They will sift our systems of government, our social arrangements, and our culture through God’s framework for justice, community, and fulfillment. The Christian academic community is different because we labor together as brothers and sisters. While the hard work may be done in the library, bent over a dorm room desk, or slaving over an essay’s last few words on a laptop, the transformation occurs in classrooms. LABORATORIES OF LEARNING These little laboratories of learning should give us the best chance to sit across from a stranger. Perhaps the lady in the corner grew up overseas as the daughter of missionaries, while the man in the middle of the table was a U.S. Marine before he enrolled in college. Maybe the professor spent one lifetime prosecuting criminals and is now using another to consider God’s justice full time. They walk into the classroom as individuals, but they leave, eventually, as a community forged in the struggle for wisdom. The truth, of course, is that loving God with our minds prepares us for the work of the Christian life. To love God is to love His creation, including its apex. Created in God’s own image, human beings are unique compared to the rest of the universe. To love human beings requires relationships, and relationships are built on bridges that we must construct with awareness and empathy. Finally, we should love our neighbor by taking what we have learned and echoing it into the world around us. We are called most of all to be faithful in our love of God and our love of neighbor. In that faithfulness, we should gladly broadcast what God’s Word says about politics, justice, morality, truth, and beauty. This is how we reveal to our neighbor not only our own love but also God’s love. This should strengthen our witness. This is a lot to expect out of an academic building, perhaps, but if we build it on God’s foundation instead of our own, we know it will be strong. We know that He will honor our labors so long as we glorify Him in all that we do. Mark Caleb Smith is the Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities and Professor of Political Science. He received his PhD from the University of Georgia. Classrooms BOLTHOUSE ACADEMIC CENTER 7 The transformed mind will find purpose in God’s vision of the good life and will persevere through the challenges that find all of us sooner or later. 12
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