BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

It is a legacy of modernity to believe that the pathway divides between the uncompromised pursuit of intellectual excellence and intense faithfulness to the Christian tradition. Many universities and colleges, founded in the eighteenth or nineteenth century by devout men and women for the service of the church and the world in the name of Christ, later turned down the secular fork of this imaginary path. Accepting the same premise of the divided way, many Christian colleges have chosen insularity and self-protective intellectual mediocrity as the way to preserve their Christian vitality. But the idea that faith and learning are mutually exclusive has a weaker grip today than it had during most of the last century, and we at Baylor believe that that fork in the path is indeed a figment of the modern imagination. We believe that the highest intellectual excellence is fully compatible with orthodox Christian devotion. Indeed, the two are not only compatible, but mutually reinforcing. Christian faith, at its best, motivates a love of all truth; and true knowledge supports and deepens our love of God in Jesus Christ. This is, at any rate, the undivided way and ancient premise on which Baylor ventures into the next ten years of our exciting history.

To do well those things that are right suggests a course of action that is both excellent and faithful. "Excellence" is often a modern mantra divorced from ethical and moral content. We will seek, however, the achievement of worthy goals. It is precisely faithfulness to the spiritual and religious content of our Christian heritage which drives us to pursue excellence in all matters essential to our mission as both an academic community and as an institution of higher learning.

Because we believe that truth is open to inquiry and that human beings have obligations both to human communities and to nature, Baylor University supports academic programs and research that add to the sum of human knowledge and that apply knowledge to the technological, scientific, and cultural advancement of society.

Because we believe that human beings are part of nature yet have been given responsibility as stewards of it, Baylor University supports academic programs that investigate the natural world, increase understanding of the symbiotic relationship between human beings and the natural world, and protect the environment by encouraging good stewardship of natural resources.

Because we believe that we have responsibility to care for our health and well-being and that of others, Baylor University supports academic and extracurricular programs which seek to promote human physical, mental, and spiritual health.

Because we believe that individuals have moral and ethical obligations to communities, Baylor University supports academic programs that recognize the importance of human institutions, promote an understanding of and responsible participation in economic and social systems, foster citizenship, enhance community, and encourage service. The integration of these themes throughout our academic programs reflects the mission through which Baylor can profoundly affect the world. The heritage, foundational assumptions, core convictions and themes that reflect Baylor’s academic and community mission and define Baylor’s role in higher education will play a decisive role in shaping the lives of students, hiring faculty, determining the priorities for academic programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels and in the professional schools, directing faculty research, and allocating resources.

Baylor University is honored to be able to identify with the University of Gloucestershire, Redeemer University College and Bible Society in supporting the Scripture and Hermeneutics Project as North American partner. As a university community with 158 years of commitment to Christian higher education and the largest Baptist University in the world, we are deeply interested in the kinds of issues the Scripture and Hermeneutics Project pursues. In particular we are grateful to the larger community of scholars whose purpose it is to situate the study of Scripture firmly in relationship to the intellectual life of a wide range of academic disciplines.