A Typology of Christian Higher Education: Analyzing the Purposes of Learning. Issue 2 (15th March 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sosler, Alex
• Is Part Of: Christian higher education. Volume 22:Issue 2(2023)
• Page Start: 99
• Page End: 113
• Publication Date: 2023-03-15
• Subjects: Christian universities and colleges -- Periodicals; 378.07105
• DOI: 10.1080/15363759.2022.2097141
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1536-3759

Abstract

Abstract: This paper proposes an original synthesis of teleological aims and priorities of Christian colleges and universities. Based on historical trends and trajectories, I provide a typology of ages based on the purpose of college education and the subsequent views of human personhood: the age of faith, the age of reason, the age of industrialization, and the age of feeling. Each age emphasizes a particular view of personhood and a corresponding view of human flourishing. The paper concludes with an argument for an Augustinian anthropology and purpose. Opposed to the previous models of personhood and flourishing, Augustine and his successors posit that human beings exist fundamentally as lovers, with the heart or soul as central to biblical anthropology and epistemology, and the flourishing life as the double-love of God and neighbor in God.