About Christian
Liberal Arts

Academic Programs
and Majors

Academic
Records Office

Adult Degree
Programs

Catalog

Course Descriptions

Faculty List

Learning Resources

Off-Campus
Programs

Office of the
Academic Dean

Web Sites for
Departments

Christian Liberal Arts at Houghton

Meaning and Purpose

Houghton is a Christian liberal-arts college. Those words--Christian liberal arts--convey our identity as an institution. They say what we are and what we aspire to be.

The study of the liberal arts is as wide as human civilization. Included is the study of history, literature, philosophy, mathematics, natural and social sciences, politics, art, and music. Maintaining a civilization requires that each generation transmit their knowledge of all these things to the next generation: this is what a liberal arts education is intended to do. To receive liberal arts education, therefore, is to receive a great inheritance--an intellectual inheritance derived from the accumulated learning of the ages. Such an education, even as it maintains and therefore preserves civilization, also liberates the individuals who receive it. The liberal arts take their name from this liberating quality--freeing us from the bondage of ignorance and enabling us to use our freedom constructively. As they liberate us, they stretch us--opening up new possibilities as they demand our very best efforts.

The liberal arts are surprisingly practical. Studies consistently show that graduates of liberal arts colleges excel professionally in a wide variety of fields, whether or not those fields are directly related to the major field of academic study. A liberal-arts education stands in contrast to narrow, career-based education, as well as to the academic trendiness that overtakes so much of higher education. By focusing on the development of lifetime skills rather than specific job skills, liberal arts is an education for the long haul. It is also an education designed for those who would be leaders as well as servants--those who will be constructively engaged with the culture around them. 

What we often call Western civilization can also be called Christian civilization, for it developed largely out of Christian belief and practice. The best of Western civilization is the result of generation after generation working out Christian ideas in practice, answering the most basic question of all--how can we best live? For this reason, there is a natural and logical bond between Christianity and the liberal arts. This is why a Christian liberal arts education, far from being a contradiction in terms (as many would have us believe), is really a liberal arts education at its finest. Christian liberal arts is authentic liberal arts. Rather than attempting to separate faith and learning, a Christian liberal arts college seeks to integrate faith and learning in a way that mimics the great civilization Christians have built over the course of two millennia. 

Ronald J. Oakerson, academic vice president and dean of the college at Houghton, says that we who compose a Christian liberal arts college must be able to do four things:

First, we must effectively convey the Christian intellectual tradition to a new generation of young people. This we do by bringing a well-trained faculty into face-to-face relationship with students. Such an education can never be entirely an affair of books, as important as books are, nor even less of disembodied digital information; it is, rather, an affair of the heart and mind, conveyed person-to-person.

Second, we must transmit disciplined ways of learning and knowing--less a set of final answers than a series of perennial questions. This we do by stressing the traditional academic disciplines through which students learn enduring principles as they develop valuable skills--skills such as how to take apart a complex problem, how to write and speak clearly, and how to think creatively as well as critically.

Third, we must develop character. If many of the elements of civilization are like an inheritance, passed down like a cherished family heirloom, personal character is not. Because character has to be built from scratch with each new generation, we seek not only to transmit a tradition of learning but also to sow the seeds of virtue. This we do by creating a community of learners where students can develop the qualities of integrity and civility--qualities on which our civilization also depends.

Fourth, just as we seek to equip students with the intellectual tools provided by the academic disciplines, so we must also connect them to the world of experience, the world where they will make their lives and live out God's will. This we do in an increasing variety of ways that include outstanding study-abroad programs to enhance cross-cultural learning, a wide range of service opportunities to bring service and learning together, and hands-on internships that reveal the relevance of the liberal arts in applied settings.

Christian liberal arts is difficult to define not only because it's a complex and subtle idea to analyze, but also because it is best understood as a seamless experience. At a Christian liberal-arts college you will find a pervasive appreciation for scholarship, creative activity, and worship. Musical and dramatic performances, art exhibits, and chapel services are as important as midterms and classroom lectures. You will find varsity athletes singing in choirs and artists playing sports. Interesting and seemingly unrelated double majors and major-minor combinations are not unusual. Having fun mixes easily with service to others. The pursuit of academic excellence intertwines with the development of Christian faith and practice. Variety of experience co-exists with the commonality of Christian purpose and commitment.