30
faith, scholarship and service." The revised statement,
adopted by the board in July of 2001, now speaks of helping
"our institutions transform lives by faithfully relating
scholarship and service to biblical truth."
42
In light of
the CCCU's long-term encouragement of intellectual and
cultural engagement through faculty workshops, student
programs, and scholarly publications, "faithfully relating"
will surely strike some observers as an unfortunate
retreat.
Like other evangelical agencies and institutions, the
CCCU is not a church nor a confessional body. It has done
an admirable job seeking to build consensus and to shape an
evangelical "center" for Christian higher education. Given
its purposes, the organization certainly needs to be
careful in drawing boundaries and to exemplify what
theologian Stanley Grenz calls "a generous orthodoxy."
43
Nevertheless, as the evangelical kaleidoscope continues to
turn, revealing new and more complex configurations, the
CCCU might well need to consider some more definitive
41
Andringa, email to author, 23 February 2000.
42
Cf. "About the CCCU" and Trowbridge, "Board Meets."
Integration language has been retained in the membership
criteria.
43
Stanley Grenz, interview by Robert Hosack in "CT Book
Awards," Baker Academic E-Notes, 3 May 2001, 3.