Humanities and hiterdisciplinary Studies

Abstract

As the interdisciplinary movement gains momentum, Christian scholars need to reflect on viable interdisciplinary methods rooted in faith-learning integration. The humanities provide a starting point for such a method. The humanities were divorced from the natural sciences in the modem era and, thus, aspects of reality that the humanities represent were alienated from academic conversations. This essay compares Frank Gaebelein's approach in the modem context with William Dennison's methods in the postmodem perspective. Both sought to develop an intentional method for Christian interdisciplinary studies. By synthesizing the best aspects of Gaebelein and Dennison, the humanities emerge as a potential focal point for epistemological pluralism or "multiple ways of knowing." Such methodological openness, balanced by the unity and universality of truth, enables Christian scholars to integrate knowledge from the humanities while transcending both modem positivism and postmodem relativism.