Christian Liberal Arts Research Articles

Short-Term Mating Strategies Are Negatively Correlated with Religious Commitment: Exploring Evolutionary Variables for Religiosity at a Small Christian Liberal Arts College

Based on the Reproductive Religiosity Model, it was hypothesized that characteristics associated with short-term mating strategies would be negatively correlated with higher levels of religious commitment. This hypothesis was tested among undergraduate students in two different studies at a small, evangelical, liberal arts college. A strong negative correlation was found in the first study between the importance of religion and different types of sexual behavior associated with a more unrestrictive, short-term sexual lifestyle. The second study also confirmed our initial hypothesis based on a negative correlation between two measures of religious commitment and a measure of orientation toward uncommitted sex. In the second study, we also investigated the relationship between religion, attachment styles, and life history theory. We found no correlations between religious commitment and attachment styles, but did find a modest positive correlation between insecure attachment styles and short-term mating strategies.

Pursuing Purpose on the Christian Liberal Arts Campus: Dialogic Education and Vocational Conversations

What role can liberal arts faculty at Christian colleges and universities play in helping their students discern and pursue a sense of purpose in a complex and changing marketplace? In an uncertain and challenging economy, students in the humanities and social sciences often struggle to find a sense of vocational purpose. Using Arnett's (1992) understanding of dialogic education as a theoretical framework, the purpose of this article is to complement and extend research on students’ vocational discernment by reflecting on how liberal arts professors at Christian colleges can contribute to their students’ discernment through vocational conversations. In a manner that resonates strongly with the concerns of a Christian campus, Arnett's vision of dialogic education frames higher education as a conversation centered on content and being constantly attuned to the development of character. After defining the nature and scope of vocational conversations in relation to Arnett's understanding of dialogic education, I suggest the metaphors of ressourcement, relationship, and resilience as offering coordinates that can assist faculty in engaging students in vocational conversations in both the classroom and more informal settings. In the concluding section, I examine implications for additional research and reflection.

Christian Liberal Arts Teacher Preparation for 21st Century Students

Religious faith has been a historical catalyst for public education even prior to the founding of the United States. Over the last 50 years, courts in the United States have endeavored to clarify the role of religion in public education calling into question the role of religion in open forums such as schools. Is the religious faith of a teacher a liability or an asset? Does religion, particularly Christian faith, help or hinder a teacher in the public school classroom? These questions are essential to answer in the rapidly changing public school environment. Christian liberal arts teacher preparation programs can combine the strengths of traditional teacher preparation programs and the liberal arts with religious faith to serve the holistic needs of students.

Out of Plato's Cave: The Role of Mathematics in the Christian Liberal Arts Curriculum

This article presents a historical defense of liberal arts education—a philosophy that is commonly claimed among Christian colleges and universities—in order to provide an understanding of liberal education to skeptics and subscribers alike. A subsequent discussion of the role of mathematics in the liberal arts tradition contends that mathematics should play a foundational role in the liberal arts curriculum. The discussion then leads to the question driving this article: What is the current role of mathematics in the Christian liberal arts curriculum? To investigate that question, I examined required course credits in mathematics in 176 institutions professing a Christian liberal arts curriculum. Two prominent organizations serving Christian postsecondary interests supplied the member institutions—the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) and the National Network for Church-Related Colleges and Universities (National Network). This article presents the data collected, summarizes the results, and highlights trends before encouraging Christian colleges to reflect on the role mathematics plays in their own curriculum.

