This summer has been a summer of Adam debate for American evangelicals. Christianity Today ran a front-cover story of it, and NPR even did a segment. The point at issue is whether there was a single human couple from which everyone else descended.

Recently Calvin College became part of the controversy when their religion professor John Schneider, who denies the existence of a first couple, took an early retirement offer from the administration to keep his controversial views from causing trouble. (Another professor with the same view, Daniel Harlow, turned the offer down.) Apparently the school had come under pressure from people in the denomination to get the professors out.

It’s not clear to me whether the professors could be dismissed for their views. They might or might not be consistent with the Reformed confessions Calvin adopts, and I’m not sure to what extent Calvin professors must hold to the school’s confessions. But clearly this story gives us more to think about than the question about what the Calvin administration’s legal options are.

This story points to a tension in the purpose of American Christian colleges. On the one hand, they are first and foremost teaching institutions, where young people go to be instructed in the faith and in the various disciplines. For this reason, people have an understandable expectation that the faculty will teach the views of the school’s denomination as expressed in its confessions.

On the other hand, Christian colleges are some of the church’s best arenas for Christian research, especially interdisciplinary research of the sort vital for understanding faith/science issues. This research may well push confessional boundaries, but it is important that there be somewhere where such research can be done. If we could be justifiably certain in the perfection of our denomination’s confessional documents, then this wouldn’t be such an issue. But we can’t. We see through a glass darkly, and the only way to tell whether revision is necessary is to patiently wait while researchers disagree, seeking consensus without silencing either side prematurely.

It’s hard to reconcile the legitimate desires for faculty conformity and research. There aren’t simple answers. But perhaps one good plan would be to stop relying so much on these Christian institutions for basic catechesis (instruction in the faith). Young adults who have grown up in church (the main demographic going to Christian colleges) should have been taught their church’s beliefs well enough that they can critically appraise what they hear in their classes. This doesn’t mean that professors would have no influence, of course. But students should be well-enough educated that their parents can trust them to think about their professors’ views in faith/science issues on their merits.

Perhaps then there would be less pressure to make sure that professors agreed with parents, and more patience and professionalism in our schools.

Tags: Adam, evolution, Christian education, Calvin College