The Bible and the Big Questions at PC(USA) Liberal Arts Colleges

Team Members/Contributors

Davina C. Lopez Eckerd College Contact Me

About this project grant for researchers

The Bible has historically comprised a core component of the Humanities at PC(USA) liberal arts colleges, given the latter's indebtedness to Judeo-Christian traditions. Herein a challenge for biblical studies teachers resides in contestations over content, method, and interpretive authority, alongside the Bible's disputed importance in college curricula. At the same time, there is sustained interest among spiritual life professionals in students' "big questions" about the world. This project will allot Summer and January Term research time to its faculty collaborators to explore the underdeveloped connections around pedagogies of biblical literature related to classroom teaching, the spiritual lives of college students, and co-curricular religious life programming. This project will further bring together representatives from these constituencies—chaplains and professors—to develop a framework for collaborative efforts across vocational orientations at PC(USA) colleges. Rather than rehearse oppositions between "faith" and "intellect" in encounters with the Bible, we will embrace two intersecting sites for exploring pedagogical dilemmas and strategies that the Presbyterian church, as manifest in the PC(USA) liberal arts tradition, has historically emphasized: values identification and spiritual life, as well as critical thinking and interconnectedness of knowledge.