GUEST EDITORIAL
The Evangelical Mind on Campus: Contextualized, Compartmentalized, or Christian?

In the 30 years since Harry Blamires first rallied evangelicals to develop a Christian mind there has been consensus on only two things: evangelicals generally don’t have a Christian mind; and secondly, those who do, don’t know how they got one!

As a relatively new assistant professor, I have been trying to begin my academic career by developing a distinctively Christian mind in order to best understand my discipline and to direct my contribution to this field. The following survey is not comprehensive, but rather highlights books that have helped my thinking on the Christian mind and is intended for others wanting to "Love the Lord your God with all your…mind" (Matthew 22:37).

The Christian Mind, by Blamires, was a seminal work in stimulating the discussion encapsulated in the sub-title "How Should a Christian Think?" This excellent question was answered by working through examples of Christian thinking such as the influence of advertising and the responsibilities of employers. Blamires then went on to identify traits of a Christian mind: a supernatural orientation, an awareness of evil, a conception of truth, an acceptance of authority and so on. Os Guiness promised a response in Fit Bodies, Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don’t Think and What to Do About it. In 131 pages the demise of Christian thinking is adeptly chronicled but the promise of "What to Do About It"—Part 3, "Let My People Think"—is actually only 20 pages long! More surprising is that most of this section is devoted to what "thinking Christianly" is NOT rather than how to develop a Christian mind. To be fair to Os Guiness, the problem of developing a Christian mind is extremely difficult.

James Sire’s response to the challenge was to identify several general principals in Discipleship of the Mind. Learning to love God in the ways we think. Examples of Christian thinking pepper this book on world views, but of particular value is the appendix, "Thinking your way through college: For Christian students in a secular university." Sire provides eighteen practical suggestions and follows these with an update of Walsh and Middleton’s outstanding Bibliography We Can’t Live Without.

David Gill contributes additional practical suggestions in The Opening of the Christian Mind. Gill’s contribution is to show how a Christian mind is influenced in the university, by a technopluralistic world and the workplace. The climax comes in the last chapter "Strategies for Building a Christian Mind." Gill’s ‘bold [outrageous!] suggestion is that you commit yourself to five to ten hours per week of explicit efforts to develop a Christian mind (italics in original); that you set goals for your own personal study; develop a network of like-minded Christians; and take advantage of institutions and resources that are available. Gill’s book illustrates the effect of the worldviews on thinking, providing powerful insight when read alongside the worldview analysis in Discipleship of the Mind. 

Transformed Thinking: Loving God with All Your Mind complements these worldview analyses by showing how worldviews affect Christian thinking. Authors Curtis and Brugaletta focus on integrated thinking, how people learn, what presuppositions are incorporated during learning, and how to identify these presuppositions.

Has the Christian mind developed since Harry Blamires? Yes! There are good ideas in several places for those willing to pursue the difficult task of develping a Christain mind . There is still a huge way to go before the general principles for develping a Christian mind are expanded upon in one place, but the exchange has begun to gain momentum lately. Let us all use our resources to get a handle on the evangelical mind.
Fraser Fleming
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Duquesne University
Pittsburgh, PA

KEEPING UP
The Carnegie Foundation under Ernest Boyer’s inspiration has been looking at the state of higher education. A volume inspired by Boyer but produced after his death is, Scholarship Assessed: Evaluation of the Professoriate by Charles E. Glassick, Mary Taylor Huber, Gene I. Maeroff, Jossey-Bass Publisher, San Francisco, 1997.

"For over a century the stated mission of American higher education has been to provide teaching, research and service. In most instances the three purposes have been listed with implications of equal importance. Although the balance has never been comfortable, a reasonable relationship was maintained even in the most prestigious universities throughout the first half of the 20^th century. After the second World War however the balance shifted with greatly increased emphasis on research. Teaching became less well rewarded, and service- which had been once a proud tradition of extending knowledge beyond the campus- came to mean little more than being a good citizen, lending a hand when committee work needed to be done."

