Christians on Campus

I've been around a lot of college and university campuses over the past 15 years - as an undergraduate student, seminarian, campus minister, and now as a doctoral student.

University life has always been exciting to me. The people there are bright and earnest, pursuing dreams and developing abilities. The exchange of ideas is stimulating. And the monotony of the work-a-day world never really seems to play a role in an environment where people are constantly testing new theories, developing arguments, and advancing scholarship in every area of human knowledge.

That's the academic side of things, anyway.

But what about the place of faith in a modern college or university setting?

This is a complicated issue, which is perhaps best understood by the difference between a "Religious Studies" curriculum and a "Seminary" or "Christian theological studies" curriculum. The former represents an attempt to justify the study of religion within a secular academic environment. The latter seeks to hold on to the traditional place of the theological curriculum within the university without apologizing for the unavoidably confessional aspects of its content.

A place like Duke University has both, of course. One is housed in the Religion Department of Trinity College (the undergraduate College of Arts & Sciences) and the Graduate School. And the other is housed in the Duke Divinity School (which, as you probably know. is a seminary of the United Methodist Church).

The complexity of how Christianity is perceived on university campuses is difficult to describe to people who haven't been around it. And beyond all these faculty and curriculum issues, it extends to the practice of faith.

The very environment of college can be hostile - implicitly or explicitly - to Christian men and women who want to grow in their faith as they grow in other areas of intellectual and social life. That's a shame, and I don't think it has to be that way. In fact, one of the ways I'm trying to help our seminary students at Duke to ground their discipleship as they prepare for ministry is through encouraging participation in Covenant Discipleship groups.

I write about this experience in the new issue of Covenant Discipleship Connection, which is available here. CD groups are small groups encouraging growth in discipleship through the practice of weekly mutual accountability. They've been an important part of my own discipleship for a decade now, and I think they are ideally suited to help college and university students who want to stay grounded as Christians as they explore new academic heights as students.

CD groups are just one avenue, of course. If you have ideas for how to help students focus on faith during their college, seminary, or grad school years, please share!