Integration Of Faith and Scholarship: A Theological Fallacy?.

Abstract

The discussion of the concept" integration of faith and learning or scholarship” calls for a proper understanding of the issues behind the statement itself as developed within its proper historical setting. While the phrase has been used within Christian related institutions of higher learning, its theological implication has more often than not been ignored. The assumption that faith and learning are to be integrated, as though they were disjointed and disparated elements that are intrinsically incompatible unless by a decisive act of will by" the Christian scholar" is quite unfortunate to say the least. This cliché, religious as it may sound, poses a major theological threat to the biblical understanding of the accession and practice of faith, besides rendering Christianity as a mere subjective pursuit of instinctive urges which obliterates one's capacity for objectivity and capability to carry out verifiable findings on the basis of proof by any empirical standards. On the one hand, the call for “integration of faith and learning” in general, borders on subjectivity dependent solely on the individual to the detriment of academic professionalism. On the other hand, academic intellectualism does not preclude one's religious beliefs as though the two were mutually exclusive.