"The 1990 [Carnegie Foundation] report, Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professioriate, argued that the application of knowledge should be understood as an act of scholarship on a par with the discovery of knowledge through research, the integration of knowledge and the sharing of knowledge through teaching." That work was an effort to move beyond the "teaching versus research" debate and give a broader definition to the academic world. The problem is to know what we’re talking about. "The effort to broaden the meaning of scholarship simply cannot succeed until the academy has clear standards for evaluating this wider range of scholarly work." Thus the present volume.

This book is based on very large surveys and polls of academic officers, professors and others involved in higher education. "Our survey of standards indicates that the key to these commonalities [shared elements of guidelines for assessing quality of workmanship across the varieties of academic effort] lies in the process of scholarship itself. If this process can be defined with some clarity it will provide terms by which scholars can discuss any project without denying either its uniqueness or its connection to other projects, whatever the discipline or type of scholarship. Indeed we found it possible to identify in these lists and guidelines a set of six shared themes. All works of scholarship be they discovery, integration, application or teaching, involve a common sequence of unfolding stages. We have found that when people praise a work of scholarship they usually mean that the project in question shows that it has been guided by these qualitative standards: 1. Clear goals. 2. Adequate preparation 3. Appropriate methods 4. Significant results 5. Effective presentation 6. Reflective critique."

There are many tables indicating the findings and raw data describing what is being done across the country in this area of assessment of effort in higher education. I believe these six categories are very suitable evaluators for almost anything we do. Consider the application of it to the Sunday morning sermon, to your last lecture, to the paper you are working to send to the publisher, to the thesis that is lying on the desk in front of you to evaluate. I think you’ll find this short work extremely helpful and stimulating. It’s a guide to how to succeed, even though that isn’t the title.

The Original Jesus: The Life and Vision of a Revolutionary by Tom Wright, Eerdmans, 1996. This beautiful little book is a product of a BBC television program. Tom Wright is Dean of Lichfield Cathedral in England, formerly a faculty member at Oxford, Cambridge and McGill Universities. He is an historian of the first century Palestinian world and a very persuasive arguer for his perceptions. As you will see in the notice later in this newsletter, Tom is the Bible Expositor in our Following Christ: Shaping our World conference at the end of 1998. This volume will introduce you to his thought and some of his main themes. There are many full-colored photos, art reproductions and maps. He says, "We know for certain that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. That is one of the most secure facts in the history of the world. But on the other hand, we know that literally thousands of other Jews were crucified within 50 years either side of Jesus death…so what made Jesus special? Why do people all over the world tell the story of His death rather than any of the others?’ He gives a startling re-telling of some New Testament passages like the Prodigal Son parable. Put in the context of what is known today about first century life and culture in Palestine it shows the Messianic character of Jesus in a new light.

The work is intellectually challenging but popularly written. It exposes some of the governing assumptions of the popular Jesus Seminar writers and their strong bias against certain kinds of Christianity. It gives a very good look at the current status of understanding the Gosepls. This book will stimulate you to re-think your idea of Jesus and is a fine piece to put in the hands of someone who is seeking to understand Jesus, perhaps from outside the Christian church. I highly recommend it.

MODEL OF MINISTRY
In an unusual departure from models, I want to call attention to a man and his book which is a manual for ministering on campus.

The man is Dr. Rae Mellichamp, Emeritus Professor of Management Science at the University of Alabama, currently serving as National Faculty Representative for CLM. He has long been an Associate Staff member for Campus Crusade and indeed was one of the founders of Christian Leadership Ministries. His 25 years of ministry which he shares frankly and very effectively in this manual are worthy of our attention. The book is Ministering in the Secular University and is available through Christian Leadership Ministries, 3440 Sojourn Dr. Suite 200, Carrollton, TX 75006-2354. Ph: 972-713-7130.

