Integration: An Introduction to the New Journal of the IACE
Participating in the work of serious and distinctive Christian education requires all of us to learn to think well and to think Christianly. It is certainly possible to be a follower of Christ without learning to think in these ways, but it is not possible to serve faithfully in the world and work of distinctive Christian higher education without doing so. We recognize that it is challenging to be both thoughtful and Christian in rigorous and vital engagement with each other and interdependence among each other. We believe, however, that such integration is precisely what is needed at this time to strengthen the work of Christian education.
The stated purpose of the International Alliance for Christian Education is to unify, synergize, and strengthen collective conviction around biblical orthodoxy and orthopraxy, cultural witness, scholarship, professional excellence, and resourcing of Christian education at all levels. The launch of this new online journal is another aspect of implementing and extending the IACE mission. How grateful I am for the leadership of Nathan Finn, Melinda Stephens, and Hunter Baker as senior editors. Mike Garrett and Sarah Dockery have each played strategic roles in helping to make the journal a reality. I so appreciate the contributions from Tom Nelson, Jennifer Marshall Patterson, Thaddeus Williams, and Ben Mitchell to this initial effort. These articles reflect various aspects of the reach and work of the International Alliance for Christian Education. I pray that each article will be used of God to help those who serve in the many and various capacities associated with distinctive Christian education at all levels.
To be a thoughtful Christian does not mean that one must be involved in the work of Christian education, but to be involved in Christian education calls for us to be thoughtful Christians. We are called to explore a wide range of complex and diverse topics through the lens of the Christian faith. Such exploration implies more than being thoughtful about life in general, even by a person who claims to follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We want to love God with our hearts and souls, but also with our minds (Matt 22:37-39). While not always easy to do so, our work calls for us to think in Christian categories, which will shape the way we think about all aspects of life, whether we are talking about business, healthcare, government and social structures, or any subject or discipline across the curriculum at our institutions.
Our hope for this journal is that it will help faculty members, staff members, administrators, board members, and students, as well as friends and supporters of the work of Christian education to think differently about the way we live and love, the way we worship and serve, the way we work to earn our livelihood and the way we learn and teach. Such thinking means seeing all of life and learning from a Christian vantage point, shaped by the historic Christian faith, once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).
The editors and contributors to this journal want to model what it means to think Christianly, to prioritize the pattern of Christian truth, to help shape their world and life view through the lens of the Christian faith, to affirm the truthfulness and full authority of Christian Scripture, to value, appreciate, and pass on the Christian intellectual tradition, and to express what it means to live and serve faithfully in the academy, in the church, in culture, and in the world.
We recognize our deep dependence on God to pursue this lofty calling, asking the Lord to renew our minds and hearts by the Spirit of God (Rom 12:1-2). A genuine commitment to intellectual seriousness, to the renewing of minds, esteems exploration and genuine struggle with the great ideas of the past and the challenging cultural issues of the present. We want to do so with faith commitments, seeking to discover and expound God’s truth as it has been manifested in God’s work of creation and redemption, and as it has been made known to us in Scripture and illuminated by the ministry of God’s Spirit.
Such an approach to Christian education provides a framework that helps us fulfill our responsibility for God-centered thinking and living. In doing so, we must take into account the reality of sin and its effect upon our minds and hearts. We celebrate that in God’s kindness and grace, the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ and the renewing and sanctifying work of God’s Spirit has implications for our hearts, wills, and minds as well. Learning to think Christianly with redeemed minds gives us a sense of God’s plan and purpose for the world. We no longer see ourselves as alienated sinners; instead, we are energized by the Holy Spirit for godly and faithful thinking and living in the here and now. Our prayer will be that the articles published in this journal will be instruments of God to link us to God’s faithfulness and his plan for our lives.
Such Christian thinking provides a framework for ethical thinking and moral living. We recognize that humans, who are made in God’s image, are essential moral beings. We also recognize that the fullest embodiment of good, love, holiness, grace and truth is found in Jesus Christ (John 1:14-18), providing a way for us to see our lives and our callings in a coherent way.
We trust that the work of this new journal will model what it means to be in dynamic conversation with the great Christian thinkers of previous centuries as well as how to model serious engagement with those outside of the Christian tradition. We want to learn to draw upon the great Christian intellectual tradition to shape our biblical, theological, and educational understanding, providing a vast resource for our service in various fields such as philosophy, art, music, literature, drama, architecture, law, political and social thought, and other forms of cultural and academic engagement. It is also important to note that Christian reflection, formation, and devotional practices were influenced by the work of this important heritage.
In doing so, let us commit to helping one another to learn to take every thought captive for the sake of Christ (2 Cor 10:5). It is our hope that as Christian educators wrestle with the many educational and cultural challenges of our day that the great tradition of Christian thinking will provide valuable resources and examples to encourage our shared work as well as the work of this journal.
As we launch Integration, let us all assume a posture of humility, listening to and learning from one another, especially from our friends representing the global church. We now have the privilege of living out the global implications of our faith, joining with others to forge relevant ties for global service. Let us pray that the Lord will use this publication and the work of the International Alliance for Christian Education to develop a new generation of thoughtful, committed, convictional, and courageous Christian educators who will go forth in wisdom, humility, confidence, and courage to serve the academy and the church, to engage the culture, and to disciple the nations for the sake of the gospel and the glory of the Triune God.