Integrating Faith into the Academic Environment at Baylor University

About Integrating Faith into the Academic Environment at Baylor University

Abstract

At universities today, including Christian universities, the integration of faith and Christian principles into the academic environment is left to the individual faculty member, depending on the academic environment. Integrating Christian faith should be an important topic when developing our teaching skills but it is quite often overlooked and not discussed as it should be. While religiously affiliated universities may have a core set of beliefs and may even have classroom requirements, such as an opening devotional, again, it is often left to the individual professor to develop a “style” of integration. Many engineering faculty find it very difficult to integrate faith into the academic environment. Most faculty have come through an educational system where integrating faith was either not modeled or not modeled well. This paper will examine what is being done by engineering faculty members in the School of Engineering and Computer Science at Baylor University in the context of Baylor‟s academic environment. A wide spectrum of activities will be addressed. Topics covered include what Baylor professors do on a personal/spiritual level, in the classroom, and outside the classroom to emphasize Christian faith and its significance, especially to the profession of engineering. It is important to document these activities to give new faculty encouragement to integrating faith and learning. For experienced faculty, knowing what others are doing should also provide encouragement to more effectively integrate faith into their vocation.