he phrase “Christian world-view” is heard early and oftenin the careers of UnionUniversity students. Manyadmit upon arrival that thephrase is confusing or evenintimidating.

But most leave Union withan appreciation for seeking

knowledge rooted in biblical truth. In otherwords, they see their particular disciplinesin greater depth because they also seeopportunities to apply Christian principlesto their callings.

The idea of combining academic rigor and Christian thinking is a challengingconcept in the academy of the early 21st century. The founders of America’soldest and most respected universities treated all intellectual discoveries assteps in a journey toward discovering God’s truth.

This Christian intellectual tradition forms the foundation of Union’s missionin 2007 and beyond. It’s a mission President David S. Dockery has examined indetail through the years, and a philosophy he conveys in a newly released bookentitled “Renewing Minds: Serving Church and Society through ChristianHigher Education.”

The book has achieved critical acclaim. Baylor University Executive VicePresident and Provost J. Randall O’Brien says he will distribute a copy to everychair, dean and new faculty member. Charles Colson says the book is “a timely

and valuable resource” and “there’s no greater need for the church than to equipthe coming generation of Christians to engage the postmodern culture.”

In this section of the Unionite, that cultural engagement is exam-ined through the experiences of Union students and faculty.

In addition, four members of the Union faculty and administration have addressed some of the themes

that Dockery writes about in “Renewing Minds”: • Associate Provost and Dean of Instruction

Barbara McMillin writes about establishing a grace-filled academic community.

• Charles Colson Professor of Faith and Culture Hal Poe examines thinking globally about the future.

• Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Gene Fant looks at loving God with his mind.

• Dean of the School of Christian Studies Gregory Thornbury considers a culture without Christianity.

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n “Renewing Minds,” Union UniversityPresident David S. Dockery in the chapterentitled “Establishing a Grace-Filled AcademicCommunity” identifies unity, worship, serviceand the shared life as the calls incumbentupon the faculty, administration, staff and students who populate such a community.

As I pondered each of these calls I began to consider what a tour of such a community

would reveal. Taking the tour was easy; I had only tolook around me at the Union community in which Iam blessed to serve.

Unity“A coherent picture of life and learning,” as

Dockery describes it, comes clearly into focus when faculty, regardless of the area in which they aretrained or the type of program in which they teach,unite to identify the connections and contemplatethe lordship of Christ over all disciplines. On severaloccasions just this fall I have witnessed as engineersand historians, scientists and musicians, artists andaccountants have gathered to discuss the myriadways in which their disciplines — all our disciplines— are unified in Christ, all being created by Himand subject to Him.

WorshipRegularly my “tour” takes me

through the double doors of G.M.Savage Memorial Chapel; hereit is clear that the call to wor-ship is heard and actedupon by students, facultyand staff alike. It is evi-dent in these weeklychapel services that theUnion communitymakes “the worship andpraise of Almighty God ahigh priority,” as Dockerywrites. When Proclamationstirs our hearts in a mighty

song of praise or when one of our own like RolandPorter challenges us to consider our placement in thiscommunity for “such a time as this,” we are boundtogether in the “internal communion” that Dockery rec-ognizes as a characteristic of worship.

ServiceWhile service isn’t difficult to find on campus, the

best perspective requires touring beyond the formalboundaries of the bypass and Pleasant Plains, beyondCountry Club and Union University Drive.Recognizing what Dr. Dockery terms the“Augustinian tension,” Unionites are finding ways to“live in both Jerusalem and Athens.” From studiesabroad and service projects to internships and GOtrips, members of the Union academic communityare indeed representing Christ to and in the world.Through these and other means of modeling service,we are able to engage the culture without, asDockery notes, accommodating it.

A Shared LifeWhere are shared relationships found on our campus? In the Hundley Center? In Fresh Start (the orientation program for new faculty)? On thesoccer field? In organic chemistry? In the BAC? Injazz band rehearsal? In the Greater Faculty meetings?

