chpt 2

This is Dr. Malik's address, on which this entire book is based.

How have you seen Christians from different backgrounds work together? Do you think things are better in this regard since he wrote this (early 80's)? Does your faith tradition/church encourage this?

(In most of our discussions it seems to be true that things are much better on a global basis since Malik's address, but not necassarily locally. Some communities and even campus communities seem to have a better spirit of oneness than others)



How does the university foster pride and self-sufficiency??


Do you agree with his assessment of the humanities?

Do you know of leaders in your field who are Christians??
(See my comment-and although it may be rare to see a Nobel Prize winner among us, excellence in our work is still very important and speaks volumes-and I would add, very biblical!)

On the bottom of page 62, Malik states the university only reflects the mind of the current culture. Do you agree? If true, what real difference can we make??

We all seem to agree that the university "runs the world" (as one of you remarked "Wow, if we run the world, shouldn't we get paid more?!" :)

But is the university (generally speaking) that devoid of Christ? Some would say the pluralism that dominates is a good thing-Christians can speak with an equal voice and not just be the voice of traditional dominance. Others agree with Malik, that Christ is generally rejected and not given a fair hearing. No doubt the degree of this varies from campus to campus. Have you thoughtfully evaluated your campus? Department?

Finally, Malik pleads with us: Wake up!! (pg 65) The need is imminent!! Since this was given in 1980, we can say many HAVE woken up-including you dear reader! This faculty ministry among many others around the world is just what he hoped to see!!

Some further thoughts from an English prof:

Hi Rob,

Thanks for sharing this article. I've never heard a Christian emphasize the role of humanities scholars in universities the way that Malik does. It's an interesting view. I think he's right in his evaluation that the various humanities perspectives can be summarized as self-worship, but I don't think that's anything particular to the humanities. All humans worship, and only Christians worship God. So the majority of people on earth worship self, other people, or nature. Still, his characterization of the influence that humanities scholars have is a lot grander than other opinions I've heard. It's good food for thought, especially for a Christian humanities scholar. Thanks for passing along this article.