The latest instance is Erskine College and Seminary in South Carolina. The question that threatens to divide Erskine from the denomination to which it belongs is arguably the great theological question of the past two centuries: Can the Bible be trusted as fully authoritative and reliable?

Harvard College began as a proudly Christian institution. Its first president provoked a crisis in 1653 when he became a Baptist, and by the early 19th century Harvard was becoming “the Unitarian Vatican.”

Charles William Eliot, a Transcendentalist whose 40-year tenure as president began in 1869, fully secularized Harvard and blazed the trail for the secularization of countless other Christian institutions of higher learning.

The tug of war between denominational authorities and Christian colleges and seminaries continues even now.

The latest instance is Erskine College and Seminary in South Carolina. The question that threatens to divide Erskine from the denomination to which it belongs is arguably the great theological question of the past two centuries: Can the Bible be trusted as fully authoritative and reliable?

Erskine is an agency of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian (ARP) Church, a small denomination of about 300 conservative evangelical congregations.

The ARP Church has long professed that the Bible as it was originally written was free from error, but over the course of the past five decades Erskine faculty, many inspired by the late Swiss theologian Karl Barth, have often challenged that profession. The “Barthian” or “neo-orthodox” view holds that the Scriptures are a witness to the Word, and this witness becomes the Word of God when the Holy Spirit reaches through the Scriptures to encounter the reader and make God known to him. In this view, the historical accuracy of biblical stories is not assured; what matters is the God who reveals Himself through them. Most evangelicals have worried that this replaces biblical authority with subjective impressions of a mysterious divine encounter.

The ARP Church’s General Synod again emphasized inerrancy in 2008 when two Erskine faculty members refused to affirm it and raised questions of academic freedom. The relationship between the denominational authorities and the board of trustees broke down, and legal action was narrowly avoided.

Most recently, on April 22, six professors posted an open letter stating that Erskine should no longer tolerate faculty who could not affirm the ARP Church’s statements of belief.

Erskine illustrates the precarious position of Christian colleges and seminaries in the landscape of modern higher education. Some professors contend that these are precisely where believers should be free to challenge long-settled beliefs. Yet too often “academic freedom” has actually meant a corrosive and exaggerated skepticism toward religious authorities and traditions.

What does a truly faithful academic freedom look like for an institution of higher learning that serves the needs of a specific Christian community? Perhaps Erskine will succeed where Harvard failed to find the answer.

Source: http://www.worldmag.com/articles/18070
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