The Christian Church has always understood learning to be a central priority of faithful discipleship, and Christianity can claim deep reservoirs of learning, scholarship, and education.  Furthermore, the rise of the university and the spread of educational opportunity were driven by Christians and by churches who saw a commitment to learning as necessary to Christian growth, evangelism, and the inculcation of Christian truth in every new generation.

The history of theological education in the United States is a convoluted tale involving a host of institutions — each with its own story. The New York Times recently looked at one of these stories in its article, “ A Seminary Where a Bicentennial Looks Forward.”

The controversy over a California appeals court ruling on homeschooling continues to expand, even as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger pledge to defend the rights of homeschooling parents and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell on Tuesday affirmed families’ right to homeschool their children. As The Los Angeles Times reported March 12, the superintendent told parents, “There’s no cause for alarm.” He continued: “I want to assure parents that chose to home school that California Department of Education policy will not change in any way as a result of this ruling,” he said in a written statement. “Parents still have the right to home school in our state.”

The devastating storm system that cut across the Tennessee Valley Tuesday night produced tornadoes and a disaster at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. Thankfully (and miraculously) no one was killed on the campus, though the destruction was massive and about 1,200 students were on the campus.

Martin Luther once warned Christians with these words: “I greatly fear that schools for higher learning are wide gates to hell if they do not diligently teach the Holy Scripture and impress them on the young folk.” The great Reformer knew of the importance of Christian education and the development of Christian thinkers, but his great fear of schools as potential “wide gates to hell” is all too justified.

We moderns tend to take books and libraries for granted, assuming that, at least since the invention of writing, all human beings have always enjoyed such access to the printed page. In reality the story is much different. Only in fairly recent times have books become available to the vast majority of citizens in the developed world.

The university was the child of the church. The classic ideal of the university emerged from the context of medieval Christianity and the confidence that all truth and every discipline of learning is, in the end, united in Christ — the wisdom of God.