Exploring the Human– part 2

Forming a Christian Mind Spring conference

In February, some of us at CPS attended the Spring conference of Forming a Christian Mind in Cambridge. This conference follows on from the theme of the Study Day in November: ‘Exploring the Human’, this time with its focus on teaching, collaboration and academic vocation in light of the gospel.

Professor Bradley Green’s plenary talk that began the conference deftly outlined what it means to ‘be human’ and what the implications of this in an academic environment. His point was that every human ‘knows’ God, that is to say, everyone has an innate knowledge of God. Using Romans 1v18-21, where God will surely ‘punish the wickedness of man’ is precisely because they know God but, because of the fall, suppress that truth within themselves and prevent that truth from being known to others. This means that when we interact with our colleagues and students in the university, we do so in knowledge that they too, know God, but have that knowledge suppressed within them due to sin. It also means that we, as Christian academics who not only know God but also follow Him promote an intellectual reality that is not, as Green puts it, ‘morally neutral’. We believe that this knowledge of God brings forth all other types of knowledge. Thus, the academic world, which is built on different epistemologies (knowledge systems), is not a moral nor intellectual neutral space.

¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
Romans 1: 18–19 (NIV)

Through the other talks of the session, it became clear how we should conduct ourselves as Christian scholars in an academic setting given this knowledge of God. For example, Professor Karen Coats stressed the importance of acknowledging the ‘third person’ in the room of the classroom. Not only you as a teacher giving a lesson, or students receiving a lesson but the God who has made both teacher and students and is guiding the teaching and learning process. Professor Cecilia Brasset and Dr Zachary Ardern also emphasised how strong professional relationships and friendships with staff and students can be the first step of witness of one’s Christian faith. As relationships develop over time, we can find ways to introduce them to Jesus and also have opportunities to disciple colleagues who come to Christ.

This conference highlighted to me the importance of relationships across the academic hierarchy, especially through the teaching of students. For the Christian academic, teaching is not an added extra but a crucial means not only of conveying knowledge to our students but also supporting them and seeing them as ‘fully human’ and not simply a number amongst many in the lecture theatre. It is indeed, through our teaching of all types of subjects and disciplines that we can point towards the knowledge of God that already lies in the hearts of those we teach.