2004-05 Greenville College Catalog

EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATIONS

Purpose | Governance and Control | Accreditation and Affiliations | Historical Roots | Theological Assumptions | Philosophy of Education | Institutional Goals and Objectives |

Purpose

This mission makes Greenville College a vital place where students learn and grow. We are a Christian community committed to challenging and nurturing students. The College is dedicated to excellence in higher education grounded in both the liberal arts tradition and a Wesleyan heritage. We provide an education characterized by open inquiry into all creation, and are guided by the authority of Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. Faculty and administrators adhere to and are motivated by a Christian worldview. Faculty and students are encouraged to study the issues and ideas of the present and the past, and in so doing seek to promote a more humane and just future for all people.

A Greenville College education is marked by quality, innovation, and spiritual depth. The College seeks to relate this education to the needs of students entering a dynamic, changing society. To enable students to thrive in a complex world and address societal need, students develop knowledge and skills across a variety of domains, become empowered to critically relate what they are learning with their Christian faith, and apply theoretical knowledge to real world problems.

In the pages that follow, Greenville College invites you to examine its rich legacy and contemporary relevance. It is a fully accredited co-educational college which holds to a unique conception of liberal arts education, one that combines a philosophy rooted in the Christian faith with a rigorous but balanced academic program. The College offers a unique setting where students think about central questions of faith and life in a Christ-centered, supportive community. (top)

Governance and Control

The Board of Trustees of Greenville College wholly owns the institution and is the final authority of all policy and operational decisions. The College functions within the context of the "free exercise" constitutional interpretation and is chartered by the State of Illinois to operate as a private, independent, Christian liberal arts college. (top)

Accreditation and Affiliations

The College has been accredited since 1947 by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools as an institution granting the bachelor's degree, and since 1996 granting the master's degree. Since 1974-75 the Illinois State Teacher Certification Board has approved the teacher education program. Institutional membership is held in the American Council on Education, the Association of American Colleges, the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, the Federation of Illinois Independent Colleges and Universities, the National Commission of Education, and other professional organizations. It is one of the colleges approved officially by the Free Methodist Church of North America, and is recommended to any members who want to pursue Christian higher education. (top)

Historical Roots

For nearly 150 years, the Greenville College campus has been the scene of Christian higher education. In the mid-nineteenth century Stephen Morse moved from New Hampshire to Greenville, where he met and married Almira Blanchard. In 1855, he established a college for women, supported in part by his wife's inheritance and named in her honor. Almira College was affiliated with the Baptist church and educated young women under the leadership of John B. White, a classmate of Morse at Brown University. After 23 years, ownership passed to James Park Slade, who maintained the affiliation but changed the College to a co-educational institution.

In 1892, ministerial and lay leaders of the Central Illinois Conference of the Free Methodist Church purchased the property of Almira College, consisting of "Old Main" and several acres of land, to provide higher education for both men and women under distinctive Christian influences. The institution was reincorporated as an independent institution under the name of Greenville College Corporation and was authorized to confer the usual degrees.

The College and the Free Methodist Church share a commitment to a Wesleyan theological tradition and have maintained the rich legacy of mutual support in a voluntary relationship since reincorporating in 1893. Wilson T. Hogue, a New York pastor and scholar, was called to be the College's first president. During his administration, he not only taught and directed the College, but also earned his Ph.D. degree. Only ten individuals have served the College as president during its more than 110-year history.

Since the first graduate in 1898, Greenville College has granted degrees to more than 7,500 students. The quality of our graduates is made clear in their accomplishments. An unusually high proportion have gone on to earn doctorates. Alumni serve with distinction in major professions in government, business, the church, Christian missions, and as faculty of major universities and colleges.

Greenville College is a part of the friendly, Midwestern town of Greenville, Illinois, located near the junction of U.S. Interstate Highway 70 and Illinois Highway 127, about 50 miles east of St. Louis. The town is an attractive residential community of approximately 7,500 people. The eight-acre central academic campus is within two blocks of Greenville 's town square and shopping area. Three lakes are located within a few miles of the campus, including Carlyle Lake, the largest recreational lake in Illinois. Though rural, the town enjoys the urban advantages of metropolitan St. Louis with its concerts, sports events, cultural attractions, and large international airport. (top)

Theological Assumptions*

Our faith commitments and our understanding about the nature of God and creation profoundly shape Greenville College. They are central to all we do. The theological assumptions are foundational for understanding our institutional objectives and program of general education.

