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The Maryville College Faith and Learning Committee seeks
to help the campus community think carefully about and act on what it means to
be a church-related, liberal arts college in the 21st century. One of the goals
of the committee has been to help the College articulate to a variety of
constituencies how the Presbyterian/Reformed tradition shapes the identity and
mission of this community of faith and learning. Two years of study and
reflection led to the creation of two documents that spell out a broad
understanding of Maryville College's church-related identity.
The Rhodes Consultations on the Future of the
Church-Related College is funded by Lily Endowment, Inc. and directed by
Stephen Haynes, Professor of Religion at Rhodes College. I was initially
involved as a participant in the Southeast Regional group. During the Fall
of 1998, I coordinated a
series of discussions on the Maryville College campus in which faculty wrestled
with what it means to be a church-related college in the 21st century. During
the following May, I
attended a national conference at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico. In the current round of the
consultations, I am serving as an associate regional director for the southeast
group and helping a new set of professors plan and carry out discussions on
their campuses. The Fall 2000 Southeast Regional Meeting was held at
Maryville College on October 27-29, 2000. For more information about the
consultations click on Rhodes
Consultations.
The Consultation on the Vocation of the Presbyterian
Teacher grew out of the Rhodes activities. Presbyterian teachers were
interested in exploring the particular implications of being part of the
Presbyterian tradition for colleges and teachers. I am one of four
"Brain Trust" members who prepared papers for the consultation's first
meeting in August 2000. This effort is co-sponsored by the Association of
Presbyterian Colleges and Universities and Centre College and is financed by a grant
from the Wabash Center and the Lilly Endowment. For more information click
on Presbyterian Teacher.
Growing out of my work with the Rhodes
Consultations and the Consultation on the Vocation of the Presbyterian Teacher
are two publications. Published in the July 2002 volume of Teaching Theology
and Religion, "The Vocation of Teaching: Themes and Models from the
Presbyterian Tradition" was written with colleagues Roger Ebertz and
Mary Shields from other institutions. The article looks at theological themes
and historical models related to teaching, suggests an alternative understanding
of divine sovereignty, and illustrates major points through examples from the
history of Maryville College. A small portion of this article will appear as
part of a chapter in a book about teaching in the Presbyterian/Reformed
tradition that will be published by Geneva press in late 2002 or early 2003. The
chapter illustrates various approaches to teaching in Presbyterian colleges,
with Maryville College as one of the three examples.
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