Life is short and we're all busy. If you're a college student, you're really busy. There's your part-time job (which seems full-time), your social life (hopefully) and church. On top of that, you're expected to go to class, do some reading, take tests and write papers. Now, while you are minding your own business, you hear about something called "integration," trying to relate your major with your Christianity. Several questions may come to your mind: What is integration, anyway? Is it just a fad? Why should I care about it? And even if I do care about it, I don't have a clue as to how to go about doing it. How do you go about this? These are good questions, and in this introduction, we're going to address them in order. We are passionate about helping you learn about, and become good at, integrating your Christian convictions with the issues and ideas in your college major or your career.

The aim of this article is to reflect on the practice of taking Christian students on a mosque visit as a vital part of teaching Muslim studies in a Christian university context. In order to do that I will share my teaching goals and the aims of our class prior to the experience and then briefly narrate the key elements of the visit. Further, I will discuss the students’ perspectives by focusing on a group of twenty-six students that I surveyed in the Spring of 2010 following their visit. Finally, I will evaluate this experience toward articulating some core values for teaching Muslim studies in a Christian university.

Christians who work in an academic setting face a double challenge: that of being a faithful Christian and that of being a reputable scholar. At times, these aims do not conflict, yet at others, they do. How ought Christian scholars to think of their callings? How can they bridge the faith-learning gap? What practices should they cultivate in their line of work? Christian scholars early in their careers have these questions and are still trying to figure out the answers. Veteran scholars have had more practice and, thus, can mentor the younger generation; still, even they lose focus and need encouragement. After defining some terms and introducing some concepts, this essay will attempt to answer those questions and offer helpful suggestions.

The challenges of communicating a Christian worldview in higher education are considerable. Many faculty passionately believe in the call to integrate faith and learning, yet they find it difficult to know whether they are actually doing it, and, more importantly, whether they have succeeded. As an indication of how difficult it can be, authors Walsh and Middleton (1984, p. 105), in The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian Worldview, ask just how is our worldview transformed? If our worldview determines the way we interpret the very agents of transformation, how do we break free from the hermeneutical circle? Their answer is, “Usually we don’t. It sometimes takes a worldview crisis.”

Worldviews are comprised of beliefs, values, assumptions, and commitments that provide the rationale for how people understand and order their lives. The influence of a person’s worldview is associated with educational issues such as identity formation, approaches to ethics and problem-solving, understanding systemic relationships, and citizenship (Jordan, Bawden, & Bergmann, 2008; Matthews, 2009). The concept has significant importance in Christian education to the point where several institutions claim its formation and guiding assumptions are central to their purpose.

ABHE accreditation standards require colleges to demonstrate how all programs support the development of a biblical worldview. This requirement necessitates a search for teaching and assessment approaches that can best serve this essential goal. In this article, the author reports on qualitative research with ABHE schools and offers a pedagogical theory for supporting students’ lifelong development of worldview. This theory shows how college teachers can clarify their goals, set relevant objectives, employ effective teaching strategies, and use helpful assessment methods.

AMONG THE ISSUES facing Christians involved in academic life, who seek to integrate faith with learning their academic disciplines, none is more fundamental or vexing than the question of authority. Complex in its formulation and vast in both its scope and its implications, our answer to the authority question, in its broadest sense, molds how we think about data and interpretation, how we think about life's moral framework, even how we think about thinking. Thus it presents the point of departure for how we address all questions of truth and reality.