Federal Court Hears Challenges to HHS Mandated Contraception Coverage

Federal Court Hears Challenges to HHS Mandated Contraception Coverage -- Belmont Abbey College v. Sebelius1 and Wheaton College v. Sebelius2 -- On December 18, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia consolidated the Belmont Abbey College v. Sebelius and Wheaton College v. Sebelius cases and held that the claims presented were not ripe for judicial review until the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) promulgated its promised new Final Rule.3 The plaintiffs in these cases, the first to be argued at the federal appellate level,4 contested an HHS regulation that requires most group health plans 5 to cover women's preventative care, including FDA [Food and Drug Administration] approved contraceptive[s], without cost sharing.6 These cases join more than thirty others 7 challenging the regulation, which was promulgated to comply with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). 8 The plaintiffs in these cases are Belmont Abbey College, a private Benedictine Catholic college in North Carolina, and Wheaton College, a private Christian liberal arts college in Illinois (collectively, Plaintiffs). 9 The Plaintiffs, based on moral grounds, strongly object to being forced to offer contraceptives to their employees through their health plans. 10 Under HHS's initial proposed regulation, both employers and religiously affiliated organizations would be in violation of the regulation if they refused to cover contraceptive services. 11 The interim final rule, however, authorized HHS's Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to exempt certain employers, namely non-profit churches and orders, from compliance with the regulation. 12 The government has implemented a one-year safe harbor to protect organizations like Belmont Abbey and Wheaton Colleges from enforcement but failed to include colleges in its final definition of religious employers. 13 Nevertheless, the government indicated that it plans to work with the colleges and other institutions with similar moral concerns to find a way to avoid enforcement after the safe harbor ends.14In late 2011 and mid-2012, the Plaintiffs sued HHS, the Department of Labor, and the Department of the Treasury, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief under the First Amendment, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). 15 The United States District Court for the District of Columbia first granted HHS's motion to dismiss in Wheaton, finding that the college lacked standing.16 The college argued that certainly impending injury would result from employee ERISA suits in the future, but the court found that this alleged injury was too speculative, remote, and not actual or imminent since the college was protected by the safe harbor for the next year.17 Wheaton College also relied heavily on Chamber of Commerce v. FEC and other pre-enforcement First Amendment jurisprudence to support its standing argument.18 The district court, however, quickly distinguished Wheaton from Chamber of Commerce because of the government's repeated commitment to a solution in Wheaton and the unlikelihood of suits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 by college employees. 19 Finally, the district court found that Wheaton's claims were not yet ripe for review, as the proposed rule was not yet finalized.20In Belmont, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia arrived at a similar, but slightly more nuanced, result. The court agreed that the suit was unripe for adjudication 21 but, unlike in Wheaton, rejected HHS's argument that the temporary safe harbor caused the college's injury to be too remote for standing. Instead, the court held Belmont Abbey lacked standing because the alleged injury was not certainly impending, which is also a requirement for standing.22In December 2012, the D.C. Circuit held that the colleges' challenges were not ripe for review and ordered the appeals held in abeyance. …

The Reflexivity of Individual and Group Identity within Identity-Based Movements

In early 2011, students at a Christian liberal arts university won a nearly two-year battle for the official university recognition of a faith-based student organization centered on fostering a spiritual dialogue regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) identity and student sexuality. This article utilizes in-depth personal stories of the founding group members to examine current gaps in the identity-based social movement literature. The author argues that individual and group identities are formed reflexively through interaction and self- and group-reflection. Additionally, the author examines respondent stories to shed light on the various collective action frames made possible through discursive opportunity structures. Unforeseen openings within repressive environments may ultimately open the door to social change formerly thought unattainable. Possible implications for future research, specifically that pertaining to LGBT populations and movements, are also discussed.

Tertiary Education in Australia: Part II

Australia has no Christian universities or Christian liberal arts colleges other than Australian Catholic University, which has six campuses in five cities. This paper examines one long-term attempt to set up such an institution, which ended in the project being abandoned for lack of progress. Some likely reasons for failure are identified in the hope that any future endeavors might avoid such hindrances.

Faith Development in Graduating Christian College Seniors

This qualitative study involved conducting semistructured interviews with 12 students attending a Christian liberal arts college. The study sought to identify how students’ Christian faith changes over the course of time they are attending college. The factors identified as potentially influencing changes in faith within students attending a Christian liberal arts college include: relationships with mentors and peers, gender differences, and active searching by the student. Results of this study found several areas that influenced the participants’ development of faith while attending college. Three main themes were found to be the most salient aspects of the participants’ development of faith: (a) discovering self and an authentic connection with self, (b) discovering others and an authentic connection with others, and (c) discovering God and an authentic connection with God. Several applications of the results of this research are discussed, including implications for churches as well as universities.

Faculty Perceptions about Tenure at Private Christian Liberal Arts Colleges

This study investigates faculty perceptions of tenure at 38 institutions of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) with a sample of 988 faculty with tenure, 734 on a tenure track, 427 who are not on a tenure track, and 411 from institutions without tenure. Major findings that emerges are (1) more male have earned tenure; (2) the majority of tenures faculty agreed that the criteria for advancement and promotion are clear; (3) most disagree that tenure is an outmoded concept; (4) faculty with tenure are more likely to believe that tenure attracts the best minds; (5) CCCU faculty working toward tenure report lower levels of extensive stress than the national sample.

The Origins of Christian Liberal Arts Higher Education in Russia: A Case Study of the Russian-American Christian University

This is a case study of the historical development of a private Christian faith-based school of higher education in post-Soviet Russia from its conception in 1990 until 2010. This binational school was founded as Russian-American Christian University (RACU) in 1996. In 2003, business and economics as well as social work undergraduate academic programs were accredited by the Russian Ministry of Education. In 2008, RACU added English language and literature to the list of its state-accredited undergraduate academic programs. The academic model of RACU was designed according to the traditional American Christian liberal arts model and adapted to the Russian higher education system.