As Christians, we believe that God exists and is presently and actively engaged in the lives of people. Though we employ terms such as wonderful, powerful, righteous, loving, all-knowing, merciful, and holy to describe God, none of them alone, or even in total, can completely capture the identity of God. Because that identity must be both experienced and learned, we commit ourselves to a living and learning environment that nurtures the whole person. We affirm that, as God's creatures, persons are endowed with the ability to respond, and ultimately know and achieve intimacy with God. This intimacy with God results in life growing ever more harmonious with God's nature, which can be described in terms of goodness, beauty, truthfulness, freedom, and love. Because these qualities transcend all cultural, historical, and ethnic boundaries, Greenville College seeks to do the same.

We have seen that humanity does not live in harmony with God, and we seek to understand why. We believe that God is helping us to gain this knowledge, both through revelation and by discovery in that which God has done in history and has made in creation. Refusing to embrace this revelation and to begin the journey of discovery is at the root of humanity's problem. This problem has traditionally been defined as sin and can be best understood in terms of its consequences: alienation in all relationships, captivity to sin, and a darkened heart and mind. Death is the ultimate experience of this alienation and darkness. We understand that the person of Jesus Christ is the revelation of God, and the work of Christ redeems all creation, dispels the darkness of ignorance, frees people from captivity to sin, and restores all relationships. All this is mediated through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, holding the hope of redemption and life for humankind.

These affirmations lead us to embrace a Christianity that is best defined as orthodox. Orthodox Christianity, holding to what might be described as a central consensus among Christians of all times and cultures, affirms that:

We believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

We believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day He rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

We are confident that affirming the Apostles' Creed is completely necessary and adequate for one to claim to be fully Christian.

In order to define how we at Greenville have and are working out our faith in practice, it must be understood that we are willing, and sometimes unwilling, inheritors of a number of religious impulses and traditions including orthodox Christianity, the Enlightenment, the Reformation, the Puritan ethos, an Evangelical tradition, the Anglican/Methodist tradition, the Pentecostal/Holiness impulse, and American Revivalism. As such, let it be understood that we embrace the Bible as the authoritative rule for faith and life, the historic forms and rituals of the church, the evangelical missionary impulse which preaches the gospel of Jesus, the continuing search for truth in all arenas, the affirmation of the good, the preeminence of Jesus Christ, the active ministry of the Holy Spirit in the lives of all people, the beauty of holiness and the holiness of beauty, the ministry of love through works of service and mercy as the goal of Christian practice, the struggle for freedom and justice in all parts of the earth, and the necessity of an individual encounter with and commitment to God in Christ.

*The statements of the College's theological assumptions and educational philosophy were crafted by the faculty in 1995. (top)

Philosophy of Education

All truth is God's truth. Our educational philosophy rests, for our search for truth, upon the authority of Scripture, as well as upon tradition, reason, and experience. It is shaped by Biblical revelation and informed by our theological presuppositions, and therefore includes the following assumptions about reality, knowledge, humanness, and value .

Reality:
We understand God to be personal—the creator and ruler of an orderly, dynamic universe. Through this universe God's eternal purposes, meaning, creativity, and loving care are expressed.

Knowledge:
We learn about reality through observation, thought, and a scholarly and disciplined search for truth. We then perceive reality's ultimate meaning in and through God and through His creation. The fullest information about God's person and purposes appears in God's self-revelation in redemptive acts—in Hebrew history and in the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ—as recorded and interpreted in the Bible. God's dealings are always primarily relational, first through God's choosing of a people and later through the establishment of the church. God continues to be at work in the world through His creation and through the instrument of the church in the power of the Holy Spirit, calling people individually and collectively into a saving experience.

