A PLACE TO LOVE GOD WITH ALL OUR MINDS Reflections From the Dean of Arts and Humanities When asked for the greatest commandment, Christ replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:36–37, ESV). The Bolthouse Academic Center at Cedarville University, and the classrooms that will fill it, will be a place where students are taught how to love God with all their minds. After all, this should be the first goal of every Christian university. Yes, we want our students to find jobs, be faithful church members, and have happy lives, but those things do not define a Christian university. Any college can train a student to work, introduce future spouses to one another, and encourage vibrant social networks. WHAT CAN A CHRISTIAN COLLEGE DO THAT IS DIFFERENT? My hope is for Cedarville students to walk across the graduation stage with minds that have been transformed. Paul, in Romans 12:2, calls on believers to “be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (ESV). These transformed minds are not only captive to theWord of God, but they should be obsessed with truth, entranced by beauty, and longing for goodness. They need to be prepared for a complicated world and to have considered the biggest questions of life. 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. This new building will be made of bricks and mortar, but it should work more like a greenhouse, where godly professors cultivate growing, striving students. Our students will discern what is true by measuring past and present ideas against God’s standards. They will seek beauty by asking if this piece of art, novel, or film lifts our eyes and thoughts toward heaven or if it is degrading. These transformed minds are not only captive to the Word of God, but they should be obsessed with truth, entranced by beauty, and longing for goodness. 11
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