Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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academic education would be inadequate. Reason alone
cannot prove the truth of the twelve consensus
statements, even in their present general state. They
can be accepted only by faith. Likewise, each of the
questions derived from them can be answered only on the
basis of faith. While a student may learn the facts of
someone else's faith (someone else's answers to the
questions) academically, he never develops his own faith
In a rote manner.
While an academic institution cannot directly elicit
faith in its students, it does bear responsibility for
the way in which it influences students' faith
development. For example. the p atterns of faith seen in
lecturers (and student colleagues) contributes to or
hinders growth in faith. College worship experiences can
do likewise.
And although lecturers cannot teach faith. they can
inculcate grounds for faith. They can present the
historic symbols which have inspired and guided faith.
They can discuss the history of man's relationship with
the Divine, both its peaks and moments of man's greatest
failure.
Admittedly, these subjects receive primary treatment
in the study of Systematic Theology, Old Testament, New
Testament, Church History, and Christian Ethics. Yet,
those who bear specific responsibility for teaching
preaching review, in their lectures, these basic
theological questions to help students integrate the