Abstract
“It's just robotics! It doesn’t matter if that's taught by a Christian or not!” These words, uttered by a high school student considering a state university for his degree in robotics, reflect a sentiment that is shared by many both in and out of the Christian academy. Those who hold such a perspective misunderstand the massive impact that each course of study can have on a person's faith. They also miss the myriad opportunities to utilize their vocations to influence their world for Christ. It is this misstep that Jacob Shatzer attempts to remedy in his book Faithful Learning: A Vision for Theologically Integrated Education.
Faithful Learning is a theological primer for educators who are looking to integrate their faith into the way they teach. In another way, Shatzer helps professors connect doctrine to the disciplines. With this as the goal, it is helpful to recognize that this book is not designed to be a full-fledged work of theology. Nor is it intended to be a multifeatured instructional training manual. Shatzer simply illustrates for Christian educators how the orthodox doctrines of their faith affect their classrooms and, specifically, how they are integrated into every field of study.
Jacob Shatzer is the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Union University, where he has taught courses on the Bible, Theology, and Ethics. His work as a theologian and an academic leader merges in this book. He recognizes the need for a solid biblical foundation to support all other study areas within the university. From this position, professors can faithfully integrate the truth of God's Word with the discoveries of their fields of study. These dual passions for theology and education particularly equip Shatzer to write this book.
Chapter 1 outlines Shatzer's theological method. Drawing on the Wesleyan quadrilateral, he identifies the four sources of theology: Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. After clarifying that Scripture maintains the chief position as the norming norm among the four, he explains how all four contribute to the theologian's work. Chapter 1 concludes with a discussion from the perspective of an English classroom, where students directly relate to each other through words and seek to understand the experiences of others through empathetic reading and listening.
Chapter 2 tackles Theology proper and the concept of the Trinity. Shatzer outlines the areas where all believers have held an orthodox view on such a complicated topic, as well as the various heresies that have sprung up through the overemphasis on certain extreme explanations of the Trinity. Integral to this discussion of the Trinity is an outline of the attributes of God. While not an in-depth study of these attributes, it is helpful to understand that all the attributes apply equally to each person of the Trinity. In Chapter 3, Shatzer continues the discussion on God by explaining how God is transcendent over his creation. He is entirely separate from his creation because he is the creator. Instead of making the obvious connection to the field of science at the end of Chapter 3, he invites an art teacher to discuss how the doctrine of creation relates to the creative work believers can do in fields such as the visual arts.
Chapter 4 addresses the topic of humanity and what it means to be human. Chief among these characteristics is the image of God, which is innate in every human being. With that concept of the image of God, Shatzer discussed how humans relate to themselves, to others, and to the rest of creation. Chapter 5, then, expresses how sin increased how humans relate to themselves, others, and creation. These characteristics are then drawn together in the field of exercise science, where students learn first how to relate to themselves in a healthy way and then collaborate in relationships with others.
Shatzer explores the concept of Christ's person and work in Chapters 6 and 7. He chose to tackle the concept of Jesus’ divinity and deity as they connect directly to his work on the cross. In his treatment of the work of Christ, he notes that it is not just the work on the cross but his work as the prophet, priest, and king, presenting a well-balanced view of Jesus’ atoning for the sins of humanity, interceding for us, and ruling over all creation. As in many chapters, Shatzer focuses on the unifying tenets of orthodox Christianity without shying away from complex topics such as the hypostatic union. The guest contributors then note that both the fields of philosophy and law connect to this topic as students must wrestle with profound concepts, reasoning them out logically. These doctrines also prompt believers to emphasize how Christ made atonement for our sins and continues to be our comforter in times of need.
Chapter 8 then broaches the topic of the Holy Spirit. Similar to the discussion of Christ, the discussion on the Holy Spirit is divided into his person and work. As God, he possesses all the attributes of the Trinity, but his work differs in that the Holy Spirit indwells and empowers believers. This opens the controversy into how the Holy Spirit is actively at work in the modern church. Shatzer maps the various broad views on this topic before turning the discussion over to the contributor in the field of Psychology. Primarily, he notes counselors must recognize that their patients are spiritual beings and that not all answers can come through natural explanations. Second, if their patient is a believer, they have the indwelling Holy Spirit actively working to ensure their future growth.
