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To many people, Christian higher education
is associated with academic excellence and service to humankind. One can
understand why Christians would think this way, but what is remarkable
is that a good number of non-Christians in countries where Christianity
is a minority religion also think so. Christian higher education has
impacted many lives and indirectly exerted a significant influence in
many societies. The men and women who went through Christian higher
education may not become Christians, but they often learn Christian
values that affect the way they view the world and make important
decisions.
India is a big country with multiple
cultures, languages, and religions. Christianity is a minority religion,
believed to have come to India in the 1st century through St. Thomas,
one of Christ’s twelve apostles. During the middle centuries European
missionaries converted thousands of Indians to Christianity without
force or compulsion. They made valuable contributions to different
fields, especially education. Their life was their message, and from
them we can learn much about Christian identity in a secular society.
In 1963 at a gathering of principals of
Christian colleges, the late Bishop Lesli New Begin, a missionary
stalwart, uttered these unforgettable words: “A Christian college is not
primarily a place where the gospel is preached and people are converted.
It does not exist primarily to strengthen Christian Community. It is
simply a contribution to national development. It is or ought to be a
place where, under the impulse of the love of God, there is offered to
all who desire it that kind of training of the whole person which is
congruous with God’s revelation in Christ of the true nature of manhood,
and is appropriate to the needs of India at this stage of world
history.”
Madras Christian College has since
excerpted from this quotation for its mission statement. My own college,
Union Christian College, was founded in 1921 by a group of Madras
Christian College faculty members whose deep Christian conviction and
vision of Indian society led them to build a college with indigenous
resources, leadership, and style of functioning.
Rather than segregating themselves, our
founding fathers made sure that the college would be obligated to the
State, would actively engage in its development, and would refrain from
compulsion in the matter of religious instruction. When criticized by
some in the conservative Christian quarters, these visionaries made it
clear that their decision was not due to a lack of Christian fervor but
based the conviction that they were called to give their best without
condition or stipulation. In other words, they would provide quality
Christian higher education to all who wanted it, Christian or
non-Christian.
The essential benchmark of Union
Christian College is its courage to be different and prophetic and to
model a unique way of living one’s faith in a secular world. As a member
of its faculty and a part of its collective life and administration, my
own conviction regarding Christian identity in a secular world is on par
with that of my college. I believe Christian higher education can be a
force for the transformation of society. To consider Christianity simply
as a religion among other religions with its competing claims and
counter claims is a mockery of the new way of life opened up for us by
Jesus Christ. The notion of expanding Christianity by baptizing and
increasing the strength of Christians in a country is a conquest model
and is not of Biblical mandate. A careful reading of the Biblical
mandate is not to baptize individuals but to preach the Gospel to
nations (1 Cor. 1:17; Matthew 28: 18-20). Dr. M.E. Thomas in his book
“The Acknowledged Christ of Hindu Renaissance” pointed out that “It was
the Gospel values that permeated through the educational institutes
started by the missionaries that helped to initiate a transformation in
the Hindu social order in India. It facilitated the spreading of ferment
of independence, human rights, values of equality and justice which all
became part of our independent movement and also of the constitution of
India. The enormous list of alumni from other faiths who had marked
their distinction in various walks of life also bears testimony to the
mission and ethos of many Christian Higher Education Institutes.
How do we inform and transform a nation
and a culture by the values of the Gospel? This is a bigger challenge
than converting and baptizing and increasing the number of Christians in
a nation. Today, in the Neo-liberal economic world, education is often
considered as a commodity; we have more worshippers of Christ and few
followers of his Gospel. Sadly, many institutions view the provision of
education as business propositions, not with a sense of mission or an
intention to serve.
In this context, we, who dedicate
ourselves to a Christian approach to higher education, are called to do
the following:
1. Transcend religious barriers on the
basis of a secular concern for the rights and dignity of the human and
the integrity of creation.
2. Embody the “weakness of love”,
vulnerability of love; a love that seeks after, a love that loves the
unloved.
3. Translate love into justice for the
poor and the oppressed; help to create a society of justice and peace,
working for the Kingdom of God.
What distinguishes Christ from other gods
is that in him we have a “dying God,” one who gave His life for others.
It is by our sacrificial service that we can permeate our
multi-religious society with Gospel values. The missionaries and
founding fathers of our college did just that; let us do our part.
Name: P. Thomas Mathew
Home Institution: Union Christian College, Aluva, India.
Host Institution: Augustana College, Rock Island, IL, US
Date: 30th April 2008.
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