Office
Hours: Stephen Nichols On Christian Education In The Late Modern Age
One might not know it to
look at them now but it was orthodox Christians who built some of the greatest
educational institutions in the world. The universities in Paris and Oxford
were founded by Christians who believed the historic Christian faith. Later,
The Universities of Leiden, Cambridge, then Harvard, and Yale in the American
colonies were founded by believing Christians. In the 18th and 19th
centuries, however, something of a religious and educational revolution swept
across the west when the various Enlightenment movements across Europe and the
British Isles routed Christian orthodoxy. Since that time orthodox,
confessional Christian scholars have been increasingly marginalized from the
mainstream academy. Where they were once found in abundance in the great
universities of Europe, Britain, and America. today faithful confessional
evangelical scholars are more likely to be found in smaller, newer
institutions. As the great universities succumbed to the competing theology and
philosophy offered by the Enlightenment, a series of alternative colleges and
universities sprang up in the 19th and 20th centuries. For perhaps a century we
saw those schools flourish and even expand as the contrast between Christian
orthodoxy and various anti-Christian ideologies became clearer. At the moment,
evangelical academia is facing some new challenges. Recently, after the Supreme
Court’s Obergefell decision legalizing same-sex marriage, a small number of
evangelical colleges announced their withdrawal from the Christian College
Coalition. Another college is facing some potential challenges to its
accreditation after its president spoke up asking for the liberty to adhere to
the historic Christian position on marriage. Stephen J. Nichols is president of Reformation
Bible College in Sanford, FL just north of Orlando, and he is
charged with supervising the education of Christian young people in our late
modern age. He joined us on campus recently to discuss these challenges and how
to address them biblically.
Here is the episode.
Office
Hours: Stephen Nichols On Christian Education In The Late Modern Age | The
Heidelblog
