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On Thursday and Friday, May 10-11, APU's Office of Faith Integration sponsored its annual May Symposium on Faith Integration, a series of lectures and workshops developed for new faculty members. Guest lecturer Richard Hughes, Ph.D., of Messiah College, spoke about how to purposefully and meaningfully integrate discussions of faith and morality into classes at institutions of higher learning.
Craig Boyd. Ph.D., director of faith integration at APU, has known Hughes for nearly 10 years and invited Hughes to speak at the May Symposium out of respect for his work. "Dr. Hughes is a well-respected scholar in the area of faith integration," said Boyd. "We have used his materials for our faith integration mentor program and found them very helpful. I am very pleased that he has come to be with us."
Hughes spoke about what he called "creative imagination," saying that American colleges and universities are the ideal setting in which to develop this characteristic in students. He urged attendees to develop the ability in themselves and their students to imagine the potential in situations, and to extend that vision to encompass the world. "The Bible offers the Kingdom of God as a template for how we should shape our imagination," he said. "God calls us to imagine a better world."
Faculty were encouraged to defy the ethics and value systems commonly practiced in America. The world advocates "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" justice, where the rich get richer and "important" people are loved the most. "Jesus asked us to live outside this box," said Hughes. "If we wish to see in the dark, we must embrace all of our brothers and sisters, not just some of them."
Hughes further challenged attendees with the statement that Christian learning institutions have the responsibility to nurture the educated imagination, essentially to teach students to find creative solutions to the problems they encounter in the world. "We need to pursue and reinstate the vitality and credibility of Christian faith and message," Hughes said. "We are called not only to imagine a better world, but to implement it."
This topic of faith integration is gaining increasing attention and focus at APU as the university leadership works to incorporate Christian morality and ethics into classrooms and faculty members are challenged to train their students through both academic and spiritual lessons. "Faith Integration is absolutely central to the mission of APU," said Boyd. "Otherwise we're simply a secular, private, educational program that merely trains people for professional lives."
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