A New Generation of Leaders for Eastern Europe: Values and Attitudes for Active Citizenship

Higher education has a crucial role in developing active citizenship within students. Even though active citizenship skills and competencies have been identified as essential life skills for Europe there is very little progress to date in establishing measures or indicators as to how this might be accomplished. This study provides the first data regarding the readiness of Eastern European undergraduate students to engage in citizen behaviors. Grounded in the theoretical measures of the Social Change Model of Leadership Development (HERI, 1996), the study was conducted at a unique private Christian liberal arts university located in Lithuania. Data identifying aspects of the university experience that contribute to the development of active citizenship are provided. Results, limitations, and discussion regarding the implications for higher education are also explored.

The Multidimensional Structure of the Quest Construct

The study of religious motivation has been an important area of research in the psychology of religion since Allport and Ross (1967) developed their measure of intrinsic/extrinsic religion. Batson (1976) expanded the model of religious motivation by proposing the quest construct and its measurement with the Interactional Scale. Two additional measures of quest were developed by Altemeyer and Hunsberger (1992) and Dudley and Cruise (1990). Questions have been raised about the reliability and validity of the quest construct and its measures. The present study investigates the dimensionality and convergence of three measures of quest using a sample of 1200 undergraduates from nine Christian liberal arts colleges. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses identified five quest dimensions. The correlations of the five quest dimensions with several measures of religious functioning and religious fundamentalism were examined. Differences across four college classes on the quest dimensions were also tested. The three quest measures converged on two dimensions labeled Belief Change Expected and Doubts Value. These dimensions were uncorrelated with measures of God awareness and religious well-being and negatively correlated with religious fundamentalism. The three other dimensions identified were unique to one of the measures. The dimension regarding existential questions was not well sampled by our pool of items. The dimensions Reason versus Faith and Religion as Quest were correlated negatively with God awareness and religious well-being as well as religious fundamentalism. The quest dimensions of change and doubt are core facets of Batson's original formulation and our results validate these two dimensions of his model. Measurement of the questions dimension requires further development. The validity and utility of the other two dimensions as aspects of quest will require further investigation.

Illegal Media File Sharing: The Impact of Cultural and Demographic Factors

The purpose of this article is to examine the ethics and economics behind the illegal file-sharing phenomena. A model of media evasion that adjusts for demographics, locus of control, and cultural aspects is developed to examine individual behavior. Using an expanded survey instrument at three universities (a private Midwest Christian liberal arts school, a public Division II university, and a public historically black college), data are collected on both student attitudes toward and actual propensity to illegally download music and other forms of multimedia. With a total sample of 302 individuals, logistic regression results indicate that age and internal locus of control tendencies are positively associated with moral attitudes, while age is the only demographic variable that is negatively associated with reduced illegal behavior. The cultural/religious results indicate that (1) self-reported religiosity has no effect on a person's attitude toward the morality of file sharing, and (2) frequency of attending religious services (“religious intensity”), particularly among those who indicate they are of the Christian faith, has a significantly positive effect on a person's attitude toward the morality of file sharing, but (3) neither of these two factors have a significant effect on actual illegal behavior.

The Home Environments of Christian College Freshmen: Behind Closed Doors

This study provides a descriptive snapshot of high school students’ home lives from their perspective as first-year college students as they attended a Bible college or Christian liberal arts college. The sample of over 2,300 surveys was collected annually for 14 years through selected freshmen courses, and the data reports on the frequencies of particular practices found in the home environment, such as illegal drugs, tobacco products, the frequency of attending religious services, and family prayers. A data comparison is made from other research, particularly the Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE) and the National Study of Youth and Religions (NSYR). Implications for church workers and faculty at Bible colleges, Christian liberal arts colleges, and seminaries are also discussed.

A Profession of Blended Beliefs: English at a Christian Liberal Arts College

In Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate (1990), Ernest L. Boyer challenged the prevailing belief that the most significant work of higher education involved research and publication. Calling for new categories of scholarship—including the activities of discovery, integration, application, and teaching—Boyer emphasized the need for a more complete and pluralistic understanding of the academy, one curiously consistent with the aims of a Christian liberal arts college. As one who teaches English at such a place, I possess a composite of beliefs regarding my profession and my institution—beliefs not perceived as compatible by some. This essay is an examination of these beliefs and how they, in fact, interface. In the English department at Wheaton, our primary educational aim proves to be different from that of a public university: the formation of whole and effective human beings through imitatio Christi, the pedagogic integration of Christian faith and humanistic learning. Eschewing indoctrination and superficial biblical belief, we require students to engage controversial theoretical perspectives and difficult life questions, resulting in the freedom for self-critical participation in a community, a language, and a Book. This exposition concludes with a consideration of belief versus bullshit, advocating Michael Bérubé's approach for “critical pluralism.”

