What is a Christian University?

Ross Woods, June 2023 With thanks to Jυri Iriαntο and Rεsραti Αdjiρυrwο

Contemporary Christian universities in the US tend to have the following characteristics:

1. They define their ethos as Christian and actively promote it.
2. They have a statement of faith and Christian values. They accept only faculty members and staff who agree with it, and it becomes a condition of employment. They define academic freedom within those bounds.
3. They tend to rely on a defined constituency for financial support and as a source of Christian students. The constituency can be a denomination, a network of churches, or a network of individual Christians.
4. They offer studies in non-theological fields and accept non-Christian students in those fields as long as they agree to the Christian ethos of the school. This separates them from theological schools. However, most of them have theological schools as one of their fields of study.

I looked at the websites of a sample of accredited Christian universities in the US. Almost all of them make strong Christian statements on their websites, although they might vary a little in practice.

Biola University (www.biola.edu)

Its website states:

Biola University is a nationally ranked Christian university in the heart of Southern California. Founded in 1908, Biola offers biblically centered education, intentional spiritual development and vocational preparation within a unique learning community where all faculty, staff and students are professing Christians. …

As a leader in academic quality and innovation, Biola is consistently ranked among the nation’s top Christian universities, known for leading degree programs in business, film, the sciences, theology and more. Biola’s nine schools offer more than 300 academic programs at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels, enrolling more than 5,500 students at the La Mirada campus, online and in distance programs throughout the world.1

Texas Christian University (www.tcu.edu)

Its website states:

TCU is the largest of 21 institutions associated by an ongoing covenant with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). A protestant denomination with Presbyterian and Baptist roots, the Disciples’ vision statement speaks of “true community, deep Christian spirituality and a passion for justice.”

This continued relationship supports an approach to education that values scholarship, reason and intellectual inquiry while honoring the importance of every individual’s religious identity. Today’s TCU students come from more than 60 religious traditions and faiths.2

Colorado Christian University (www.ccu.edu)

Its website states:

CCU is first and foremost an academic community of committed Christian believers rooted in a profound respect for higher learning framed within the Christian worldview. The community respects the pursuit of truth and the development of the life of the mind. The University seeks to develop in each learner the capability to distinguish fact from fallacy, truth from error, and freedom from license.

The University does not cultivate the mind at the expense of the heart. Rather, it emphasizes development of Christian character and spirituality with the intent of sending graduates with personal Christian commitment and an informed sense of Christian morality into today’s communities and workplaces to provide leadership. CCU emphasizes the development of compassion, social concern, and a sense of biblical justice in the lives of its students. Likewise, the University seeks students, faculty members, and staff from diverse backgrounds.

The University is evangelical and interdenominational. Since the time of the mergers creating CCU, it has identified itself, not with any specific denominations, but with the broader, historic evangelical faith, and the University continues to honor and to define that identity.

The University advocates and teaches investigative study and the proper methods of scientific research and technological innovation. Still, it recognizes that empirical reasoning alone cannot satisfy the deep need of each person for a personal relationship with God, the Creator of all things. As a community of believers, CCU recognizes that God is known through Jesus Christ. As a community of learners, CCU recognizes that this understanding of God in Jesus Christ is the beginning of wisdom.

The University's primary academic focus is on excellence in teaching, while providing opportunities for research and performance by both faculty and students. The University prizes academic excellence as a virtue and encourages students to strive for such excellence.

CCU is a university of the liberal arts and professions with institutional roots that include an undiminished respect for the authority and truthfulness of Scripture as the foundation of God’s creative revelation of Himself to humanity. ...3

Oklahoma Christian University (www.oc.edu)

Its website states:

Spiritual formation is our mission and our calling.

From founding until today, OC has maintained strong ties with the Churches of Christ with a mission as a higher learning community that transforms lives for Christian faith, leadership and service.

We are a Christian community seeking to be guided by the teachings of Jesus. We welcome students of all faith backgrounds and traditions. All students, faculty and staff agree to abide by our covenant when joining the university.4

Mission Statement

Oklahoma Christian University is a higher learning community that transforms lives for Christian faith, scholarship and service.

Vision Statement

OC is a Christ-centered university that’s personal, innovative, challenging and missional where students, faculty, and staff find calling, career and community.

The OC Covenant

Oklahoma Christian University is a higher learning community that transforms lives for Christian faith, leadership and service.5

Liberty University (www.liberty.edu)

Its website seems to put less emphasis on its Christian stance and more emphasis on being open access. Even so, its website states:

Emphasizing just the right balance between academic theory, research, and hands-on training, Liberty’s unique approach to education means that you can be prepared to not only succeed in your profession of choice but also to adapt and thrive in a constantly changing marketplace.

At Liberty University, you’ll be equipped to do your job ethically and with excellence. Gain the critical thinking, research, data analysis, and communication skills you need to become an essential contributor in your field and the kind of leader who inspires others.

