Thoughts on: Christian Higher Education: Another Jewel in Another Crown? (Cooling, July 2019)
Trevor and I share the concept of creating the equivalent of one or Christ[ian]-inspired undergraduate-teaching institution in the UK (and nowadays UK-led on the ‘net!) based on published peer-reviewed academic scholarship by intra- and inter-university, theological college, and research institute teams of Christian academics, discipline by discipline – however traditionally or newly ‘multidisciplinarily’ that concept is understood … E.g. Biology no longer exists in universities or schools – there are Life Sciences, but even they are now becoming Science of present, past and future living things, encompassing gene paleontology and gene enhancement [see the latest Cambridge Paper].
Trevor brings together a set of wonderful examples, appropriately keyed by KLICE itself, but only in one HE discipline, and indeed sub-discipline, arguably with one academic leader (David Smith) – English or British Secondary School Education. Trevor’s own focus is (by implication at least) on the border/interchange between Literary Studies and School Education. We have (evangelical) Christian research institutions in several other discipline (as well as Theology), e.g. Faraday, mostly in Biosciences, Jubilee & others in Public Policy, Christians in Science (a) for their Templeton-subsidised undergraduate and school teacher education efforts, and (b) their A-level support, in STEM subjects particulars Physics and Biology. What about the incipient academic research and public education activities of institutions relating to other British university (and government department) [inter]disciples, such as TEARfund and International Development, former UCCF professional groups, e.g. History, Law. Could Life Sciences serve as a base for the whole of STEM – it already includes Environmental Sciences, all sorts of math modelling, cutting edge IT processing and communications.
I hope that these comments are constructive and up-to-date, albeit fragmentary.