arts university would be Christian insofar as it conducts its research to
promote human dignity and serve humanity according to Christ’s demon-
strated love for humanity and the world. It would also be Christian insofar as it
pursued the character formation of its students by training them in the best
of secular, religious, and Christian traditions. And the Christian liberal
arts university would be auniversityof public benefit insofar as it enjoyed
the independence of a public institution linked to a global community of
researchers and intellectuals who should ideally be united in their relentless
pursuit of truth. Christian universities could and should be leaders in liberal
arts education and sturdy bulwarks against the reigning spirit of pragmatism
because the Christian humanist spirit is not an abstract ideal but a vocation
sustained by a living reality. Trusting in this reality, Christian institutions
should not engage the public from behind the fence of doctrinal ghettos but
speak from the fullness of Christ’s promise of true humanity for all people.
Neither should Christian universities buy into the increasing pressure to
transform liberal arts learning into professional studies but staunchly defend
the seemingly unprofitable pursuit of wisdom.
Only when Christiansfind their way back to the universal logos teaching of
early Christian humanism, however, will they avoid becoming either funda-
mentalist or redundant. Often quoted and yet not always fully understood,
Irenaeus’s famous dictum remains ever the guiding star of Christian educa-
tion:Gloria enim Dei vivens homo,vita autem hominis visio Dei(The glory of
God is the living human being, the life of the human being, however, is the
vision of God).^99 The phrase expresses the essential paradox of the Christian
position: by directing their gazefirmlyaway fromthe world towards the
beatific vision and its eschatological promises of full humanity in communion
with God, Christians are bidden to live fullyin the worldand humanize it in
following God who, himself, became human to redeem the world. Instead of
presenting themselves as defenders of the Christian faith, shooting anti-
cultural arrows from supposedly holy islands of moral purity, Christian liberal
arts universities should retrieve the language of Christian humanism to signal
the kind of interest in humanity that Christ himself demonstrated. I conclude
with a sample of such language, again from the Christian humanist Vico:
What goal is more honourable than to wish to help the greatest number of men
and in so doing become more like Almighty God, whose very nature is to help all?
And whoever would desire to be of the greatest service to the greatest number
must provide for himself a capacity for such service. Such a one must acquire as
much learning as he is capable of by listening as much as possible, by reading
as much as possible, by analysing as much as possible, by meditating as much as
possible, and by writing as much as possible.^100(^99) Against Heresies4.20.7. (^100) Vico,On Humanistic Education, 101.
160 Jens Zimmermann