Defining Evangelicalism's Boundaries and Integrating Theology with General Education:
The Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University
James
S.
Jeffers Biola
University
Copyright © 2001, by James S. Jeffers
I. Introduction: The growth of Christian classical education among evangelicals
Classical education and Great Books schools and programs like the Torrey Honors
Institute at Biola University have taken root all over the country in recent years. Some of this
growth has occurred among secular colleges as a reaction against political correctness and
hostility toward Western civilization. Schools such as Clemson University in South Carolina, the
University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Delta State University in Mississippi, and Wilbur Wright
College in Chicago have recently adopted Great Books options.
1
This movement has been
encouraged by groups such as the National Association of Scholars.
But most of the growth has taken place in Christian schools and homes. Christian
classical education schools have sprung up around the country in recent years, as have a plethora
of organizations and web sites devoted to Christian classical education. A major reason for their
growth is the growing interest in classical education among Christian home schoolers.
Roman Catholic colleges such as St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Johns continue the tradition
of Oxford University and most university education until recent years of a classical education
centered around a Great Books curriculum. New St. Andrews College, a school Protestant
college in Moscow Idaho, was started in 1994 by Douglas Wilson, who also has helped start a
number of classical elementary and secondary schools.
1
Jacques Steinberg,"After Bitter Campus Battles, the `Great Books' Rise Again," New
York Times, January 18, 2000.