The ongoing problems at Cedarville University have been covered by the Chronicle of Higher Edcation. The publication is the largest and most respected digest covering academic issues in America. The firing of two tenured Bible professors who had just been given contracts a few months earlier has also now resulted in an investigation by the American Association of University Professors.
The article points out that a theological debate going on at Cedarville University has played a role in the controversy.
“A theological impasse dividing Cedarville’s campus has also played a role in the controversy. Known as the “truth and certainty debate,” the dispute involves a somewhat rarefied but hotly contested question of faith: Can Christians enjoy certainty of Biblical truth, or do they merely have the assurance of their faith that the Bible is factual?
It is a question that folds into a still larger debate over how much Christianity should reconcile with the intellectual context of postmodernity. Those who hold to a belief in certainty, Mr. Hoffeditz and Mr. Mappes among them, tend to consider themselves more theologically conservative. “
It’s the same battle going on everywhere today, but Cedarville is a particularly sad place in which to see the war against certainty. It was once a strong biblical institution.
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hello.
i appreciate the concern and interest so many people have shown regarding cedarville university in the recent past. we're, like, celebrities - or something.
in all seriousness, though: i don't understand why so many folks on the outside (i.e., people who are not a part of the cedarville administration and thus do not have access to crucial information and records pertaining to the dismissal of drs. hoffeditz and mappes) insist on characterizing these terminations as an attack on a theological position. cedarville faculty, admin, and trustees have assured the media and concerned alumni time and again that the decisions were made based on faculty conduct. no one has produced any concrete evidence to the contrary; the furor surrounding what should have been a simple in-house personnel action is the stuff of myth and the rumor mill.
cedarville has certainly NOT altered its historic commitment to Christian orthodoxy. while students may have more access to different perspectives than they once did, these perspectives are always accompanied with a heavy dose of baptist doctrine. for better or for worse, cedarville is the same conservative institution it has been since the dixon era.
now, please: let's turn our attention to more constructive conversation.
joe dugan
managing editor, cedars, 2007 Click here to reply to this post
Cedarville's Stance
Posted On: 03/25/08 04:34:48 PM
Age 28, IL
It is obvious to me through their website and also by being a student there that Cedarville is committed to truth. Just read their statement on their website posted below:
http://www.cedarville.edu/cf/truthandcertainty/
I know of no other university who has gone to the trouble of making a public statement about truth and certainty. Further, I think it is imperative to realize that the Chronicle only tells one side to a, no-doubt, two-sided story. Click here to reply to this post
Certainty despised
Posted On: 03/19/08 11:14:37 PM
Age 40, CANADA
In a world full of ignorance and uncertainty, there are few things despised more than a man that is certain. Click here to reply to this post
oh my
Posted On: 03/19/08 12:00:30 PM
Age 32, WA
Well, if you that is strange, check out the 2008 Ntional "New Church" Conference April 21-24, Exponential 08: The DNA of Reproducing Churches with our favorite heretic Rick Warren and Emrgent friendly church leaders, changers and resurrectors. If I am right, I see this as being a way to mass-reproduce Mystical Emerging Churches to assist in God's prophecy of the "Great Falling Away."
I would love Brandon to do a show on this topic. Click here to reply to this post
think the way
Posted On: 03/19/08 10:54:28 AM
Age 44, IL
Is this supposed to be an institution of higher learning or is it a think the way post modernists think type of institution? What a travesty when contracted and tenured professors are being fired because they don't conform to what "post modernists" think. Let me guess,the university president is a BIG fan of rob bell. Click here to reply to this post
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