"…As I have traveled around the U.S. and the world over the past 25 years as a university professor and as a National Faculty Representative for CLM, I have met few professors or staff members who really are having a significant impact for Christ on their campuses." A challenge to all of us! Mellichamp goes on to add, "Perhaps an even more compelling reason for the marginalization of Christianity in the university is that Christians have simply not been engaged in the fight to keep Christian ideas in the university’s marketplace of ideas. What can we do to restore Christian thought to its rightful place in the university?" Although this appears to be a driving force he answers this question by talking about how we can do evangelistic ministry on campus.

Dr. Mellichamp’s goal is set out in this passage, "The material presented in this book outlines strategies I have accumulated through years of ministry and represents the entire spectrum of ministry opportunities for Christian university and college professors and professional staff." Dr. Mellichamp has given us a very broad spectrumed picture of possible campus ministries. All of these are illustrated out of his own life and ministry. He has, however, omitted several significant areas of ministry and I will call attention to these later.

Later on he divides ministry into two fronts: intellectual and personal. He indicates that his work is primarily on the personal front, in fact, he calls it an instruction manual for ministering on the personal front. And in this I think he succeeds admirably. His experience about problems in ministry parallels mine. He says, "We often become overly concerned about the approval of others. The problem occurs when the distinction between seeking approval for professional contributions and seeking approval for our personal beliefs becomes blurred as it so easily can. If we are only interested in serving ourselves the most expedient approach is the one taken by many; to compartmentalize our life and to practice our Christianity when we leave the university." A sample of his style of thinking, "I have spent a gret deal of time and energy over the years thinking how I as a Christian professor could have impact for Christ on my students, my colleagues and on the institution itself. What I discovered is that the opportunities we have as Christian professors and staff in this regard are practically endless. With a bit of creatvitiy one can think of dozens of things we can do to have an impact."

The key to this is that he has in fact spent considerable time and energy thinking. He’s quite thorough in his instructions, for instance, on how to identify yourself as a Christian to your class and how to spring from those identifications into further ministry etc. Practicality abounds on every page. "If you teach freshmen and or sophomores, you should seriously consider developing talks that would help your students to succeed in their studies and use of time." Have you thought about this?

He believes that every Christian professor should integrate their Christian worldview with their academic discipline and to do this in writing. Then he goes further and talks about ways to make use of this paper which you have written describing your integration of faith and discipline. He also talks about issues papers, illustrating with the title of a chapter he wrote for a book, "Applying Biblical Principles and Information Systems in Operations Research" and mentions others on ethics. Stressing again how practical the book is, on page 40 he has a Strategy for Success in the Academic World which for those at a research oriented institution is really quite helpful. He has extensive notes on using your home for ministry, something that I sadly must report I see very little of in contemporary academic life.

On page 53-54 he gives us his work load over the years. It’s quite impressive! God has obviously blessed him with health, a quick mind and being the right person in the right place. One of the things he does not reflect on in this book is differences of personality, differences of body type and differences of calling. I think reflection on that might be an important part of ones’ deciding how to make use of such a manual.

Further it seems to me while we certainly agree that the Gospel is a call to come to know Jesus as Savior and Lord, it seems also to me that the call of the Gospel is to be salt and light on the campus, to do good and to reflect Jesus into all categories. I’m sure Dr. Mellechamp agrees with that. It’s the point of emphasis that is different. So I would say that this manual is an absolutely superb guide to being an evangelist on campus but its definition of the Gospel needs expansion into a more full orbed representation of who Jesus is and was when He was on earth. For instance, there is little in the the entire book about finding other Christian groups and finding out how you can serve them and minister with them. I think our brothers and sisters could profit from linking arms with other Christian ministries on campus to serve.

In conclusion I very highly recommend this volume as a guide to how you can be making an impact for Christ in student and peer evangelism on your campus. It has a suggestion for almost every kind of ministry you can imagine with lots of stories about how they were carried out.