Why Create a Christian University?
Canadians, concerned by the loss of the role of faith in a secular culture, have become active in building alternative institutions in training young people to think and live as authentic Christians in a rapidly changing and increasingly diverse culture.
Influenced by a network of successful North American Christian universities, the Tyndale Board of Governors saw the benefit of providing higher education that empowers young people to see the world with a Christian worldview. [Note: In 1980 there was one university self-defined as Christian in Canada, now there are ten.]
For students leaving home for the first time, making their pilgrimage towards adulthood, a faith-based university provides an exceptional setting in which to ask tough and unsettling questions. As students learn how faith faces philosophical assumptions and ethical conundrums, they are better prepared to make value judgments and commitments that will inform their choices and guide their lives.
As well, the formation of character is vital. Be it in class, writing a paper, pausing in chapel, or debating over a cup of coffee, students are encouraged to reflect on the meaning of life within the shaping of their own attitudes, behavior and values. In such an environment great education occurs: students experience the vigorous interaction of the community in worship, study and debate, while always learning to integrate faith and learning.
In short, the rationale for such a university is to create an environment that encourages first-rate scholarship and critical thinking so that in learning, young people discover what it means to serve others “with their heart, soul and mind and their neighbour as themselves.”
At a time in which society is concerned over ethical minefields, Tyndale wants its grads to be rooted in a moral vision that produces conviction that doing right is not good because it is beneficial, but because it is the only worthwhile option.
Central to Tyndale’s university program is liberal arts. Each first year student studies in the Great Books tradition, a program that integrates the lessons learned in Western civilization through the disciplines of English, history and philosophy. As leadership specialist Warren Bennis noted, “Universities, unfortunately, are not always the best place to learn. Too many produce narrow-minded specialists who may be wizards at making money, but who are unfinished as people. These specialists have been taught how to do, but they have not learned how to be. Instead of studying philosophy, history and literature—which are the experiences of all humankind—they study specific technologies.”
Thus the emphasis on the liberal arts experience. Running organizations is not always following a straight line. Simplicity is valued, but in life and leadership, ambiguity is more often the reality. For students to be prepared to lead in such a world, it is of great value for them to have an experience in their early university years where their training helped make their mind fertile with metaphor, language and writing skills so as leaders they will better make known their ideas. To have engaged in polarities of philosophical debate only sharpens one in knowing how to find clarity in the rough and tumble of critical discussions.
As well, Tyndale students experience an environment that values spirituality as part of the full orb of education and of life. The twentieth century shaped by secular assumptions, relegates matters of faith, spirituality and metaphysical thought to religious schools and as such tended to eliminate such discussions. Tyndale does the reverse.
Years ago the Jesuits developed an integrated program of learning, within a commitment to produce some of the finest leaders their various countries could find. They did it within an understanding that faith is not to be bifurcated from life. What one believes is not to be left at the doorstep of the House of Commons, at the entrance to The Stock Exchange, or in the dressing room of a hospital, anymore than one is to park one’s brain in the lobby of a church.
That doesn’t mean that critical thought or creative wanderings are outlawed. Indeed the opposite. We welcome investigation in all areas of life. Are we drawn together by a life commitment? Yes. Indeed as all places of learning have an implicit or explicit set of standards or assumptions, we do too.
Tyndale is part of a Canadian movement of developing strong alternative university settings for the training of our young people.
Want to learn more about Tyndale's academic programs?
Check out these great sites: