Faith Integration
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Faith Integration A main reason for the existence of the Christian college or university is to provide an educational environment that includes both academic subject matter and Christian knowledge. At Azusa Pacific University, the school emphasizes their motto “God First” in and out of the classroom. According to APU’s Mission Statement, APU is a “Christian community of disciples and scholars who seek to advance the work of God in the world through academic excellence in liberal arts and professional programs of higher education that encourage students to develop a Christian perspective of truth and life."
Christian Worldview
A worldview is a set of beliefs, values, and attitudes that enable us to process new information and maintain a consistent view of reality. Through our worldview we apply the standards that allow us to make connections between what we know, what we experience, and what new knowledge claims we encounter. Our worldview supplies the interpretive framework for understanding our experiences and the events of the world, and it provides the values that form the basis for decision making. Because faith-learning integration is closely linked with judgments about what is or is not knowledge, our worldview is therefore clearly crucial to the proper functioning of faith and learning integration. Indeed, our worldview is the philosophical engine that drives the integrative process. A challenge facing Christian educators is that a Biblical worldview foundation has been taken for granted. Successful faith-learning integration is impossible for students who lack a clear and well defined Biblical worldview. The unity of truth—including academic and Biblical or theological truth—is at the heart of integration.
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The construction of a Biblical worldview must be an ongoing process. It must be built and added in to every course. Christian Worldview forms the basis for decision making. Decisions are based on criteria, which are themselves based
Faith Integration A main reason for the existence of the Christian college or university is to provide an educational environment that includes both academic subject matter and Christian knowledge. At Azusa Pacific University, the school emphasizes their motto “God First” in and out of the classroom. According to APU’s Mission Statement, APU is a “Christian community of disciples and scholars who seek to advance the work of God in the world through academic excellence in liberal arts and professional programs of higher education that encourage students to develop a Christian perspective of truth and life."
Christian Worldview
A worldview is a set of beliefs, values, and attitudes that enable us to process new information and maintain a consistent view of reality. Through our worldview we apply the standards that allow us to make connections between what we know, what we experience, and what new knowledge claims we encounter. Our worldview supplies the interpretive framework for understanding our experiences and the events of the world, and it provides the values that form the basis for decision making. Because faith-learning integration is closely linked with judgments about what is or is not knowledge, our worldview is therefore clearly crucial to the proper functioning of faith and learning integration. Indeed, our worldview is the philosophical engine that drives the integrative process. A challenge facing Christian educators is that a Biblical worldview foundation has been taken for granted. Successful faith-learning integration is impossible for students who lack a clear and well defined Biblical worldview. The unity of truth—including academic and Biblical or theological truth—is at the heart of integration.
2
The construction of a Biblical worldview must be an ongoing process. It must be built and added in to every course. Christian Worldview forms the basis for decision making. Decisions are based on criteria, which are themselves based