Chapter 9 returns to the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit, specifically regarding salvation. Shatzer notes that there are objective aspects of a believer's salvation, such as justification and union with Christ, as well as subjective elements, such as sanctification. He again maps several areas of controversy while striving to focus on the orthodox beliefs of the faith. These relate back to the doctrines of humanity and sin, which together require humans to be justified from their sin and progressively made new in their salvation. The focus of integration with this doctrine is that of social work. Where some make social work itself a key to the betterment of society, addressing outward ailments does not repair the inner turmoil and the heart of the human condition. A Christian understanding of social work would seek to address both the inner and outer problems plaguing humanity.
Chapter 10 focuses on what the church is, while Chapter 11 focuses on what the church does. Shatzer relates how the church is an organism that binds every member together to the work Christ is doing on earth. The one, holy, apostolic church—universal across time and space—is united in the role of witnessing to the gospel through worship, edification, mercy, and evangelism. The guest writers highlight how these doctrines relate to both the fields of business and political science. As an organism, the church sometimes operates like a business. Unlike political science, however, believers in the church recognize that their true allegiance is to Christ and not to a particular crown.
Finally, Chapter 12 closes the book by discussing the last things. Shatzer notes that the study of eschatology is meant to comfort believers, while many have taken it as a tactic for evangelism. While many views on eschatology exist, believers focus on the truth of Christ's second coming and look forward to His return. Shatzer invites an engineer to contribute his view of integrating this topic into his field. While it may appear a stretch to address this topic, the guest writer notes that an engineer's work will continue into the new heavens and new earth as believers work to mitigate the effects of the fall and solve problems for the future.
Faithful Learning makes three significant contributions to the field of Christian education. First, it is a foundational text on orthodox Christian doctrine for educators. While many introductory texts exist, such as the series Exploring Christian Doctrine or Charles Ryrie's Basic Theology. Faithful Learning, however, is written for educators to illustrate the theological foundations of their educational pursuits. This is vital for evangelical schools that hope to integrate faith and learning strongly. There are plenty of Christian educators who are experts in their field and yet are weak in the core doctrines of the faith. This work can serve as a primer for these educators as they dive deeper into their beliefs.
The second, and possibly most unique, is the inclusion of contributions from Christian educators, illustrating how each doctrine is integral to the various fields of study taught at a Christian college. Those sections serve as examples for other educators to follow as they think through the multiple connections of their subject to the integrating core of a biblical worldview. It is tempting for new educators teaching in a Christian environment to see biblical integration as simply adding a Bible verse to their day's lesson or even beginning the class with a devotional. These integration examples in Faithful Learning align precisely with the recommendations of D.P. Johnson in Truth Weaving and Martha MacCullough in Undivided. For faith and learning to be integrated truly, the teacher must investigate deeply how their faith radically changes the assumptions of their field and subsequently teach from that perspective.
Shatzer's final contribution is less in his content and more in the fact that he strikes a balance in this book between the highly intellectual tone struck by many works focusing on worldview in education and others such as James K.A. Smith's Desiring the Kingdom, which emphasizes affections above all else. He recognizes that, as educators, the intellectual nature of the disciple is unavoidable and is integral to the education process. As such, the doctrinal portions of the book seek to lay the groundwork for orthodox understandings of doctrine while also raining questions that will foster further inquiry. The conclusions of each chapter, while modeling an integrated approach to education, also allow for a holistic understanding of a biblical worldview. They prompt educators to see how their field can help their students live out their faith in a way that impacts the world for Christ.
Jacob Shatzer ultimately accomplished his goal of providing a brief work that presents a theological vision for integrated learning. His title, Faithful Learning, aptly describes what this approach to education should look like—learning faithfully in the context of orthodox Christian doctrine. For educators, particularly those serving in Higher Education, this book provides an invaluable starting point for exploring how these doctrines inform their field of study. Most importantly, if every Christian educator were to teach from this perspective, the church would be filled with individuals equipped to live out their faith in a way that glorifies God and draws others to Him.