Challenges in Christian Pedagogy: Competing Orthodoxies in the College Classroom

Abstract

This exploratory paper examines the dynamics and potential tensions that unfold on Christian college campuses when students encounter Christian pedagogy simultaneously with high academic, scientific, and theoretical standards. The discussion begins by identifying challenges students and professors face as institutional religious values confront science, all while navigating a culture that challenges the institution’s ability to be both religious and scholarly. Then the article provides a model that probes the intersection of both the traditional Christian student and the non-traditional Christian student with both an institution’s academic and faith-based curriculum. Finally, the model provides a typology of students that result from the relation between student and pedagogy.