Praying My Way Through Higher Ed
A bit on masking secularism and the importance of rhetoric
I’ve got beef with the term “Christian higher education.”
Last week I was at the Assemblies of God’s General Council in Columbus, OH, where I attended the Alliance for Higher Education Luncheon.1 It was there that I was finally able to articulate the issue I take with “Christian higher ed.” I leaned over to my good friend Dr. Joy Qualls (who is a rhetorician)2 and I said,
We need to change the way we talk about Christian higher education. Higher education is Christian. Really, we should refer to ourselves (as Christians) as doing ‘higher education’ and anyone who isn’t Christian as doing ‘secular higher education.’
I was told from the youngest age that Christians are not and shouldn’t be afraid of any academic discipline, because when it comes down to it, all knowledge is God’s knowledge. If you’re a Christian, I think you must agree.
I’ve been reflecting with some intensity on this matter given my new role at Evangel University where I’m the director of theology for the College of Online Learning. The administration has been talking a lot about the necessity of having university-wide “faith integration.” I totally get what they’re saying. Christians should be sure that all studies refer to our confession: the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the creator of all things.
But I can’t stop thinking about how the initiative, and particularly the phrase “faith integration,” is a concession to secular society. It’s to admit that secularism (however we define it) is the reigning worldview, and it is our job to make sure our secular knowledge makes reference to the kingdom of God.
But is there really any such thing as “secular knowledge?” Charles Taylor and James K.A. Smith have strong opinions on the matter. While they are ready to admit that we’re all secular now, they are quick to point out all the embedded quasi-religious commitments in the secular project. There’s no neutral territory where knowledge is pure, disinterested, without implications for how we ought to live, and what it means to be human. All knowledge makes claims about where we have come from, and where this whole thing we call existence is ultimately going. Put simply, even though an atheist chemistry professor doesn’t believe in God, he’s still got protological and eschatological commitments. You just have to have eyes to see, ears to hear, and a nose to sniff them out.
So here is where I’m at:
I’ve been tasked with helping to integrate faith into the various programs of the College of Online Learning, and I’m going to do it with prayer. Throughout my master’s and doctoral degrees, I always prayed before I sat down to begin my daily studies. A dear Episcopalian friend of mine put me onto the Prayer Before Study by Thomas Aquinas. It grounded me. It reminded me that everything I did was for God and from God. And it reminded me that all knowledge is God’s knowledge.
So, I decided that I would write prayers for each program, and invite students to pray along with their professors as they study. Over the next week or so, I’ll be publishing them here on Pastoral Theology.
I’ve written prayers for General Studies, Allied Health, Behavioral Health, Criminal Justice, Humanitarian Relief, and (of course) Church Ministries.
The prayers are modeled on a medieval art form called a florilegium which means “flower-gathering.” Each phrase of the prayer comes from a passage of Scripture (I’ll footnote them). Each Scripture is like a flower from a different plant that, when brought together, creates a new and uniquely beautiful “bouquet.” They have a trinitarian structure, and (generally) follow the timeline of the Scriptures, moving from Creation and the OT, to Jesus, to the Spirit and the life of the world to come. The hope is that students will learn to pray in trinitarian fashion, and that they’ll get some biblical literacy while they do.
I’ll be posting the first prayer tomorrow, but for now, here is the prayer of Thomas Aquinas I prayed throughout my education.
Ineffable Creator, Who, from the treasures of Your wisdom, has established three hierarchies of angels, has arrayed them in marvelous order above the fiery heavens, and has marshaled the regions of the universe with such artful skill,
You are proclaimed the true font of light and wisdom, and the primal origin raised high beyond all things.
Pour forth a ray of Your brightness into the darkened places of my mind; disperse from my soul the twofold darkness into which I was born: sin and ignorance.
You make eloquent the tongues of infants. Refine my speech and pour forth upon my lips the goodness of Your blessing.
Grant to me keenness of mind, capacity to remember, skill in learning, subtlety to interpret, and eloquence in speech.
May You guide the beginning of my work, direct its progress, and bring it to completion.
You Who are true God and true Man, Who live and reign, world without end.
Amen
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Allen Tennison (Assemblies of God Resident Theologian) had an awesome teaching on "faith integration" in the university. I tried to get a recording of it, but it wasn't recorded. I would recommend you write him to ask him for his notes on it. It might add more to your current endeavor.
Very nice Joseph. A worthwhile project and I will be interested to see how it goes.
I wish as much as anybody that Christianity was sort of the default and the light for the worldview but I have been looking at Matthew 7 a lot lately and can't help but think that it never has been and never will be.
The narrowness of the gate and the few that find it seems very much to be a feature not a bug. While our modern versions soften it, when Jesus says 'broad is the gate that leads to destruction and there are many that go through it' He adds as an explanation as a cause, 'BECAUSE the way to life is narrow'
He is deliberately narrow, deliberately exclusive. I have been wrestling with why this would be true of the one who 'draws all men to Himself' and 'doesn't desire that any should perish but all come to salvation'. My current thought is that He is not a gate for a crowd to walk through, but a gate for individuals and that as long as our identity comes from a group we can only go through the broad gate of the world, the flesh, and the devil. That is where we are always different. Even if we are an 'innumerable number' we remain individuals, never becoming faceless members or anonymous parts of a collective.