The answer is “yes” to all; shared relationshipsare found wherever two or more col-

leagues, two or more teammates,two or more musicians, two or

more lab partners, two ormore laborers in Christ

come together and sharetheir joys, their discover-ies, their strengths, theirweaknesses, their bur-dens. In short, a sharedlife can be found whereverthere is true community.

In such a place graceabounds. To God be

the glory!

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t the beginning of every semester in myNew Testament class, I ask how manystudents have been out of the country.Twelve years ago, two or three studentswould raise their hands. Today only twoor three students have not traveled out-side the United States. They have goneon school trips and mission trips andfamily trips. The world is coming to the

United States, but Americans also travel the world theway we once visited other states.

The experience of visiting other countries, if only for afew days, provides students with an insight into under-standing the world of the New Testament.Jerusalem had a military occupation likeBaghdad. Terrorists called Zealotscommitted assassinations onthose who dared to work withthe Romans. But at the morebasic level of normal day-to-day life across the empire,Paul and the otherChristian missionariesfound that they could “getby” in any part of theworld if they knew a littleGreek. It was the languageof commerce. No matterwhat the local language mightbe in Lystra, Antioch or Rome,almost everyone knew enoughGreek to carry on business.

I ask our students if they had any troublebuying souvenirs in South America, Africa, Asia orEurope. It is never a problem, because the rest of theworld knows enough English to get by. Just as theGreek language of Alexander the Great provided abasis for trade and the exchange of ideas for more than500 years in the Mediterranean basin, English hasbecome the new “world language.”

Twelve years ago when I came to Union, the WorldWide Web was in its infancy. Now you can do any-thing with the Web except fry an egg, but even thatwill happen. Our daughter was in Oxford this fall andwe spoke to her every night over the internet instead ofthe traditional telephone. Technology has changed theway we do almost everything.

When I graduated from high school, college educationwas a luxury but not a necessity. We had plenty of good

jobs in industry and other sectors that provided solidmiddle class incomes and opportunities for advance-ment. That situation has gone the way of the dial tele-phone. In a world of rapid change, international corpora-tions, global competition and limited resources, Americahas lost much of its industrial base.

Corporate America and Washington have bet thatour future lies with technology and savvy. In the newglobal climate, the next generation of Americansneed all the education they can possible acquire, orthey will lose out in the surge of competition. Chinaand India can do technology in addition to industry.In the end, the worldview that created the West will

be our greatest advantage in the creativecompetition between nations.

Of course, in the future, we maynot see the same kind of compe-

tition between “nations” thatwe have seen in the past. Wecan learn from the past andrecognize certain patternsabout human behavior,but the future is alwaysdifferent from the past.Thinking about what theworld will be like in the

future involves more thancrystal ball gazing. The future

is always a result of concreteactions taken in the present that

produce a result for good or ill.Thinking about the future on a global

scale involves understanding the differencesbetween what people believe and value. If we assume thatevery worldview promotes or desires democracy, we willcontinue to have dismal foreign policy experiences in theMiddle East and other places.

World history has often been driven by conflictbetween enemies, but in an increasingly complexworld in which financial markets never close, thosewho have the wisdom to craft beneficial relationshipsacross cultural boundaries have the opportunity tolead the direction of the emerging global culture.Christians stepped forward during the collapse of theancient classical culture to craft the medieval cultureand they repeated this feat during the collapse of theMiddle Ages as they crafted the Modern Age. Onceagain we have a remarkable opportunity as we thinkglobally about the future.

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s a college junior, I studied humancadaver anatomy for my minor inbiology. The course was one of themost rigorous and intense in the curricu-lum, and I was greatly intimidated by it.

