faculty from other Christian colleges.

Luther and the Reformers tend to harken back to lay theocracy; the good Christian simply obeys the ruler.

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Travel Agent In its mission statement, Luther presents itself as a college with a mission "anchored in its commitment to the Triune God." Luther also refers to itself in the statement as a "Christian college of the liberal arts."

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Hotel Chicago Jon Lund, vice president of enrollment and marketing, said that Lutheran colleges have a distinct dilemma when it comes to describing themselves.

Online Booking "Martin Luther was a professor and theologian," said Lund. "Lutheranism is a movement that grew out of a college tradition, which is not the case with some churches. Lutheran colleges are unique in their approach of reflecting that heritage."

Travel Health Insurance Lund said that to remain consistent with that heritage, Luther ensures that it is a place where "no questions are off-limits."

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London Hotel Booking Whether or not the particular way Luther markets itself ought to translate into a view that Luther should be fostering faith in the classroom represents one part of a dynamic debate on Christian college campuses across the country.

Discount Travel Robert Benne, a leading figure in Lutheran ethics and social thought, has recently addressed the issue of how Christian colleges and universities of high academic quality have kept their religious heritages publicly relevant in his book Quality with Soul: How Six Premier Colleges and Universities Keep Faith with Their Religious Traditions.

Orlando Hotel In the book, Benne examines Baylor University, Calvin College, St. Olaf, the University of Notre Dame, Valparaiso University and Wheaton College. However, he is also familiar with Luther and its approach to faith and learning.

Booking Agency Upon reading last week's Chips feature on religion, Benne, who is also the director of the Center for Religion and Society at Roanoke College, offered Chips his take on the discussion.

International Travel Medical "If a college has been established and nurtured by a faith tradition," he said, "and has committed itself to keeping that tradition relevant to its life as a college, it has the responsibility to present that tradition in a compelling and comprehensive way.

New York Hotel "The church-related college - including and especially its religion department - is obligated to deepen and broaden the Christian understanding of its Christian students," he said.

Online Travel Booking In response to assistant professor of religion Gereon Kopf's statement that "the place for faith development is campus ministries" and that "the obligation in the classroom is to the academic discipline," Benne cautioned Luther from "'nakedly' [employing] the historical-critical method" as it "is corrosive of the Christian faith and leads to a faith in autonomous human reason."

Travel Medical Insurance Benne also said that Christian colleges like Luther possess a distinct responsibility in teaching religion courses.

Miami Hotel When he first became the chair of the religion and philosophy department at Roanoke, Benne said he immediately departed from the approach where "one looks at bits and pieces of various religions through sociological, anthropological and philosophical lenses.

Air Deccan Booking "Let public institutions do that," he said. "Those approaches do not do justice to the religious character of the traditions and are finally quite uninteresting."

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Las Vegas Nv Hotel According to Chris Dahl ('05), who transferred to Luther from Augsburg, an ELCA-affiliated college in Minnesota, Augsburg does much more than just focus on sociological, anthropological and philosophical arguments.

Hotel Florence Booking Online "Looking back at my syllabus for my courses at Augsburg," he said, "I realize how core of a lesson I got in Lutheranism. The courses were very biased toward Christianity."

Orlando Travel Dahl is in the unique position of being able to compare two ELCA colleges. Although he has not taken a religion course at Luther, he said that from what others have told him, he would prefer Luther's challenging and diverse approach.

Hilton Hotel "I felt like Augsburg kind of sugarcoated things," said Dahl. "I liked their courses, but I wish I would have been challenged more about my own religious beliefs. It seems like Luther spends a lot more time talking about different faiths."

Booking Delta Com Julia Scott, who recently graduated from Northwestern Bible College in St. Paul, Minnesota, had an experience similar to that of Dahl's religious education at Augsburg.

Travel Insurance Online "I felt as though the professors shared their faith in the classroom," said Scott. "The classes encouraged me in my faith. I don't know of anyone who has had a faith crisis from the religion courses at Northwestern."

London Hotel For many students at ELCA-affiliated St. Olaf, however, faith crises do occur. According to Emily Moen, a junior at St. Olaf, academically based religion courses cause many students to struggle in a way similar to that of Luther students. For some, Moen said, the approach is simply too problematic.

Online Hotel Booking "I have a friend who transferred to Wheaton (a conservative Christian Bible school) after taking a course at St. Olaf called 'Jesus in Scripture and Tradition,'" she said.

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Paris Hotel Moen says that many of the dilemmas students have result from not carefully researching a prospective college's approach to Christianity before enrolling.

Airline Booking "A pet peeve of mine is when students show up at places like St. Olaf and then complain about how non-Christian it is.

Travel Trailer "When I visited the school, I asked a ton of questions about the role of Christianity and faith on campus and got very honest answers.

San Francisco Hotel "Just because a school was founded by a church does not necessarily mean that it will be a 'church school' in the sense of nurturing faith in class."

Air Ticket Booking According to Moen, St. Olaf "deliberately" chooses to market itself as a "College of the Church" rather than a "Church College."

Cheap Travel "By putting the word 'college' first," she said, "St. Olaf is emphasizing that it is an academic institution, rooted in a Lutheran tradition [but not] specifically designed from a Lutheran perspective.

Bangkok Hotel "St. Olaf is a liberal arts school first, church school second," she said.

Music Booking Scott emphasized that Northwestern markets itself as a "Christ-centered, Bible-based" college, which, she said, might be a reason why students expect to have their faith nurtured in the classroom.

Travel And Tourism Laine Willkom, a senior at the College of St. Scholastica in Minnesota, said that this Catholic-affiliated college of 1,700 represents itself as a "Benedictine campus," which in turn influences how professors integrate spirituality into their classes and teaching.

New York City Hotel At St. Scholastica, students have the option of taking religion courses that focus heavily on academic analysis, but they can also opt to "pursue a more religious-based education," Willkom said.

Air Asia Ticket Booking Lund feels that erroneous public perception is largely responsible for the confusion between Bible colleges and those that are church-affiliated.

Los Angeles Travel "For any church-affiliated college," Lund said, "some will incorrectly associate a church-affiliated institution with a Bible-based one."

Cancun Hotel Regardless of these differences, Benne said that whether Bible-based or church-related, Christian institutions have an obligation to "alluringly" but "non-coercively" present Christianity in the classroom.

Hotel Booking Florence Moreover, Benne believes that religion departments should not shy away from the prospect of converting non-Christians.

Business Travel In the process of deepening an understanding of Christianity, Benne stated, professors may persuade non-Christian students that the Christian faith is "the truth."

Atlantic City Hotel "One does not aim at 'conversions' but it happens in the classroom," said Benne. "Religion faculty should not be ashamed of that."

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