The Real Force in Education
In 1942, Free Will Baptists founded Welch College to provide a Christian response to secular education. During the previous century, many Christian institutions attempted to retain their Christian identity by requiring chapel attendance or enforcing strict moral regulations on campus while simultaneously rejecting orthodox Christianity in the classroom. Unsurprisingly, almost every major “Christian” institution in America abandoned its Christian moorings by the 1920s. In response to these developments, some conservative Evangelical colleges founded during the early twentieth century adopted a similar approach and soon found they were little different from the institutions they were replacing.[1]
As American academia and culture departed from its Christian foundations, Free Will Baptists intended to defend civilization through education. By bringing every area of study under the guidance of Scripture and theology, the faculty of the new college began constructing a robust transformational approach to education.
Reconciling All Things
The nature of Christian education was an important subject for Free Will Baptists, looking to start a new college. Some believed the new school should exclude “secular” education (non-Bible subjects) from the curriculum and focus on religious education. In a 1939 article for The Free Will Baptist, R. E. Tripp wrote, “Let the state have the responsibility of training the general public in its secular arts. Our responsibility is to train servants of the church in the art of holy living and rightly dividing the Word of God.”[2] However, this approach ignores the breadth of the Christian message.
All human knowledge is important to Christians, because of the cultural mandate and the incarnation. F. Leroy Forlines, professor of theology for fifty years, argues that when God gave us dominion over all things He sanctified and elevated all work “to the level of divine service.”[3] English professor Darrell Holley enhanced Forlines’s work by explaining that Christ’s incarnation inextricably intertwines His life with ours. Therefore, “every part of human activity—from what we presumptuously call the highest to what we foolishly call the lowest—has taken on a hallowed significance.”[4]
As believers, we’re called to fulfill the cultural mandate and to take part in reconciling all things to Christ (cf. Col. 1:20). Therefore, Holley exhorts believers to realize that “all areas of human knowledge in this world are either already in a state of Christina cultivation or are to be considered enemy territory which wait for us to conquer them and put them into cultivation to the service of the Lamb.”[5] Under this paradigm, Christian education extends to all areas of knowledge as it transforms them.
The founders of the college committed to a philosophy of education that embraced the fullness of human knowledge. John L. Welch and the first National Board of Education set the course for the future when they recommended to the denomination in 1935 “that we begin our school work on a small scale, confining the work to a Bible course and add other courses to the same as the Lord prospers us.”[6] The Lord did prosper them, and soon the college wasn’t only adding courses but also degree programs.
The Necessity of Christian Education
Still, the college needed to work out how to teach each subject from a Christian perspective. In 1940, J. R. Davidson, while raising funds to found the college, asked Agnes Frazier to write on the necessity and nature of Christian education.[7] A teacher for twenty years, Frazier argued that secular education was destroying American society but that Christians could perhaps avert catastrophe by creating institutions that educated students from a Christian worldview.
According to Frazier, the only way to preserve civilization was to reclaim its Christian foundations through Christian education.[8] The need for Christian education she described become clearer as the influence of secularism expanded beyond the American university into the general culture after 1960. Forlines notes that the secular worldview “comes at us from all sides.”[9] As the secular worldview pours into our homes through books, television, and social media, we become desensitized. “The influence of the culture is so subtle that we buy into it without realizing it.”[10]
Long-time New Testament and Greek professor, Robert E. Picirilli explains that the result of this unnoticed conflict is that most Christians “hold to an evangelical and redemptive theology for their church life, and a godless and materialistic philosophy of life the other six days of the week.” [11] The secular worldview cultivates a materialistic and atheistic approach to life.
According to Forlines, this philosophy of life undermines the stated beliefs of Christianity and everything “for which Christianity stands.”[12] Therefore, after 1960, Christian education had to begin contending for cultural and moral standards as well.
The Real Forces in Education
Frazier realized earlier than most that the difference between the Christian worldview and the atheistic worldview begins with basic assumptions. In 1940, she wrote that “the real forces in education are not material, but personal and spiritual.”[13] According to her, the philosophy of a teacher or textbook is at the heart of any education. Therefore, a Christian professor will usually present the same data as a non-Christian, but their interpretations will differ.
Secular educators approach each subject as an empiricist, limiting their sources of knowledge to their five senses governed by reason alone. As Forlines argues, the empiricist worldview is inherently atheistic, because it excludes the possibility of a personal God from the start.[14] Picirilli, notes that this “principle goes far deeper than a few easily-recognizable conflicts between the Bible and modern theories.” [15] In fact, “a ‘great gulf’. . . separates the Biblical philosophy of life from the whole heart and core of most secular educational philosophy.”[16]
A Christian approach to knowledge includes special revelation (the Bible). The Bible directly contradicts the basic assumptions of the secular worldview in regards to theology, cosmology, anthropology, and epistemology. Thus, former president and long-time professor of the college Charles A. Thigpen explains that Christians should teach every course “in the light of eternal truth,” evaluating “every textbook and every theory . . . by God’s word.”[17] But many Christians have struggled to implement this approach.
