Week 10--Final Paper Outline

I. General Problems of Religion in a Secular University
A. The Power Structure of a Secular University
1. Hegemony
a. Church and State issues
b. Hyper-rationalism and higher education
c. Prominence and preference of science
d. Prominence and preference of other humanities
e. Other hegemonic structures
2. Deconstructing Binaries
a. The binary of Church and State
b. The binary of Religion and science
c. Other binaries
B. Local Community and Church Community Interaction
1. Local Community
a. CSUN and the needs of Northridge
1. Higher education and Northridge
2. Religion and Northridge
b. CSUN and greater Los Angeles
1. Higher education and Los Angeles
2. Religion and Los Angeles
2. Church Community
a. CSUN and First Church of Christ, San Fernando
b. First Church of Christ, San Fernando and Northridge

II. Crerar Douglas and the Synthetic (Dialectical) Model
A. Crerar Douglas and Religious Education
1. Teaching and Learning
2. Openness to other scholarly disciplines
3. Openness to other religious perspectives
4. Gospel significance
B. Bevans and the Synthetic Model
1. University and universality
2. Is “needing the other for completion” a binary problem?
3. Religion is a process
4. Gospel significance

III. Church Community Response
A. (Place) Church as an Educational Forum
1. Educated ministers are necessary for adequately shepherding congregant through faith struggles related to intermingling with different ideas. Before any in-depth and comprehensive dialogue can take place some groundwork needs to be laid. The church would need to focus on Bible studies, sermons, and other lessons related to:
a. the issue of various religious perspectives within the text of the Bible
b. understanding the family tree of world religions and common elements
c. relevant contemporary discussions about religion and science
2. The church can then once again gain a reputation of being a place for higher learning and on the cutting edge of scholarship by inviting a variety of perspectives, hosting interfaith and interdisciplinary discussions.
B. (People) Church as Humble Learners
1. As the Church we engage the local community and university community with openness. Our ideology needs to be relaxed enough to hear and understand the perspectives of others.
2. Our willingness to be “last” in the discussion is often a more substantive message than our dogmatism.
C. (Community) Church as In-Process
1. In-process means “being-there” and “not-there-yet” tension
a. Humility means we are not there yet
b. A unique teleological (faith) perspective means we are not there yet, but we know where we’re going.
2. In-process means being active, not suspended or stultified
a. The local church’s interest and involvement in higher education reveals an openness that will make (and has made) the larger scholarly world more interested and involved in religion.
b. The local church’s involvement in other scholarly discussions will bring a much needed voice to often overly compartmentalized fields of scholarship (ethics, politics, biology, philosophy, psychology, etc.).