Postconventional Faith Education for Christian Liberal Arts in a Multicultural Society

Postconventional Faith Education for Christian Liberal Arts in a Multicultural Society

Attitudes of Students at a Private Christian Liberal Arts University Toward the Teaching of Evolution

Students at private Christian colleges tend to have a viewpoint that incorporates faith and belief in God. Whether due to misconceptions about evolution, lack of knowledge of the nature of science, or belief that their faith cannot allow them to accept evolution, there tends to be a great deal of confusion about evolution. This study investigates the attitudes toward evolution of students at a small Christian liberal arts university located in east Texas (East Texas Baptist University, ETBU) and how they would feel most comfortable being approached about evolution in the college science classroom. The majority of students at ETBU are from either Texas or Louisiana. In high school, both states require at least one science course to be taken and evolution to be taught at some level of understanding. Students show a fair understanding that science includes only naturalistic explanations . However, a greater number of science courses and maturity level of the student resulted in significant differences (P = 0.0001 and P = 0.002, respectively) in the understanding of science. Nevertheless, there was a general assertion that God should be included in the definition of science by the majority of students (64.4%), indicating a misunderstanding of the nature of science. Students responded that they would be most comfortable with being approached in the classroom about evolution through the presentation of the science supporting evolution (19.6%), and being shown how creationism and intelligent design are not science (29.8%). A number of students responded that the professor should accept creationism and intelligent design as science and teach them as such (38.2%). This paper will present methods to address students that respond to evolution in this manner.

A Phenomenology of the Integration of Faith and Learning

This phenomenological investigation examined how eight student-nominated faculty who teach at an evangelical Christian liberal arts university describe their understanding and practice of the Integration of Faith and Learning (IFL). Collected data via informal, conversational, taped interviews led to the emergence of two primary themes: the Inseparability of Faith from Practice and the Outworking of Faith in Practice. The findings of the study highlight the need to create a more conducive context in which students can learn IFL and call for a re-examination of the already murky discourse surrounding definitional aspects of IFL. The study proposes to move the discourse forward by offering a new, yet to be discussed construct that emanated from the participants of this study, ontological foundation. A conceptual model describing its relationship with IFL is proposed.

From the beginning: faith and geology at evangelical Wheaton College

Abstract Geology has been part of the curriculum at Wheaton College, Illinois, since it was established in 1860 as a non-denominational, Christian liberal arts college. The school continues to maintain a strong identity with evangelical Christian theology and subculture. The first president Jonathan Blanchard recruited George Frederick Barker to teach geology and natural history on the personal recommendations of the renowned geologists Agassiz, Silliman and Hitchcock. Barker taught at Wheaton for only one year, and was followed by a succession of other young scientists who kept geology in the curriculum to the end of the nineteenth century. These teachers respected the geological evidence for an ancient Earth and interpreted the creation days in Genesis 1 as representing extended epochs of God's creative activity. In the early twentieth century, Professors James Bole and L. Allen Higley harmonized mainstream geological history and the Bible through the gap or ruin–restoration interpretation, wherein eons of geological time preceded six days of Edenic re-creation only thousands of years ago. Higley's background in geology, his role in recruiting additional science faculty staff, and his influence among fundamentalists set the stage for the acceptance by subsequent Wheaton geologists of mainstream geology and their rejection of emerging popular fundamentalist ideas about a six day creation and Flood geology. Geology was established as a major subject in 1935 and an independent Geology Department was established in 1958. Geology education at Wheaton College was profoundly influenced by the tension over creation issues in the evangelical subculture, and different models for understanding the relationship between science and Christian theology have been employed by teachers and students.

Christian Vocation: Defining Relations with Identity Status, College Adjustment, and Spirituality

A great deal of growth takes place during the college years. Christian college students may be involved in exploring their spirituality and in finding what God is calling them to do, their vocation, as well as in identity development. In this study one hundred twenty-eight women and sixty-three men (M age = 20.3 years, SD = 1.7) from a Christian liberal arts college were surveyed. In general, identity development and greater understanding of Christian vocation were related; achieved identity statuses were positively correlated with a greater understanding of Christian vocation and diffused statuses were negatively correlated with an understanding of Christian vocation. Students who better understood their vocation also showed better adjustment to college. Greater spiritual vitality and commitment and secure spiritual attachment were related to greater understanding of vocation. Preoccupied spiritual attachment was negatively correlated with understanding vocation. Limitations and suggestions for further research are discussed.