This spring, the members of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary faculty, led by Provost Madison Grace and Professor Joshua Williams, have provided helpful modifications to the Master of Divinity (MDiv) curriculum. We are quite excited about these changes, which have been made with an awareness of and sensitivity to all accreditation expectations.
The revised MDiv represents months and months of diligent and collaborative work by the Southwestern faculty. We believe the curriculum will serve our students better and that it will help us prepare this generation of students for decades of service in the local church. This initiative aligns well and coheres with our ministry assignment from the Southern Baptist Convention. Moreover, it will help our students have a more efficient and affordable degree program.
One of the distinctive features of this degree program is a required class on “Christian Worldview and Cultural Engagement.” This course is intended to help students better understand how their work in biblical, theological, and historical studies connects with Christian ministry and service to the world. Instead of seeing the curriculum as merely a collection of courses needed to finish a degree, students will be better able to envision a holistic understanding of theological commitments, Christian living, and ministry service, seeing the coherent thread that brings these important things together. In doing so, it will help them provide guidance to those in their churches on how to connect Sunday to Monday, how to see the relationship of faith and work, as well as how the church prepares men and women for a Christian presence and Christian witness in the marketplace.
A Christian worldview helps encourage wholehearted devotion to distinctively Christian thinking, providing a frame of reference that tells a coherent story while illuminating the actual world in which we live. An examined worldview is more than a private personal viewpoint; it is a comprehensive life system, shaped by Scripture and influenced by key Christian doctrines, as well as the Christian intellectual tradition, which seeks to answer the basic questions of life.
The beginning point for building a Christian worldview is found in the confession that we “believe in God, the Father, Maker of heaven and earth.” We recognize and confess that all true knowledge and wisdom flows from the one Creator to His creation. It seeks to answer the questions: “Where did we come from?” “Who are we?” “What has gone wrong with the world?” “What solution can be offered to deal with these challenges?” Beyond this, students in this course will seek to explore the general implications and specific applications for the church, the culture, and the world.
A Christian worldview must offer a way to live that is consistent with reality by seeking to present a comprehensive understanding of all areas of life, thought, and service. The beginning point noted above brings us into the presence of God without delay. The central affirmation of Scripture is not only that there is a God but that the Creator God has acted and spoken in history. God is Lord and King over the world, ruling all things for His own glory, displaying His perfection in all that He does in order that humans and angels may worship and adore Him.
A Christian worldview becomes a shaping force for us to see and understand God’s redemptive plan and purpose through Jesus Christ for the world. Such a way of viewing the world also provides a framework for ethical thinking and cultural engagement. We recognize that humans, who are made in God’s image, are essentially moral beings. We also recognize that the fullest embodiment of good, love, holiness, grace, and truth is found in Jesus Christ (John 1:14-18).
Developing a Christian worldview is best understood as an ever-advancing process for us in which Christian convictions more and more shape our participation in culture. This disciplined, vigorous, and unending process will help shape how we assess culture and our place in it. Otherwise, we open ourselves up to what has sadly taken place in too many Christian contexts, which is that the culture has shaped the thinking and living of those claiming to follow Christ. Thus, a Christian worldview offers a distinctive way of thinking, seeing, and doing, based on a new way of being. A Christian worldview offers meaning and purpose for the living of these challenging days, recognizing that God is guiding history toward the fulfillment of His redemptive plan. In all of these things, we desire for students to take every thought captive to Christ (2 Cor. 10:5).
The central role of this course in the new MDiv curriculum is just one of many reasons we are excited about these changes for the current students, and for those student generations still to come. We remain immensely hopeful for the future of Southwestern Seminary. Thank you for your prayers for and your investment in the students of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. We are truly grateful to God for each one of you and your partnership in the Gospel (Phil. 1:3-8).
