Christian higher education (CHE) is increasingly a transnational and global endeavor, with over one-sixth of the almost two hundred institutional members of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) located in nineteen countries outside the United States. Much of this is related to the shift of the Christian center of gravity to the global South over the last half century, and in particular to the explosion of pentecostal and charismatic forms of churches across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, all of which also feeds back via migration to the so-called "browning" of the churches of North America. Networks like the CCCU have sought to bridge faith and learning through a certain form of Christ-centeredness and biblical orientation. While these theological priorities of the evangelical Protestant tradition have gained wide currency, the pneumatic spirituality of the pentecostal and charismatic movements is rarely considered when thinking about a distinctively Christian vision of higher education. When even God is showing up at secular universities, one wonders what difference considerations of the Holy Spirit might make to complement and perhaps revitalize the christocentrism renowned across CHE. The Holy Spirit and Higher Education responds along two interrelated lines: by reconsidering historic Christian education itself from this pentecostal perspective, and by formulating an approach to CHE around the charismatic, sanctifying, and missional dimensions of the Spirit's activity. Yong and Coulter show that CHE should be both Christ-centered and Pentecost-inspired, both biblically faithful and pneumatically empowered, both faith-committed and charismatically propelled.
Amos Yong is Professor of Theology & Mission and Dean of the School of Mission & Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary. Dale M. Coulter is Professor of Historical Theology at Pentecostal Theological Seminary.
Preface 1 Introduction: World Christianity and the Future of Christian Higher Education Part One: What Difference Has the Holy Spirit Made? Historical Lessons 2 Revisiting Ancient Didaskalia: Patristic Foundations, Medieval Renewal, and Renaissance and Reform 3 (Re)constructing the University: Modernity and the Quest for Alternative Paradigms 4 Reimagining Christian Higher Education: Populism and the Transformation of Folk Culture Part Two: What Difference Can the Holy Spirit Make? Constructive Proposals 5 Renewing the Mind: Scholarship and Pneumatological Imagination 6 Reordering the Heart: Teaching, Learning, and the School of the Spirit 7 Revitalizing the Hands: The Spirit's Mission in and through Christian Higher Education 8 Conclusion: The Spirit Says Come! Renewing the Christian University
"...This volume would serve well to be carefully read by individuals and (preferably in) groups across institutions of (Christian) higher education. The restorying is a key that needs to be taken up. If restorying fails to be appreciated and integrated, it will most certainly result in the failure of institutions of higher education. To be healthy, higher education must move well beyond assessments based merely upon head counts or the construction of new buildings and programs; and if the Christian story is true, education is more than an ROI calculation or a path to employability.May this volume find a wide readership among all those concerned for the state and future of Christian higher education." --Rick Wadholm Jr., Associate Professor of Old Testament at Assemblies of God Theological Seminary "The Pneuma Review" "...I can easily recommend this volume to those within higher education--professors, graduate students, and especially administrators (who I believe would benefit greatly from this work)--as well as pastors who are interested in the subject historically and theologically. Ultimately, Yong and Coulter have both provided a significant resource, one that I earnestly hope will serve to enrich and transform the task of Christian higher education." --Isaiah C. Padgett "Pneuma"