To learn, throughout our lives, we must do more than gain knowledge. We must also integrate our knowledge with adaptive coping skills—skills which we develop through our life experiences and temper by spiritual discernment. As we watch our community's leaders and members integrating the outcomes of their moral choices, we learn from our own faith-based choices. From these people we can learn to serve by leading, and to lead by serving. Their habits of heart and mind serve as models for our own. As we create our unique spiritual, cognitive, and psycho-social synthesis, our Christian learning community encourages and supports us. In such a community, both the curricular and co-curricular experiences can help us develop into servant leaders.

Humanness:
We humans are created in the image of God, and are therefore of inestimable value. We further understand that this image is found across cultures, ethnic and racial groups, and social class. But because we are bound by sin, we have become estranged from God and neighbor, and our lives are distorted. Yet God, out of infinite mercy, offers us salvation and reconciliation in the atoning work of Jesus Christ. As a result, all who profess belief in Christ are called to seek the fullness of the Spirit and to live lives of wholeness and grace through the power of the Holy Spirit.

As bearers of God's image, humans retain certain qualities and responsibilities. These qualities include complex rational capabilities, systematic and powerful skills of investigation, and the capacity for compelling ethical and aesthetic insights. Because we are social in both our nature and our circumstance, we bear a responsibility to live as a functional part of society in its diverse manifestations. This requires sensitivity to culture, ethnicity, race, gender, religious tradition and practice, and social class. In addition we should live redemptively, pointing others to Christ, to the church, and to the Christian worldview.

Value:
We value righteousness, which we understand to be obedience to God and His revelation. The essence of this obedience is captured in the Christian ideals of character and calling.

Regarding character, we prize:

•  commitment to God through a saving relationship with Jesus Christ;

•  respect for all creation;

•  respect for persons as they have been variously created by God;

•  personal freedom and the acceptance of responsibility for the personal and social consequences which result from the exercise of this freedom; and

•  obedience to the teachings of Christ and the apostolic tradition, and to the Spirit of God at work in the life of the individual and the church.

With respect to calling, we embrace:

•  the responsibility of each believer to live a life of full service in and through the church—the Body of Christ;

•  the wholeness of life and our dual obligations to affirm all that is true, good, and beautiful and to exercise stewardship over all of creation;

•  the ethics of love and the responsibility for bringing good news and personal relief to all, with special care for the poor and downtrodden; and

•  the necessity of the indwelling Spirit of God if we expect our lives of ministry and service to have either substance or effectiveness.

Based on our assumptions about reality, knowledge, humanness, and value, Greenville College pursues certain objectives. Our pursuit unifies both spiritual and academic aims, in an effort to minister to the whole person. (top)

Institutional Goals and Objectives

The College has committed itself to education for character and service. Therefore, through our curriculum and co-curriculum, we intend that all graduates:

•  Seek truth. Seek it dynamically, integratively, comprehensively, Biblically, and historically, with discipline and scholarship; and seek meaning in truth through recognition that it proceeds from God.

•  Learn to think critically and creatively. Develop such thinking processes as induction; deduction; problem solving; quantitative reasoning ; intuition; communication; interpretation; aesthetic discernment; creative expression; and perceptive reading, viewing, and listening.

•  Understand and value the wholeness of creation. Integrate knowledge from many areas of study into a comprehensive point of view. Learn to discern truth, goodness, and beauty; take interest in ideas regardless of their immediate utility; and exercise stewardship over one's physical and biological environment.

•  Understand our world. Know the basic content and processes of the physical and biological world, the human race, our civilization, our society, our technological environment, and other cultures.

•  Respect human life and understand the human condition. Recognize humankind's best and worst capacities; affirm persons of all ethnic and racial backgrounds as creative bearers of God's image; respond to and love others, and work for reconciliation.

•  Understand and apply basic social structures and processes. Recognize society's diverse manifestations, develop cultural sensitivity, and communicate effectively and responsibly.

•  Develop self-understanding. Exercise integrity of character, personal expression, and stewardship of self; appreciate the value of one's own physical and psychological well-being; and recognize learning as a life-long process.

•  Value personal accomplishment. Recognize talent as from God and accept responsibility for developing creative skills, demonstrate competence in at least one area of study, learn to make sound judgments, and develop a sense of vocation, which gives meaningful direction to one's life.

Last updated: August 4, 2004