As the semester began, I attended aBible study where the speaker encour-aged us to study devotionally, to praythat we would learn about God as we

learned our subject matter. What he meant was thatwe should not divide up our time into “learning aboutGod” and “not learning about God,” but rather under-stand that there is no part of creation, including intellec-tual pursuits, that is not able to help us tounderstand God more clearly. Such aview means that we learn from sub-jects, not about them.

I did just that: I prayedeach day as I headed to thelab, and I looked for waysto learn devotionally. Ipassed the class (nosmall feat), but I alsolearned so much aboutthe providence of Godthat is found in thehuman body. The beauti-ful strength of the wrist’sbones and sinews. The preci-sion of the angle of the fora-men magnum, where the spinalcord enters the base of skull. The deli-cacy of membranes within the chest cavity. I fell in love with the idea that I could worship God even as I studied my subject matter.

Years later, I realized that what I was doing was explor-ing the lordship of Christ over all areas of knowledge. Iswitched academic fields, to literature and writing, but Isaw God’s fingerprints throughout every area of intellec-tual pursuit. I began to discover the brilliant Christianintellectual tradition that permeates the Western tra-dition, the sturdy shoulders of godly giants uponwhich I myself might stand as a teacher-scholar.

As my career has developed, I’ve come to appreci-ate how my faith provides a foundation to the actualmethodologies I employ. I am aware that I think dif-ferently because I believe differently. Sometimes thismeans that I am at odds with the more secular partsof the academy, but it also means that I must place

the lordship of Christ over and above all else.Loving God with our minds means that we “take

every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2Corinthians 10:5). Such obedience employs Christ asits ultimate standard of measurement and founda-tional framework for thought rather than any man-made system.

This obedience, though, also results in a Christ-likeattitude of relational service. As Philippians 2:5-11reminds us, Christ emptied himself of his royal privilegesin order to take on the form of a humble servant. Such amodel provides us with a further means of loving Godwith our minds: serving as a channel of blessings and

grace to our world.When we seek to follow after

Christ’s urging, in Mark 12:29-31, to love God and love our

neighbors, we find that lov-ing God with our minds isinextricably linked to lov-ing our neighbors.

When engineers travelto North Africa to workon clean water projects,their humanitarian engi-neering is a means of

loving God and otherswith their minds. When

political scientists work inWashington, D.C., to help bring

integrity and godly influence to thatimportant sphere of our society, they are

doing the same. When sociologists developstrategies to strengthen families, or artists implement aes-thetically significant ventures, or scientists discover newsolutions to old problems, then God is glorified andhumanity is blessed.

When most people take an academic course, theirgoal is to learn about the subject matter, to accumu-late a set of information or skills. Such an attitude infact treats knowledge as an end unto itself. When welearn to love God with our minds, we learn from thesubject matter in order to learn about God and toserve others. This means that our purpose is not rele-gated to being a repository but rather a conduit, achannel through which Christ’s grace can effect itsworld-changing purpose. Such an attitude towardlearning is truly distinctive, and it’s the kind of atti-tude we as Christians should demonstrate.

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n 1971, John Lennon wrote a hymn for thesecularist faith. The song, “Imagine,” fanta-sized about the state of world affairs if every-one were stripped of all beliefs and prejudices– with the notable exception, of course, of theformer Beatle’s favorites.

“Imagine there’s no heaven,” sang Lennon,It’s easy if you tryNo hell below us

Above us only skyImagine all the peopleLiving for today …Imagine there’s no countriesIt isn’t hard to doNothing to kill or die forAnd no religion tooImagine all the peopleLiving life in peace …Now while there is certainly nothing wrong with

peace, love and understanding, the evidence suggests thatLennon’s dream world would in fact turn out to be anightmare. That’s the conclusion of historical and socio-logical studies from two of America’s leading scholars:Rodney Stark, then from the University of Washington,and Samuel P. Huntington from Harvard.

Without any collusion, they have bothfound that the animating features thathave made the West great – mod-ern science, medicine, democ-racy and its attending free-doms – were the productsof irreducibly Christianthinking derived fromcentral biblical traditions.