Hard work, courage, and integrity define our faith, so we don’t just equip students with a degree — we Train Champions for Christ who impact the world.6

Grand Canyon University (www.gcu.edu)

Its website states:

At Grand Canyon University (GCU) you are encouraged to find your purpose and shape your own perspective by embracing a distinctive Christian worldview. This means that we not only integrate faith in our curriculum, but also in our actions we take to positively impact our community. …

GCU distinguishes itself as a Christian university by instilling a sense of vocational calling and purpose in our students, faculty and staff. As a member of our community, you are encouraged to live out that purpose in ways that honor God and serve others. You’ll find many opportunities to live out your faith alongside others.

A missional community is a community of people strategically united in carrying out a mission that centers on following Jesus Christ in word and in deed, and in sharing the love of Christ generously to all who participate in the life of the community.7

Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Duke Universities

It is helpful to consider the histories of Princeton, Harvard, Yale, and Duke universities. All were Christian universities in their ealier stages but are now largely secular.

Princeton University

Princeton was founded as the College of New Jersey by the Presbyterian Synod.8

Harvard University

Harvard was founded by a clergyman and had strong Congregationalist roots. For example, Harvard was described as follows:

Whereas our wise and pious ancestors, so early as the year one thousand six hundred, and thirty six, laid the foundations of Harvard College, in which many persons of great eminence have, by the blessing of GOD, been initiated in those arts and sciences, and all good literature, tends to the honor of GOD, the great benefit of the Christian religion ...”9

Yale University

Yale University “had its beginnings with the founding of the New Haven Colony in 1638 by a band of 500 Puritans who fled from persecution in Anglican England. It was the dream of the Reverend John Davenport, the religious leader of the colony, to establish a theocracy and a college to educate its leaders. Purchases and plans for a college library date back to 1656 but were suspended when King Charles II forced the colony to unite with Connecticut in 1665.

According to the early histories of Yale, a group of ten ministers led by the Reverend James Pierpont of New Haven met in nearby Branford in 1700 to found a college.”10

Yale’s founding document states the founders “zeal for upholding & Propagating of the Christian Protestant Religion.”11

Duke University

The predecessor college to Duke University was founded in 1838 and from 1859 became affiliated with the Methodist church as Trinity College.12 John C. Kilgo set forth the aims of Duke University in 1903, to be adopted later in 1924. Kilgo's statement was grounded in “the University's purposes in the Christian tradition of intellectual inquiry and service to the world”:

Recognizing its origin in this tradition, its continuing relationship to The United Methodist Church, and the diverse constituency that has developed since its founding, the University is committed to creating a rigorous scholarly community characterized by generous hospitality towards diverse religious and cultural traditions.  The University therefore pursues the following aims: to foster a lively relationship between knowledge and faith; to advance learning in all lines of truth; to defend scholarship against all false notions and ideals; to develop a love of freedom and truth; to promote a respectful spirit of dialogue and understanding; to discourage all partisan and sectarian strife; and to further the advancement of knowledge in service to society. The affairs of the university will always be guided by these ends.13

All still have academically high ranked seminaries, although they are not known to be evangelical.

Vulnerabilities

The lessons of Princeton, Harvard, Yale, and Duke suggest that schools that start with a Christian ethos are vulnerable to eventually losing it. These comments below are not necessarily based on the website quotes above.

1. If the university is not self-funding and cannot raise funds from a Christian constituency, it can come to depend on secular funding. This can lead to non-Christian board members, and the institution eventually becomes secular. This happened at Harvard.
2. If non-Christian students become a majority, it can detract from the Christian ethos.
3. When recruiting academic staff, Christian institutions must often choose between academically weaker Christians and academically stronger people who have minimal allegiance to the institution’s Christian values.

References

1 https://www.biola.edu/about Accessed 21 March 2023.
2 https://www.tcu.edu/about/mission-history.php#mvv Accessed 21 March 2023.
3 https://www.ccu.edu/about/diff erence/ Accessed 21 March 2023.
4 https://www.oc.edu/about/history Accessed 21 March 2023.
5 https://www.oc.edu/about/history/oc-covenant Accessed 21 March 2023.
6 htt ps://www.liberty.edu/online/about-us/ Accessed 21 March 2023.
7 htt ps://www.gcu.edu/why-gcu/christi an-identi ty-and-mission Accessed 21 March 2023.
8 htt ps://www.princeton.edu/meet-princeton/history Accessed 21 March 2023.
9 Chapter 5, secti on 1 of the 1780 version of the Consti tuti on of Massachusetts.
10 “A Brief History of Yale” Judith Schiff . htt ps://guides.library.yale.edu/yalehistory Accessed 23 March 2023.
11 htt ps://www.yale.edu/about-yale/traditi ons-history Accessed 23 March 2023.
12 htt ps://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/uarchives/history/arti cles/narrati ve-history Accessed 21 March 2023.
13 htt ps://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/uarchives/history/arti cles/charter-bylaws-aims-mission