Written by Blake Mathews
Bruce McLarty, Harding’s Vice President of Spiritual Life, successfully defended his dissertation last Monday at Ashland Theological Seminary in Ohio. Rather than stick his research in a filing cabinet, however, the newly minted Dr. McLarty plans to use his dissertation to help preserve the Christian mission of Harding.
As part of earning a doctoral degree in ministry, McLarty was required to produce something with a practical application. His three years of research eventually came together in a five-chapter lesson titled “Embracing The Mission,” which will be taught to new professors before they begin teaching at Harding. McLarty said he will teach the course himself, and the 25 professors expected to join the faculty next semester will take it like a night class, meeting one night a week for six to 10 weeks.
The point of the class, McLarty said, is to communicate a clear definition of Harding’s mission to new professors.
“I believe we’re going to have to be increasingly intentional if we’re going to pass on the mission,” he said.
Years ago, few professors would have even considered teaching at Harding if they did not already believe in its mission, which McLarty defined as “faith-based, Christ-centered education.” Compared to other universities, Harding had little to offer prospective faculty.
“You worked too hard for too little money to teach at this place unless you believed in the spiritual mission at Harding,” McLarty said.
But as its size, prestige and faculty salaries have increased, Harding has become an attractive place to a bigger pool of professors, including some who may not have any experience teaching at a Christian institution. McLarty said the concern is that some new professors might come to Harding planning to teach just as they would in a secular state university.
Historically, church-affiliated schools have shed the religious principles they were founded on over time. Faith-based mission statements are altered or abandoned in the interest of attracting more students and investments. Harvard, Vanderbilt and Duke Universities are notable examples from McLarty’s research.
“People, oftentimes for money, in order to get donations from people who wouldn’t give it to an exclusively church-connected school, for prestige, and in the name of academic freedom people have turned loose of their connections with their founding churches,” he said.
McLarty said he is “fully convinced” that Harding has not grown apart from its Christian mission, but pressures to change have created a constant “struggle for identity” in all Christian schools. The five chapters of McLarty’s dissertation are designed to establish Harding’s identity with all incoming professors. Not only will this ease the transition into the Harding culture, McLarty said, but it will also give professors a better idea of what they are getting into.
By completing McLarty’s course, new professors are not assumed to agree with every part of Harding’s mission, and the values in it are not enforceable. However, before the class even begins, prospective faculty members are interviewed by department leaders and administrators to determine where their values are in relation to the university. The result is a relatively shared set of values among hired faculty. If a professor gets to McLarty’s course and does not agree with Harding’s mission, no one will ask him or her to leave the school.
“Hopefully they don’t even want to be around,” McLarty said. “Just as they volunteered in, they would volunteer out.”
The first chapter of “Embracing the Mission” deals with the story of Harding, especially with the school’s mission as it links together university leaders from James A. Harding to current president Dr. David Burks. Chapter two addresses faith and Harding as a product of the Restoration Movement.
In the third chapter, McLarty talks about the Christian worldview and introduces the “idea of what difference does it make that a professor views life and their discipline from a Christian worldview as opposed to the typical naturalistic worldview or postmodern worldview.”
Chapter four is on teaching from a Christian perspective, and the professors are presented with ten questions that should be asked about every class at Harding. McLarty said that professors are ultimately in control of what they teach, and that the concern is less about keeping controversial views out of the classroom and more about making sure that anti-Christian views do not go unchallenged.
The fifth chapter deals with Harding as a community. Professors from different departments and colleges will come together for this class, and McLarty said he hopes the six-week experience will turn them into their own “cohort,” united by similar values and a commitment to Harding’s mission. He likened the community function of the class to Student Impact, only “teachers probably need it worse than students do.”