In his 2004 book“Who Are We?”Huntington, arguably themost respected politicalscientist of our time, con-tends that the United Statesin particular faces a nationalidentity crisis. What was theoriginal identity? Beginning with G. K. Chesterton’s analysis of Americaas “a nation with the soul of a church,”Huntington lists the following traits as explanatory ofAmerica’s success and global appeal: the English lan-guage; Christianity; religious commitment; Englishconcepts of the rule of law; the responsibility of rulers,

and the rights of individuals; and dissenting Protestantvalues of individualism, the work ethic and the beliefthat humans have the ability and the duty to try tocreate a heaven on earth, a “city on a hill.” Historically,millions of immigrants were attracted to Americabecause of this culture and the economic opportunitiesit helped to make possible.

In sum, the Harvard professor avers, it is the Anglo-Protestant culture that arose from scriptural foundationsthat made the United States great. Attempts to underminethis tradition, whether one ethnically arose from this con-text or not, he argues, are a misguided and dangeroussocial experiment which could unhinge the entire project.

In a similar manner, sociologist Stark tackles the secu-larist’s mantra that serious Christianity inhibits progress.This, Stark argues in his book, “For the Glory of God:How Monotheism led to Reformations, Science, WitchHunts, and the End of Slavery,” is pure myth.

To the contrary, for example, he demonstrates withlucid historical detail that “science could only arise in aculture dominated by belief in a conscious, rational,all-powerful Creator.” Further, against the charge thatorthodox Christianity is inherently repressive, hemakes the case that while believers have sometimesbehaved horribly toward others (i.e., witch hunts and

inquisitions), only people who believed“that slavery was an abomination in

the eyes of God” were poised todefy the evil. “It was that con-

clusion,” writes Stark, “andonly that conclusion, thatenabled the West to abol-ish slavery.” The fear ofGod, in other words,means freedom for men.

Imagine a world with-out the Bible, withoutChristians and without

God? That is truly a fright-ening thought. It would

mean more slavery, far fewerfreedoms and unchecked disease.

Without the moral restraintsinspired by God’s people, the world

would no doubt be an unthinkably worse placeto live. Even a self-professed relativist can appreciatethat. All those who love liberty, or so it would seem,have a vested interest in the continued influence andvitality of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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n “Renewing Minds,” Union UniversityPresident David S. Dockery addresses,among other topics, the issue of culturalengagement.

Specifically, Dockery writes that onegoal of a Christian university should beto “influence society in a redemptiveway without imposing our viewpointthrough worldly power.”

But what does that look like? A common trend in evangelicalism in

recent years has been for Christian profes-sionals in such fields as art, politics, com-munications and literature to contribute toa Christian sub-culture, complete with“Christian” art, “Christian” music,“Christian” books, and so on.

That’s not what Dockery had in mindwhen he talks about the importance ofChristians engaging their culture.

“We do not believe that our primaryresponsibility and focus as educators is todenounce the fallen ways of culture thoughwe do believe that one way we engage socie-ty is through God-centered cultural analy-sis,” Dockery writes. “Yet I believe we needto concentrate our efforts on a more con-structive approach, focusing on ways that wecan with excellence produce quality art, out-standing literature, great music, andrespectable scholarship grounded in the liberalarts tradition while developing servant leaderswho as change agents can manifest what itmeans to be salt and light in our society.”

In short, Dockery is calling for Christianinstitutions like Union University to pro-duce “roaring lambs,” to borrow a phrasefrom author Bob Briner. These studentswill make positive contributions to theculture, and therefore honor God, notby withdrawing from it into the safety ofa Christian sub-culture, but by pursuingtheir calling and doing their work withexcellence.

“You’re doing art just for beauty’s sakeand for the fact that it’s a good thing tocreate stuff, and if anyone is influenced bythat toward the faith, then that’s gravy,” saidKirby Atkins (’91).

