My interest in scholarship goes back to my late high school days. I discovered that I had wasted too much time during my adolescent years. Such oversight was common for many students. Also, the debilitating economic depression of the 1930s hung over the world. We had become used to it. The world seems normal for youths. Halfway through my senior year I made commitment to Jesus Christ, a continuing experience for well over seventy years to this editing. I went to a well-ordered Bible Institute, gaining much that I had missed in high school on how to study, how to think in context, learning how to set goals and work toward them, and to ingest the value of morality in man and society. It was educational, spiritual and right for me at the time. I went on to an eminent Christian college, and gained a larger meaning of scholarship based on research, orderly treatment of evidence/ideas leading to rational conclusions. During the period, and onward to graduate work at two universities I performed at required level both for research and writing, and have been published. The highest university degree was bestowed. After years of ruminating about Christian and secular scholarship, I was impressed by the contributions of Christian scholarship during the centuries, but disappointed in the paucity of that research in the twentieth century. During recent years the situation has improved. There remains much to do.
Changes in orientation occur in societies, some of the changing periods lasting longer than others. With a changing orientation that emerged in the nineteenth century, aggression for scholarship evolved in secular contexts. While this was under way the church was occupied by its own divisions. The division of the Protestant/Catholic views was further conflicted with the liberal and conservative differences of both contexts, including tension in mission such as evangelism, world outreach, biblical and doctrinal controversies, and programs/politics. Tensions have moderated with less vituperation than that found during the century after Darwin’s 1859 publication of the Origin of the Species. Christian unity, unity that Scripture teaches, has been somewhat elusive. Christian leaders seem conflicted about the claims of secular science and revealed religion. At some points the two do not meet for the persons limited to exclusiveness for one or the other. Scripture recites the contexts in common grace and divine grace.
However, improvement in scholarship by Christians following World War II may have ushered in another orientation for the church, and society. The increase in institutes and colleges during the twentieth century served a purpose in the yearning of devout persons for post high school education in less severe naturalistic accents but with affirming intellectual understanding. With some exceptions the institutes either declined or leaders took hold to develop many of them into accredited colleges with adequate and enlarged curricular programs. The faculties hold accredited professional and academic degrees to fulfill scholarship duty. The Bible Institute movement is retained in essence in many communities, especially through the cooperation of local churches with classes held in churches or neutral addresses and some remaining local campuses. This context provides substantive studies, akin to collegiate standards. It remains to be seen how effective any such church movement will be. With well-prepared instructors teaching courses related to Christian life and interests, we may expect an even larger respect for knowledge and understanding of the creation of God, as taught in Scripture. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020