"Our world belongs to God!"

I've said elsewhere that Erskine faces its present stasis and recent polarization about our mission statement and educational philosophy (in part) because of what I call a tension in Erskine's "institutional DNA" between "vanilla ARP pietism" and "vanilla compartmentalist liberalism." Granted (if we keep the ice cream metaphor), there are several varieties of these flavors mixed up in what is indeed a complex institutional reality. However, the big-picture reality is that Erskine has for sometime been enmeshed in a culture war between those two inadequate forces.

For Erskine to build on its tradition and potential, we need to move past the conflicts of the past and embrace a bold, irenic, and vigorous Christian liberal arts vision that moves us past these two dichotomous forces of inertia. I maintain that that vision is suggested by the new mission statement, but that this vision goes beyond the mission statement and ought to spill over into both practical application (such as in the strategic planning process) and explication (an open conversation about the state and direction of the institution, and an exposition by the Board and the Administration of what this vision is and where it comes from).

One aspect of the explication of this vision ought to include situating Erskine within the larger classical, consensual Christian tradition. As David Gushee, professor of Moral Philosophy at Union University argues, this should include attention to the themes of covenant and kingdom of God in constructing a sexual ethic for Christian colleges, recognizing that that ethical reflection needs to be done in the service of the Church (and thus in dialogue with the historic tradition of the Church, including the Roman Catholic tradition) and under affirmation of the supreme normativity of Scripture. The ultimate focus of all of the above needs to be Christ, of course; but we do not worship Christ in a vacuum. We worship Him in the context of His Church, and thus all Christian reflection and practice needs to be both Christ-centered and ecclesially-oriented, and the two ought to go in tandem.

The upshot of all of this is that Erskine needs to engage this broader Christian tradition. The Kuyperian branch of the Reformed tradition and the Roman Catholic tradition seem to me to be prime candidates for engagement here. Concerning the Kuyperian tradition, I think we have much to learn from our Christian Reformed brethren. The Christian Reformed have tied together a vision for Christian culture with a vision of Christian engagement with the world as agents of Christ's redemption and salvation to a world broken and hurting because of sin and its effects.

Look, for example, of the CRC's document, "Our World Belongs to God." The Preamble opens by emphatically declaring:

As followers of Jesus Christ,[1]
living in this world—
which some seek to control,
but which others view with despair—[2]
we declare with joy and trust:
Our world belongs to God![3]
[1 Ps. 103:19-22]
[2 Ps. 4:6]
[3 Ps. 24:1]

While this document certainly is not perfect, the virtue of it is that it situates Christian reflection and practice within the context of the biblical story of Creation-Fall-Redemption-Consummation and proclaims that this story is real and that it can change our lives and change our world. Applied to Erskine, it can provide us with a vision of a community that strives to glorify God in all that it does by developing an environment that encourages the formation of well-rounded, Gospel-centered people lit on fire to serve and bring renewal to a fallen, confused, and hurting world in whatever they do. The Christian story, understood properly, is a revolutionary story of the triumph of God's reign, a reign of peace and love, over the violent and sinful forces of this fallen world; thus, the question arises of how well are we fostering an environment that emphasizes that learning, service, and global engagement are ought to spring from our Christian commitment and be done in the context of the Christian story?

Do we want an Erskine where students are encouraged by the structures in place here to be passionate about the Gospel, passionate about engaging ideas, passionate about community, passionate about the Church and the spread of the kingdom of God, passionate about social justice and being good stewards of creation? I sense that we're largely failing on those accounts right now, in terms of having a cohesive institution and community united in its pursuit of those goals and coordinated in achieving them. Sadly, I think at times we fail to even have a conversation about how we're failing. This is not to say that everything at Erskine is bad; it is to say that we need become more passionate, more engaged, and more open to a conversation about these matters.

Perhaps we could start by engaging documents from other Christian traditions, such as "Our World Belongs to God." As closing food-for-thought, here's an excerpt from the section of "Our World Belongs to God" that discusses the mission of God's people:

In education we seek to acknowledge the Lord[1]
by promoting schools and teaching[2]
in which the light of his Word shines in all learning,[3]
where students, of whatever ability,
are treated as persons who bear God's image[4]
and have a place in his plan.

[1 Prov. 4; 9:10]
[2 Ps. 119:105]
[3 Col. 1:17]
[4 Deut. 6:1-9]

This is a model of education as renewal, a model of education as being introduced to a tradition that sees learning as a redemptive process, a redemptive process leading us to love, praise, and enjoy God and to go out into the world as agents of love and healing in our vocations. Our mission statement seems to have a point of contact with this tradition when it says that, "As the arm of the Church for Christian higher education, Erskine strives to carry out the biblical mandate to redeem all of life, especially moral and intellectual life, under the authority and Lordship of Jesus Christ." How can Erskine better engage and unpack these themes?