FEP resources

IAPCHE plans Faculty Enrichment Programs (FEPs) to equip a new generation of educators for integral Christian teaching. FEPs are geared for instructors or faculty members with less than 15 years of service. FEPs give intensive training in the importance of a Biblical approach to higher educaiton so that educators can better relate their faith to their subject matter, teach more effectively, and provide optimal Christian leadership on their campuses.

Resources listed below include presentations made at past FEPs, recommended readings, and other online sources.

Are you interested to be a resource person for an upcoming IAPCHE FEP?Contact iapche@dordt.edu to volunteer.

Reading recommendations follow workshops
A workshop or seminar often introduces new ideas that spur participants to further inquiry. But it can be hard to know where to start. As Solomon says in the book of Ecclesiastes, “Of making many books there is no end.”That’s why the Hellemans sent the participants in their Worldview workshop (held in Tanzania in May) a list of book recommendations after the event. It’s also why IAPCHE executive secretary Nick Lantinga contacted Bangalore Faculty Enrichment Program (FEP) participants with helpful links to online literature and why Dr. Jay Shim, professor of Theology at Dordt College, is compiling an FEP reader on teaching from a Christian worldview.

Perhaps you or someone you know could benefit from the Hellemans’ recommendations:

  • Marsden, George M. The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
  • Naugle, David. Worldview: The History of a Concept. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.
  • Sire, James W. Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept. Downer’s Grove: Intervarsity, 2004.
  • Stott, John R.W. Your Mind Matters: The Place of the Mind in the Christian Life. Downer’s Grove: Intervarsity, 2006.

The Hellemans also referred participants to the books of Bennie van der Walt, and the bibliographic suggestions therein, donated to St. Augustine University of Tanzania’s Office of Philosophy and Ethics, and suggested they check out IAPCHE and CPCHEA websites.

In similar fashion, Lantinga contacted Bangalore FEP participants after the six-day event to request feedback on Creation Regained by Albert M. Wolters (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985), distributed during the FEP, and to provide links to helpful online literature, which we include here for your use:

  • The Christian Classics Ethereal Library at http://www.ccel.org, which contains tens of thousands of pages of text from hundreds of Christian authors across the whole theological spectrum.
  • An online bibliography and database at the Faith and Learning Network, hosted by the Institute for Christian Studies, an IAPCHE institutional member at http://www.icscanada.edu/ (IAPCHE individual members receive a discount for any material requested).
  • All of Life Redeemed at http://www.freewebs.com/reformationalphilosophy/, which currently features an essay by IAPCHE member Roy Clouser titled: “Is there a Christian View of Everything from Soup to Nuts?” as well as many other essays and links.
  • Reformational Publishing Pages at: www.reformationalpublishingproject.com.

Looking ahead, Dr. Jay Shim is preparing a reader on teaching from a Christian worldview for future FEP participants. He invites IAPCHE members to submit one-page discussions on these topics:

  • The theoretical and practical benefits you/your students gain from teaching with a Christian worldview
  • Shaping the Christian mind with a Christian worldview
  • The structure of your Christian scholarship
  • Examples of teaching certain subjects in your discipline
  • Reasons you work from a Christian worldview

Shim’s  project is funded by the Andreas Center for Reformed Scholarship and Service. Please send submissions to jshim@dordt.edu