Why Theological Integration

Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy is intentional about being academically excellent as well as Christ centered in all we do.  In order to do this thoroughly, we challenge our students to think about all disciplines and subjects through the lens of a thoughtful Christian worldview.  To achieve this, our students must have a general understanding of the Bible, Church history, theology, and Christian spirituality.  They must also be forced to consider connections between these fields of knowledge and their other academic disciplines—because in a secular age, that type of thinking does not come naturally.  The key to this endeavor is properly training our faculty in what we refer to as Theological Integration. 

Theological Integration is the process by which our teachers guide students to consider how thinking in a “Christ-centered” way should affect all areas of study and learning. Most Christian schools refer to this process as “Biblical integration” and the term was coined by Frank E. Gaebelein, the founding Headmaster of The Stony Brook School, in the first half of the 20^th century. His work is foundational for the Christian school movement in America. But as we began training teachers toward an integration of faith and learning, we decided that a new term would be more accurate and useful in our multidenominational independent school context. Let me explain.  

To begin, it must be emphasized that as an institution, we hold to a high view of Scripture.  The first article in our Statement of Faith reads, “We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.”  Therefore, the Bible shapes the way we think about theology and all of life.  For this reason, we work diligently and humbly to exegete the Bible to understand key principles inherent in its teachings (“biblical principles”).  The difficulty in this process though is that mining key principles from a complex book that was written millennia ago in a multitude of cultures and numerous languages is no easy, straightforward task.  Furthermore, our school is made up of over 160 different churches, and while there are many “biblical principles” that we all agree on, others are rooted in denominational understandings and sectarian theological readings.  This is why we are careful to use the language of “Theological Integration” rather than the older term, “Biblical Integration” for how we attempt to enrich our curriculum theologically.  In a multidenominational school, certain sectarian or denominational interpretations should not be given priority by teachers based on their personal interpretations or given preference in their curricula. Therefore as a school, we focus on five key theological “Big Ideas” that historical orthodox Christians have believed from the Early Church until the present. For our theological “Big Ideas” we’ve used the language from Cornelius Plantinga’s Engaging God’s World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living, our theological primer for faculty.  These “big ideas” are 1) all humans have a longing and hope for something greater, 2) God is Creator, 3) because of the Fall, all creation is marred by sin, 4) Jesus redeems creation through His life, death, and resurrection, which leads to the process of God making all things new, and 5) we can be a part of God’s restoration through our vocation.

As our teachers engage students in their classes, no matter the grade level or subject area, the expectation is for them to find connections where their curriculum intersects with these five theological big ideas.  The way teachers can naturally connect their material with our big ideas is by using “theological essential questions.” For those not familiar with the vernacular of the curriculum design model Understanding by Design, essential questions are open-ended, thought-provoking questions that gets to the heart of a discipline; they do not have simple objective answers and can continually be reconsidered throughout the life of a learner at different developmental levels; they require students to reflect on their knowledge and synthesize it with other areas of knowledge and learning.  And when we ask theological essential questions, students are forced to think deeply about how 1) human hope and longing, 2) God as creator, 3) the Fall, 4) Christ’s redemption, and 5) the ability for us to engage in God’s work of bringing shalom to the world are brought to bear on all subject matter. Through this process of theological integration, we seek to make all of our students, from PK-2 to graduating seniors, continually contemplate how we engage God’s world and explore the mystery of how Christ is in all, through all, and holds all things together. Of course the sophistication of how a kindergartener and a high school student processes these ideas is different for obvious reasons. But we believe that this methodology fosters an environment where our students grow intellectually and in spiritual development in a way that fosters faith without indoctrination.  We often say that we want our students to leave our institution not simply knowing Bible facts or theological postulates but “owning” their own faith. 

As a school we have embarked on a course of professional development with our faculty for the next two years to go even deeper in theological integration through intentional faculty/staff learning communities. We are excited to see the effect on the entire school community through this journey together.