More than 300 people huddled against a chilly wind Tuesday on the Barton College campus for the opportunity to hear theologian and minister Fred B. Craddock celebrate the relationship between the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and Barton College.
Barton President Norval Kneten marveled at "how appropriate" it was that the lunch was held "in a tent," alluding to the denomination's genesis in tent revivals of the 19th century. The event, held in conjunction with the college's Founder's Week, brought in Disciples of Christ regional ministers and lay leaders from across the state and nation.
As part of the event, a symposium examined the relationship between the church and its affiliated colleges. The 1970s covenant between the church and the colleges will be revised by a churchwide task force.
"The symposium identified and clarified the next logical step in moving the historical relationship between the church and higher education toward a more productive and vital future," Kneten said afterward.
Craddock, the Bandy distinguished professor of preaching and New Testament, emeritus, at the Candler School of Theology, focused on the church's "two postures" -- the church at worship and the church at study. "Same people, and in the early beginning days, under the same leadership," he said.
He attributed this emphasis on education to the Christian church's roots in the Jewish synagogue, which was called in ancient times, "a house of instruction." "It was a school that was a worship place," he said. "It was all the same. ...
"'You shall love your God with all your mind,' they said. Use your mind."
Rabbis used to say, "An hour of study is in the minds of the Holy One, blessed be He, as an hour of prayer," Craddock said.
Following this tradition, the Disciples of Christ and other denominations started schools. "We tried to keep the church and the academy together, tried very hard," he said. "It looked like it could be done at first because the Disciples was started by school men ... teachers. Then we had a generation or two of scholar preachers, men who wrote books. ... The church at worship and the church at study is the same church."
Over the years, educators extracted from Christianity certain moral principles they thought were appropriate for education, he said, leaving out the church's doctrines.
"The church at study is not an image that is comfortable any more," Craddock said. "In fact, I think that the church has abdicated on education, has not quite embraced it as the church at worship, the church at work, the church at study."
He told of a church he once pastored that turned its Sunday school into a literal school with a nine-month curriculum of courses, for which members would register and which would be taught by teachers qualified in each subject.
He read from the 1867 minutes of a church-sponsored debating club in Mason Grove, Tenn., at which 15- to 18-year-old members debated the great political and moral issues of the day. "Somebody believed it was the responsibility of the church to be at study as well as at prayer because 'an hour of study in the sight of the Holy One, blessed be He, is as an hour of prayer.'"
Whether because of "a broad stream of anti-intellectualism" or "the grand secularization of education in our country, churches have abdicated their educational responsibilities, he said. "Most of the churches have abdicated educational tasks not in terms of colleges and universities but in terms of the membership of the church," he said. Sunday school wings have been turned into family life centers where "we shoot hoops."
"Do we still believe that education is formative and our responsibility?" he asked. The church should prepare its young people for going away to school.
"I think I could help prepare a student for college by taking them through a course on Jesus as a teacher," he said. "Jesus was a difficult teacher. He would tell these stories, and they left the mind in significant doubt as to what he was saying, yet it teased the listener into active thought."
Craddock said he would ask three things of colleges:
1. Provide students the occasion and the encouragement to express what they believe. "It's easy for us to get away with total silence about our beliefs and call it being ecumenical," he said.
2. Provide students the opportunity to get involved in the community. "Being in college is not four years of being a tourist," he said. "It's not four years of recess from a responsible life."
3. Provide a strong chaplain service.
"Starting over is not only possible but encouraged," Craddock said. "... That's in the best of all possible worlds, and I think that's where we are today at Barton College.
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