Position Paper on “Faith and Institutional Purpose”

Dr. Joe Glass

(Transcribed from notes by Philip Blosser)

I have four simple points.  The virtue of having four points is that it makes me sound organized. 

First, perhaps Benne’s presentation was unduly controversial, due, perhaps to his language and phrasing at times.  This is unfortunate, because his choice of words may, at times, have gotten in the way of some points very much worth discussing in our group.

Second, I have been at Lenoir-Rhyne College for thirty-nine years, which means, among other things, that I’m in little danger of being fired for anything I might say.  Regarding the pietistic element at Lenoir-Rhyne college—the student religious organizations, such as Fellowship of Christian Athletes, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and so on—my view is that this element is doing well.  Perhaps we could increase the intellectual discussion of issues relating faith in Christ to politics, science, and so on.  But I think what we have already is something positive.

Third, I’d say we’re in the top twenty-five percent of Lutheran colleges and universities, as far as the issue of “faith and institutional purpose” goes.  Our discussions here at Lenoir-Rhyne of this sort we’re having now (on Robert Benne’s book, Quality with Soul), our monthly theology colloquia with student involvement, our annual Aquinas-Luther Conference, our chapel program and student religious organizations—all these things speak positively of our support for the connection between faith and institutional purpose.

Fourth, in my estimation, we’re right about at the “intentionally pluralistic” point in Benne’s graph, and I would agree that we should try to move in the direction of becoming a “critical mass” institution, that is, an institution with a critical mass of students, faculty and staff from the supporting religious constituency.  Having said that, I would qualify it by saying that I’m really more concerned about having a critical mass of Christians on campus than I am about having a critical mass of Lutherans, as such.  Still, both would be desirable.  My fear at this point would be that there could come a time when there is nobody left to pass on the faith at an institution such as Lenoir-Rhyne.  So I would opt for pushing toward a “critical mass” of Christians and Lutherans here, at the same time underlining the importance of making people of other backgrounds feel welcome here.