The Christian Academy and Interdisciplinary Conversation
Editorial, by Shane Clifton
Southern Cross College, Academic Dean
shane.clifton@scc.edu.au
In contrast to what Mark Hutchinson describes as the "fragmentation of knowledge typical of the secular multiversities,"1 many Christian colleges are pursuing a more unifying vision, one that is grounded in the assertion that the cosmos is invested with a latent intelligibility that reflects the meaningfulness of divine intention. In an earlier epoch of Western society, this unifying vision was reflected in the priority given to the seven liberal arts, amidst which the discipline of theology was understood as "the queen of the sciences." In this worldview, specific disciplinary knowledge was seen to form part of a whole, framed by the unity of a creation in which "God is all in all."
In the face of centuries of questioning the very existence of God, added to uncertainty about our ability to know anything at all in this contemporary age of interpretation (see the article by Matthew Del Nevo), it is not surprising that the discipline of theology has been displaced within an academy that has retreated into completely distinct and separated disciplines. Indeed, recent commentary by university leaders (such as the newly appointed vice-chancellor of Macquarie University) indicates a widespread inability to distinguish between skills, knowledge and wisdom which undermines the entire purpose of the Uni-versity. What is disappointing (if not surprising), is that Christian institutions have not been immune from this trend. The disjunction, tending toward antagonism, between theology and science is an obvious example, but it is also the case that methodological purism has generated sometimes unbridgeable chasms between theologians, historians and philosophers – even between biblical scholars and systematic theologians – that results in a systemic unwillingness to reach for the sort of higher order understanding that can only be located in interdisciplinary synthesis and evaluation. Given the now-entrenched constraints of our disciplines, the challenge confronting faith based academies is how to develop faculty who are experts in their field while, at the same time, appropriating an interdisciplinary ethos and practice, framed around the shared goal of ‘faith seeking understanding’ in God and his creation.
Within the sphere of theology, there is increasing recognition that the discipline has to develop a broader outlook. As Clodovis Boff observes, even reflection about the triune God (what he labels "first theology") is mediated by philosophy, tradition, history, reason and culture. He goes on to note that this mediation is equally (or more) important when contemplating what he calls "second theology," humanity, church and society,2 which finds points of contact with the disciplines of history, psychology, sociology and economics, to name only a few. The difficulty, in the era of information overload, is that grasping the parameters of such diverse fields of knowledge, which themselves exist as complex and disputed territories, is too big a task. This reminds us that theology must be practised as a conversation and a partnership, a shared exploration of the meaning and purpose of life lived in the face of the perpetual threat of meaninglessness in a world subject to sin, but ultimately pervaded by grace.
This is not to make the self-serving argument that the discipline of theology should be reinstated to pride of place in Christian institutions. If all truth really is God’s truth, then the theologian has no special priority, although neither should she be a "beggar child on the doorstep of science."3 Instead, what is required is the emergence of communities that understand that the pursuit of meaning, value and beauty requires both a shared vision and purpose and, at the same time, a radically diverse set of horizons and skills. The fact is that such communities are unlikely to be formed in secular contexts, which lack any sustainable basis for true sharing. The consequences are readily apparent in universities globally, racked as they are with infighting between administration and faculty, between one discipline and another, and even between faculty within individual schools.
Yet what is virtually impossible for others should be achievable in Christian institutions, constituted as they are by a faculty and staff that share a common encounter with the triune God, and who together experience the transforming power of hope. Where this is embedded in truly incarnational communities typified by the now much overlooked virtue of ‘friendship’, the generally smaller size of Christian communities can actually work for their educational mission. Such communities are formed and sustained by the unifying vision of reaching for the glory or beauty of the divine:
What we are dealing with … is the study of how we come, enraptured, to see God, the world and ourselves in relation to God and the world with new eyes, thanks to our perception of the form of God’s self-disclosure.4
This is not a narrow vision, nor one that is only relevant for theologians. Rather, it is suggesting that Christian faith itself entails a personal transformation that causes us to become enraptured with the glory of God, and that leads to the affirmation that divine beauty and meaning is latent in all things, all times and all places. Such a vision, which should form the implicit and explicit purpose of every Christian academy, provides the basis for establishing and sustaining academic communities that exist in harmonious diversity. Within such communities, it might even be possible to resist the methodological and disciplinary purism that has divided the multiversities, and in this way to facilitate groundbreaking interdisciplinary research.
Such a task is, self-evidently, not an easy one. It is also the case that, notwithstanding the vision I have outlined above, Christian educational institutions seem to be as liable as any other organisation to experience division and dispute. But we should do better, and we can do better. For this to occur, we will need to commit ourselves to the priority of unity in diversity, a commitment based on God’s self-disclosure in Christ and the priority of grace that facilitates love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. If the cultures of Christian academies are so-framed, then, on the one hand, unity need not be achieved by enforcing narrow-minded and dogmatic boundaries, which inevitably undermine the sort of academic freedom that is the requisite to the pursuit of truth. On the other hand, it will not be the case that academic freedom becomes an excuse to undermine shared values and destroy the basis for community. Rather, faculty enraptured by the beauty of God and filled with the transformative power of the Spirit will accept one-another’s differences, appreciate the diversity of knowledge, and strive for mutual understanding.
Such at least is the goal of APS. In the editorial of the first issue, it was noted that the journal exists to promote Pentecostal scholarship and spirituality, with the goal of being interdisciplinary, integrative and highly contextualised. That goal continues in this issue, with input from historians, philosophers, theologians and biblical scholars, who throughout are striving with a common vision – to understand and describe the work of God in the global Pentecostal community of faith.
Enjoy,
Shane
Notes:
1. Mark Hutchinson, "'the Battle Hymn of the Republic of Learning': Thoughts on Academic Freedom in a Pentecostal College," Australasian Pentecostal Studies 9 (2006): 4-22. See also John C. Scott, ‘The Mission of the University: Medieval to Postmodern Transformations’, Journal of Higher Education, vol. 77. no. 1, 2006.
2. Clodovis Boff, Theology and Praxis: Epistemological Foundations (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1987)
3. James K.A. Smith, "Is the Universe Open for Surprise? Pentecostal Ontology and the Spirit of Naturalism." Presented at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, 2008.
4. Aidan Nichols, "Balthasar's Aims in the Theological Aesthetics," in Glory, Grace and Culture: The Work of Hans Urs Von Balthasar (New York: Paulist), 115. This is a summary of what Balthasar labels theological aesthetics.
, 24-25.