The Process
Christians have often applied Christianity to education only partially. Picirilli argues that a Biblical worldview does not mean “‘Christianizing’ truth, putting ‘God-talk’ in everything, [or] using only the Bible.”[18] It doesn’t make every subject a servant to evangelism or church services (e.g., biology is only valuable when a missionary uses it to purify the water of a village). Nor will our education become Christian if we incongruously include references to the Bible and Christianity. Further, he notes, Christian education will not be produced by piety or substituting Bible study for other teaching.[19]
Instead, Thigpen writes that “all areas of knowledge need to be studied with the Bible as a corrective authority,” engaging all aspects of the subject.[20] This is a difficult task, requiring committed teachers who understand the Bible and theology. To ensure the best success, Picirilli recommends that all teachers be Christians, have a Biblical philosophy of life, have an appreciation for and understanding of Christian worldview education, and preferably have training from an institute that teaches from a Christian worldview.[21]
In order to develop a Christian worldview approach to all knowledge, Picirilli suggests that teachers should frame a personal Biblical worldview for their subject through serious Bible study and discussion with other mature believers. However, Bible study alone is not sufficient. Teachers must also possess a mastery of their field of study, uncovering and challenging the basic assumptions of the field. A Biblical philosophy of each discipline must be developed and incorporated into each course of study.[22] However, such an approach will be useless if the students don’t have a firm understanding of the Bible.
Requiring Thirty Credit Hours of Bible and Theology
In order to communicate a Christian worldview effectively in class, students require an above-average understanding of the Bible.[23] Forlines explains that “it is impossible to properly relate the authority of the Bible to other areas of knowledge if one has only a meager knowledge of the Bible.”[24] Therefore, Welch College requires every student to complete thirty credit hours of Bible and theology in order to graduate. But this instruction must be rigorously academic in order to be effective and persuasive. [25]
As Picirilli notes, this emphasis tells the world that “the Bible needs to be primary in man’s education. All educational philosophies agree that man needs to understand himself; a Bible college says he can only do this properly in the light of God’s revelation.” [26] Keeping this emphasis along with practical application in Christian service has helped the college retain its transformational commitment.
Conclusion
Since 1942, Welch College has trained thousands of students to be servants of Christ, His church, and His world through Biblical thought and life. Students are warned against limiting Christianity to morality and evangelism. Rather, professors encourage them to bring all knowledge under the Lordship of Christ and pursue all vocations from a Christian worldview. Whether this effort saves civilization or not, it may yet have the privilege of raking from the ashes the best of human knowledge and rebuilding society.
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[1] For more information on this subject, see George M. Marsden, The Soul of the American University: From Protestant Establishment to Established Nonbelief (Oxford University Press, 1994); William C. Ringenberg, The Christian College: A History of Protestant Higher Education in America, 2nd ed. (Baker Academic, 2006); John R. Thelin, A History of American Higher Education (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004); Safara A. Witmer, The Bible College Story: Education with Dimension (Channel, 1962).
[2] R. E. Tripp, “The School Problem,” Free Will Baptist, Jan. 4, 1939.
[3] F. Leroy Forlines, The Quest for Truth: Answering Life’s Inescapable Questions (Nashville, TN: Randall House publications, 2001), 141.
[4] Darrell Holley, “The Role of the Academic Life in the Mission of Free Will Baptist Bible College” (paper presented at Free Will Baptist Bible College faculty meeting, Nashville, Tennessee, November 2, 1998), Welch College Archive, Gallatin, Tennessee.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Minutes of the First Session of the National Association of Free Will Baptists of the United States (Nov. 5-7, 1935), 7.
[7] Frazier was a committed Free Will Baptist who had graduated from Peabody Normal School and taught in the public education system for over twenty years. In addition, she had spent years of tutelage under John L. and Mary Ann Welch.
[8] Frazier.
[9] F. Leroy Forlines, “A Presentation and a Defense of a Comprehensive Philosophy of the Bible College Approach to Christian Higher Education” (Nashville, TN: unpublished, 2002), 9, Welch College Archive, Gallatin, Tennessee.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Robert E. Picirilli, “How Broad the Umbrella?” (Nashville, TN: unpublished, [1971]), 2, Welch College Archive, Gallatin, Tennessee. For a more detailed analysis of this work see Phillip T. Morgan’s post, “How Broad the Umbrella? Christian Education in the Thought of Robert E. Picirilli.”
[12] F. Leroy Forlines, Issues Among Evangelicals (Nashville, TN: The Commission on Theological Liberalism of the National Association of Free Will Baptists, 1968), 32.
[13] Mrs. J. E. [Agnes] Frazier, “Your Opportunity and Mine,” Free Will Baptist, January 24, 1940.
[14] F. Leroy Forlines, “Dealing with the Influence of Epistemological Atheism” (paper presented at the National Association of Free Will Baptists Commission for Theological Integrity Theological Symposium, Nashville, TN, October 25, 1996).
[15] Picirilli, “How Broad the Umbrella?” 2.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Charles Thigpen, “Thoughts on Our Philosophy of Education” (Nashville, TN: unpublished, nd), 1, Welch College Archive, Gallatin, Tennessee.
[18] Robert E. Picirilli, “Toward a Model for Integrating Faith and Learning,” (Nashville, TN: unpublished, February 22, 1983), [1], Welch College Archive, Gallatin, Tennessee.
[19] Ibid.
[20] F. Leroy Forlines, The Bible College Approach to Christian Education (Nashville, TN: Free Will Baptist Bible College, [1967]), 6.
[21] Picirilli, “How Broad the Umbrella?” 2.
[22] Picirilli, “Toward a Model,” [1].
[23] Forlines, “A Presentation and a Defense,” 8-9.
[24] Forlines, The Bible College Approach to Christian Education, 6.
[25] Darrell Holley, “A Review of The Dying of the Light: The Disengagement of Colleges and Universities from tehi Christian Churches,” (paper presented at faculty meeting of Free Will Baptist Bible College, Nashville, Tennessee, [2003]), Welch College Archive, Gallatin, Tennessee.
[26] Picirilli, “How Broad the Umbrella?” 2-3.
September 23, 2017
History is a good teacher but we give so little regard to it! Thanks for the reminder.
October 3, 2017
Thank you for your readership and very kind comments, Bro. Loveless.