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Atkins was an animator for the movie“Jimmy Neutron,” then directed some ofthe television shows that followed themovie. He has also worked with Big IdeaProductions and is now at work on an ani-mated movie that he wrote.

“Christians can’t just react to what theworld makes,” Atkins said. “We’ve got tomake our own stuff. And it needs to begood. It’s got to come from an honest place,and then it sort of has a natural, organicway of affecting people.

“If you’re good at what you do, peopleare going to be drawn toward your point ofview,” he continued. “And if your point ofview is a Christian point of view, then theyget to entertain thoughts that they don’tnormally entertain, and that’s always good.”

The idea of Christians influencing peoplesimply by the way they do their work is aconcept that Union University art professor

Lee Benson regularly communicates to his art students. “We talk a lot about how

the number one thing

is the life you live in front of someone,”Benson said. “It’s not what you say butwhat you do. It’s how you live your life,whether it’s picking up a piece of trash inthe studio even though you didn’t throw itdown, to helping someone in need. Thosekinds of issues are integral parts of ourclassroom everyday.”

Benson’s daughter-in-law, Allison Benson(’07) has taken that instruction to heart.Allison and her husband, Aaron, served asinterns over the summer at the AndersonRanch Arts Center in Snowmass Village,Colo. Anderson Ranch is a prestigiouslearning community that provides artistswith the opportunity to study under profes-sional and world-renowned artists.

The atmosphere is far from what couldbe considered “Christian,” as Allison saidshe and Aaron were probably the onlyChristians working there. So Allison saidshe did her best to demonstrate the differ-ence Jesus Christ had made in her life bythe way she conducted herself. Thatinvolved displaying a genuine love for herhusband, not gossiping when others in theoffice were insulting the boss, staying posi-

tive, encouraging her coworkers andbeing friendly at all times, even when it

wasn’t easy.It also involved speakingwith people about Jesus

Christ when the conversa-tions veered that way.

“We just really seizedevery opportunity totalk about our faith,”she said. “This sum-mer really openedmy eyes to howmuch it comesdown to relation-ships with thesepeople.”Union University

political science pro-fessor Micah Watson

points to civil rightsactivist Martin Luther

King Jr. and Human Genome Project leaderFrancis Collins as examples that Christianscan follow when it comes to living aChristian life in the public sphere.

King wasn’t embarrassed about his role asa minister, Watson said, and he wasn’t con-cerned only with the welfare of otherChristians – but with society as a whole.

Collins, meanwhile, though controversialbecause he’s a theistic evolutionist, is anunapologetic evangelical.

“He is someone who has unquestioned excel-lence in his science, and sees no contradictionor problem with that affecting his faith,”Watson said. “He thinks that science actuallyenhances his faith and they work together.”

To be effective in the culture, Watsonsaid Christians can learn much from follow-ing the Apostle Paul’s address to theAthenians.

“He finds a point of common ground,and then he uses that to build to his argu-ment,” Watson said.

For J. Mark Bertrand (’91), author of thenew book “Rethinking Worldview:Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in ThisWorld,” Christians who withdraw from theculture to build their own institutions thatrun by their own rules are showing that theyreally don’t love the culture to begin with.

“It’s not about withdrawing from the culture,tooling up and then going back to assault theculture,” Bertrand said. “It’s really about beingwithin the culture and building things thatcontribute positively to the culture.”

Bertrand said that evangelical Christiansneed to rediscover the truth of the dignityof labor – that a job done honestly and withskill brings honor and glory to God. Headded that it’s important for Christians torealize they don’t bear the responsibility forsingle-handedly redeeming the culture.

“Each of us in a very small way is a partof something larger that God is doing inthe culture,” Bertrand said. “It really is Godworking in the culture, not us coming upwith a way to allow God to work in the cul-ture. Cultural engagement is not waiting onus to evolve the right theology of culture.”

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