Notes Module 1 Christian World Views Chapter 5 - Notes...

Notes: Module 1 Chapter 5
Integration of Faith and Learning
Christian World Views
November 15, 2012
Because ours is one world, religious concepts must make their peace with scientific
experience and scientific concepts must make their peace with religious experience. Peace
cannot be made by the superficial solution of allocating separate and autonomous realms.
D. ELTON TRUEBLOOD
 The integration of faith and learning means the relating of one’s biblical worldview to the
learning that is taking place in the academic or cultural arenas.
 There are four, very common, general approaches, or models, for the integration of faith
and learning.
Sole Authority Model: Faith Against Learning:
 The sole authority , or the against , model says that faith and learning are antagonistic to
one another: faith stands against learning.
 The Bible is described as the only authority and worthwhile source of knowledge for
Christians in the important areas of life.
 The sole authority model believes that the Bible is God’s trustworthy revelation to us and
contains all we need to know to live our lives, share the gospel, and protect ourselves
from sinful elements in our cultures.
 Human learning in the study of human nature and morality is considered nonessential,
may be in error, and much of the time is simply not worth the effort.
 One positive thing about the sole authority model is that it recognizes that there is much
in the world of learning and culture that is wrong or even anti-Christian in its bias.
 One negative effect of this model is that it tends to shut one of the two “books” of God’s
revelation to us.
 Special revelation is God’s communication to us through the Bible and the person of
Jesus Christ.
 Genera l revelation represents knowledge from the world of literature and science and
indeed all of human learning and experience.
Separate Authorities Model: Faith and Learning:
 The separate authority , or the parallels, model of the integration of faith and learning
says that faith and learning are not enemies but are complementary sources of truth.
 God expects us to learn about spiritual things from the Bible and about the things of the
world from the academic disciplines.

 The term parallel refers to the idea that these two sources of truth, like the two rails of a
train track, run parallel to one another. They are both needed, but they do not cross or
overlap into each other’s territory.