One o f the most challenging and vital mission fields in the world is . . .
Higher Education by G eorge H . M oore
S he caption of a recent news release in The Los Angeles Times, “ Efforts Made to Re cruit more Science Students,” re flects the concern being expressed in leading periodicals'that America maintain supremacy in scientific achievement. The motivation is obvious. It is felt that only by discovering and enlisting the best minds of our youth for specializa tion in mathematics and the physi cal sciences can we win the race in atomic research and development, and thereby ensure survival. Without minimizing the need for the support of higher education in these fields, the evangelical should recognize a far deeper and more basic need for the support of Chris tian higher education. After all, we are not necessarily called to sur vive, as desirable as that may seem! From the days of the apostles to the recent martyrdom of the five missionaries by the Auca Indians, the basic truth of the cross and resurrection has been vividly dem onstrated. To that person who has a deep realization of the resurrec tion of Jesus Christ in his own life, eternal life has already begun. However, the evangelical should be interested in the support of higher education because it presents one of the most challenging and vital mis sion fields in the world today. Origin of our Colleges This mission field the church in America once recognized. Sixteen years after the first settlers arrived in America, Harvard was founded
from Williams College and An dover Seminary. The most illustri ous member of this group was Adoniram Judson, pioneer mission ary statesman to Burma. The mis sionary historian, Glover, terms this as the birthplace of modem American missions. The Causes of a Radical Change But a radical change took place in the goals and objectives of higher education in America, so much so that a survey of its present status would reveal little of this early spir itual emphasis. Even in many of the colleges founded for the promo tion of Christian truth or those avowedly related to religious de nominations, the presence of the sense of Christian missions is so obviouslv lacking as to make them practically indistinguishable in cur riculum, aims and objectives from the larger, secular state colleges and universities. One can well inquire into the cause for this change. * There were many currents — historical, educational and philo sophical — that led to the present predominance of secularism. Dur ing the period from 1860 to 1890, the great westward expansion of America took place. Accompanying this was a phenomenal increase in industry, manufacture and com merce. Seemingly, there could be no end to prosperity. The age was marked by what the historian, Ralph Henry Gabriel has called, The Gospel o f W ealth, for material prosperity seemed to be the all-con suming goal of so many. Even the CONTINUED 17
mainly to provide “ an educated ministry.” With the one exception of a non-sectarian college in Phila delphia, all the colleges founded in the colonial era were related to the church. Similarly, of the' colleges and universities founded between this period and the Civil War, prac tically all were organized, support ed and controlled by religious in terests. Although the purpose of training ministers was clearly rec ognized, it was also felt that a Christian higher education was valuable in all walks of life. In The Development and Scope o f Higher Education in the United States by Hofstadter and Hardy, it is pointed out that the extent to which the colleges were given to the education of ministers was a good measure of the intensity of their religious function. Higher education was contributing to the spiritual life of the country and its religious development as well as to larger horizons. At the beginning of the 19th century, the famous “ Haystack Prayer Meeting” group was formed by college students
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About the Author George H. Moore has had 11 years ex perience as pastor in the Friends Church in California, Oregon and Idaho. He has a Ph.D. degree from the University of Iowa and has taught at George Fox and Penn Colleges and is currently Assistant Professor of Psychology at the Biota Bible College in Los Angeles.
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