2006 New Faculty Orientation
Found in Union University Core Values > Christ-Centered
Michael R. Salazar, Associate Professor of Chemistry
What does it mean that Union strives to be Christ-centered?
I. Way of negation, or, perhaps, it does not simply mean:
a. preface: own personal opinion (Dr. Dockery has dealt with this in a convocation address)
b. at faculty we are at liberty to open our classes with prayer
c. at Union we have a chapel service to honor Christ for 1 hour twice a week, while the rest of the time we honor the ideas of man
d. as faculty at Union, you don’t have to be ashamed of being a Christian in the academy – we’re all weird that way
e. at Union, we offer a degree option involving Christian studies
f. summary:
i. not a simple formal adherence to “Christ-centered”
ii. being People-focused, Excellence-driven, and Future-directed are values that many institutions would claim (although, at Union we do – and should – mean very different things by these terms); however, I believe, being Christ-centered and identifying with the cross of Christ in each discipline, will make us strangers in the world
II. Way of Affirmation
a. Christ-centered means: Christianity must be shown to be central to all knowledge; in fact I’d argue that nothing can be truly known – in any discipline – without the prior supposed truth of Christianity. It is our job to demonstrate this.
b. Christ-centered means: our mission in the academy is to unapologetically bring all thought into captivity to the Lordship of Christ, 2 Cor. 10:5. As Christians, we do not believe that Christ’s Lordship is limited. His Lordship extends to every square inch of creation.
i. What does the Lordship of Christ (on His throne ruling all things), the creaturehood of man, the gospel message, ..., have to do with:
ii. education?
1. doctrine of man: education is a divinely ordained need – creation, fall, redemption
iii. physics?
1. doctrine of God: sovereign control over all things
2. doctrine of man: creation, fall, redemption
3. epistemology/metaphysics link
iv. business?
1. cultural mandate upon man
v. social work?
1. doctrine of man: creation, fall, redemption
c. Christ-centered means: it is our job to rigorously demonstrate in every discipline the absolute necessity of a Christian understanding or else the discipline is lost to meaninglessness and confusion; Christianity cannot be offered as one of the possible ways to arrive at truth – I do not even believe that it should be offered as one way that is more likely true than false; Christianity should be offered as the lone light of the world, the light through which alone we can see and make all things intelligible.
d. Christ-centered means: our job is to pass on to our students the ability to see knowledge as a whole, not a fragmented mass, and that Christ has claimed Lordship of knowledge and is the original ordainer and, therefore, knower of all things. Our job is to think His thoughts after Him in a self-conscious analogical way.
e. summary:
i. in each discipline, we need to be about the business of demonstrating the absolute necessity of a Christian world and life view, in order to obtain true knowledge of the discipline
ii. we cannot simply adopt the worlds understanding and seek to add Christianity as an afterthought
III. Read Van Til
IV. Personal example: chemistry
a. doctrine of God
b. doctrine of man
i. creation
ii. fall
iii. redemption
c. Creator-creature distinction
d. epistemology-metaphysics link