Science in Christian Perspective

[On Being a Christian Educator]

From: JASA 11 (March 1959): 29-30.

In June of this year I addressed letters to Dr. Hartzler and others suggesting that I desired to publish an open letter in the ASA journal relating to questions I earnestly desire comments on from our constituency. I was assured that this is a function of the ASA journal which has not been utilized to the full and that in all probability you would be pleased to accept such a letter. Please feel free to criticize or comment upon my thinking. I do not apologize for the "job wanted" atmosphere of my statements, for there is no medium to my knowledge whereby the Christian colleges make such information available and here the ASA can serve a definite need. I think there should be an interchange of information relative to available equipment, summer exchange programs, etc., through the medium of the journal!

I am entering upon my final year of doctoral preparation as a Science Faculty Fellow of the National Science Foundation. This culminates years of parttime graduate work in Biology and will bring me closer to a realization of a long term goal: to be prepared to handle some of the Bible-Science controversy with a modicum of scholarship. Having a four year seminary preparation in Biblical languages and exegesis and now with biological preparation well along, it pleases me to take up again the challenge of Christian education. Several important questions arise at this point:

1. 1 believe our Christian college students should be confronted with both the data and the philosophical implications of modern science. They should be made aware of the inadequacies which exist in any framework which attempts to solve the intricate relationships between creation and revelation, and they should be challenged to prepare themselves to contribute to the further elucidation of this problem area. Is this too broad an outlook?

2. How much academic freedom is actually provided within the Christian college situation?

3. Do the science-trained personnel have a voice in determining academic objectives?

4. What is the attitude of Christian college administrators toward adjusting the teaching load of personnel who desire a limited research project?

5. Granting that a professor obtains his own research support will the college supply space and equipment and otherwise encourage the project?

6. Are salaries and other compensations provided by the Christian college adequate to support a man with a family?

7. Can a Christian professor find a place of fulfillment and wholesome satisfaction in a University teaching position?

H, Omar Olney R R. No. 2
Newark, Delaware