THEOLOGY AND LIBERAL ARTS
THEOLOGY AND LIBERAL ARTS
Virgil Warren, PhD
Theology establishes the context for liberal arts. It is the discipline of the whole, the discipline of the ultimate. It addresses what is original, eternal, central, basic, ultimate, and all-inclusive. As such, theology affirms first that reality is cohesive rather than chaotic—that the parts have a whole to be part of. Theology calls for “centeredness” and centers reality in the Creator rather than the creation and in the Teacher rather than the student. By implication, theology contextualizes all other disciplines as sub-disciplines, integrates them into one whole, relates them to each another, limits their province, and critiques their methods and findings in at least a restrictive sense.
Christian theology affirms second that the whole is to be personalized because the ultimate Reality is personal. Beginning with the doctrine of creation, special revelation indicates that the impersonal derives from the personal, not vice versa as in atheistic evolutionary thought. The personal God created for his purpose, so the impersonal has worth and meaning relative to his purpose. As a result, the impersonal universe takes on a quality beyond what it would otherwise have, a quality somewhat like the one that distinguishes a grandmother’s handmade quilt from a machine-made blanket at Wal-Mart: “Something shines in every hue Christless eyes have never seen.” The whole is personalized, not personified or depersonalized, because its manner of origin determines its nature. The natural sciences are impacted accordingly. The doctrine of creation teaches also that human persons are created in the image of the divine Person. Our implicit dignity and purpose affects all disciplines that have people as their subject and object—the arts and the social sciences.
Theology limits and qualifies the other disciplines. The triune God is interpersonal being, so that interpersonalism is the integrating reality in the Christian worldview and the foundational truth in education and educational practice. Those who teach theology assume responsibility for understanding and articulating revealed truth in connection with human experience and the pursuit of all knowledge based on it.