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VIEWPOINT
Humanities and Christian education

Erwin J. Warkentin

Learning for the sake of learning has never been high on the list of priorities for Mennonite Brethren. Education was to be practical. The humanities, which consist of subjects such as literature, philosophy and history, have usually been considered a refuge for those who do not yet know what they want to do with their lives. My own mother felt that it was a good thing that I had learned a trade before I went to university. After I had obtained my Ph.D. and gained a tenure track position at the University of Waterloo, she repeated that it was good that I had a trade to fall back on, in case this professor thing did not work out.

Because it has not been easy to connect the study of Tolstoy, Kant or the role of scribes in the court of William the Conqueror to service in the church, the study of the humanities has not been a high priority in Christian education. The humanities have not been considered an important element in the formation of our young people. To the contrary, they have often been seen as contributing to the destruction of faith in our young people.

This attitude has prevailed for two reasons. The first has already been touched on. There simply appears to be little practical application of the humanities in the world. They will not aid a surgeon performing heart surgery. They will not help an accountant add and subtract more efficiently or help a lawyer memorize the precedents of the law. We might well leave it at that, if we take a narrow view of what it means to be a physician, accountant or lawyer. It often surprises people when they learn how well read many of the professionals are that they have contact with on a daily basis. Simply put, study of the humanities helps the surgeon deal with the human attached to the heart.

The second suspicion we have of the humanities is rooted in the dangerous ideas that are often contained in literature, philosophy and history. A central feature of the humanities is re-evaluating who we are today as compared to who we were and who we strive to be. This in itself does not exclude faith in God and in Christ as the way to salvation. However, often this re-evaluation offends our religious beliefs and our current traditions. While it is more comfortable to avoid such questions, they reflect the questions that the world without Christ is asking. The humanities provide a window to a world into which we would rather not venture, but to which we are called to minister.

These two criticisms of the humanities have enough supporters in Christian circles to generally consign the humanities to the secular world. However, by removing the humanities from the Christian field of vision, we are missing a golden opportunity to better understand what it means to be human. By not engaging the humanities, we reinforce the idea that the humanities turn all those who come into contact with them into secular humanists. Secular humanism is a philosophy that has been associated with traditional university education by evangelical Christians. This set of beliefs is in direct conflict with what we as Mennonite Brethren hold to be true, because it places the human being at the centre of the universe, a place that is rightly occupied by our Creator. It makes humans rather than God the measure of all things. While it may be correct to view secular humanism with distrust, our suspicion has often also included the humanities as an area of study. This has led to many Christians placing little value on the study of what it means to be human. It is necessary to separate the philosophical position, which is offensive to Christ, from what the humanities represent. If we do so, we will see that the humanities can add value to a Christian education.

The value of the humanities becomes apparent when we realize that we as Christians do not live separate from the world that does not embrace our beliefs. Rather, we live in a world that contains all forms of human expression, both beautiful and depraved, a world where we will encounter hatred and filth whether we want to or not, a world where we encounter people who despise us because their view of God differs from ours.

A Christian college or university provides the student with a safe environment in which to study the world and humanity. It is the place where we can develop Christian attitudes and beliefs before we need to use them in a situation that places severe demands on our faith. The Christian humanities professor acts as a guide as students begin to confront the world. The Christian humanities professor adds to the study of the humanities the view towards Christ, the one value that is largely ignored or ridiculed in a secular educational setting.

A vital part of God’s creation is that He has made us storytellers. As humans, we tell stories of our experiences to one another. These stories include experiences of when we find God very near, but also of when He seems distant. The humanities take these stories and try to make some sort of sense out of them. If we Christians do not participate in this dialogue with the world, we will not be living the Great Commission. We cannot rely on those at secular colleges and universities who have no interest in God to ensure that the full range of human stories are preserved for posterity and remain a part of the tapestry of what it means to be human.

The church benefits from the study of the humanities. As evangelists to those who need Christ, we need to understand the ways of the world. The study of the humanities provides us with a window into the world of those who are in need of Christ. It allows us to experience the feelings and thoughts of those who are lost. It reminds us of ourselves when we were separate from God. It makes us better communicators, because it keeps us from being ignorant of the questions that we might encounter as we reach out to those in need.

The humanities are too vital to be left solely to those who profess no belief in Christ. By ignoring the humanity that God has created in us, we allow “the world” to highjack the humanness in us that God has created and declared to be good.

Erwin J. Warkentin is Director of Campus Manitoba, which uses modern technology to deliver learning throughout the province on behalf of a consortium of universities and community colleges. He was formerly Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg.

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Last modified March 13, 2002.

© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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