The Holy Spirit and Higher Education

Renewing the Christian University

Amos Yong, Dale M. Coulter

• Publisher: Baylor University Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781481318143
• eBook ISBN: 9781481318167
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Education General

Christian higher education (CHE) is increasingly a transnational and global endeavor, with over one-sixth of the almost two hundred institutional members of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) located in nineteen countries outside the United States. Much of this is related to the shift of the Christian center of gravity to the global South over the last half century, and in particular to the explosion of pentecostal and charismatic forms of churches across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, all of which also feeds back via migration to the so-called "browning" of the churches of North America.

Networks like the CCCU have sought to bridge faith and learning through a certain form of Christ-centeredness and biblical orientation. While these theological priorities of the evangelical Protestant tradition have gained wide currency, the pneumatic spirituality of the pentecostal and charismatic movements is rarely considered when thinking about a distinctively Christian vision of higher education.

When even God is showing up at secular universities, one wonders what difference considerations of the Holy Spirit might make to complement and perhaps revitalize the christocentrism renowned across CHE. The Holy Spirit and Higher Education responds along two interrelated lines: by reconsidering historic Christian education itself from this pentecostal perspective, and by formulating an approach to CHE around the charismatic, sanctifying, and missional dimensions of the Spirit's activity. Yong and Coulter show that CHE should be both Christ centered and Pentecost inspired, both biblically faithful and pneumatically empowered, both faith committed and charismatically propelled.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction
• I | What Difference Has the Holy Spirit Made? Historical Lessons
• II | What Difference Can the Holy Spirit Make? Constructive Reenvisioning
• Index of Subjects and Authors
• Index of Scripture