Gutenberg College

Gutenberg College Summary

Gutenberg College in Eugene, Oregon, is a private, four-year, great books college providing a broad-based liberal arts education in a Protestant Christian environment. Gutenberg’s willingness to relate the ideas presented by the great books authors to the biblical worldview sets it apart from other such colleges. Gutenberg College is a candidate for accreditation by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools, an accrediting organization recognized by the Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. The Gutenberg College undergraduate program is the culmination of more than twenty years of thought and experience by the teachers of McKenzie Study Center, founded in 1979 as a Christian ministry to Eugene-area college students. Thus, Gutenberg College was born—a classical, Great-Books college that seeks to foster a love for learning and a desire to follow the truth wherever it leads. In an age when higher education is being thought of more and more as job training, why does Gutenberg College emphasize the liberal arts in the unique way that it does? Education must be both objective and personal What follows is an explanation of how each of these assumptions plays a part in the education offered at Gutenberg College. Education at Gutenberg College hearkens back to an earlier and more universal understanding: preparation to live a good life. Gutenberg seeks to develop in each student the skills of reading difficult material with understanding, writing clearly and persuasively, and thinking critically. By teaching basic learning skills, Gutenberg College seeks to make students lifelong learners who are capable of dealing with a rapidly changing world. A liberal arts college like Gutenberg, however, does not seek to impart the highly focused knowledge of the specialist. Gutenberg’s distinctive education encourages students to build a coherent and accurate worldview, to pursue a knowledge of the purpose and nature of human existence and how that relates to God. Gutenberg College resists the notion that the benefit of education is merely or even primarily financial. As discussed above, the goals of the liberal arts education at Gutenberg College are a broad base of knowledge, a sharpened set of learning skills, and a more accurate and coherent worldview. The liberal arts education at Gutenberg College is exactly designed to foster such qualities. Even more importantly, however, the combination of knowledge, skill, and wisdom that Gutenberg College seeks to foster has the power to benefit the student’s entire life. Gutenberg College seeks to recognize both the objective nature of truth and the subjective nature of learning. In the process, the Gutenberg College faculty encourage students to pursue truth and reason wherever they might lead. This recognition of the personal, subjective nature of true learning has led to two important aspects of the Gutenberg experience: First, while the Gutenberg College faculty are committed advocates of a biblical worldview, believing the Bible to be the inspired and inerrant word of God, they are also firmly convinced that developing a sound and healthy worldview requires a non-coercive educational environment. Agreeing with Socrates, the faculty at Gutenberg College believe that learning, like most skills, is best accomplished by doing. By interacting with Gutenberg students, the site-visitation team successfully grasped and communicated to TRACS what Gutenberg offers its students; Following is TRACS’ official statement regarding Gutenberg College: Effective January 1, 2004, Gutenberg College is a member of the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) , having been awarded Candidate status as a Category II institution by the TRACS Accreditation Commission on November 9, 2004; Following is a selection from the TRACS site-visitation team’s report to the TRACS Accreditation Commission: Gutenberg College’s unique combination of a Great Books curriculum, Socratic pedagogy, intimate community environment, and deep commitment to character development within a family-like setting were designed to offer a Christian undergraduate education quite distinct from the institutional paradigm dominant in American higher education. We have made every effort to understand Gutenberg College on its own terms, in light of its Self-Study, interview with Board members, administrators, the faculty, the students, and a careful review of the College’s documents. Thankfully, a tree is known by its fruit, and so the students have shown us the fruit of the Gutenberg approach to undergraduate education. The Team has tried to represent the College fairly and accurately in this report and encourages the Accrediting Commission to recognize the distinctive and non-traditional nature of Gutenberg College in its deliberations of its application for candidacy.” Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) Site Team Report, July 2004 There must be an indication that the prospective student is motivated to actively engage the Gutenberg College program is the most important consideration. The prospective student must be mature and ready to interact with the deeply personal Gutenberg College program. At Gutenberg College, building a biblical worldview does not mean providing students with simplistic answers to the difficult questions that life, circumstances, and people bring one’s way. Therefore, Gutenberg approaches developing a biblical worldview by taking students on a four-year quest for Truth, encouraging them to honestly confront the big questions of life raised by great minds and then to consider how the answers correspond to the biblical authors’ perspectives on related concerns. Because the staff and faculty of Gutenberg College are committed to creating an environment conducive to students learning to make adult decisions on their own, what the Residence Program requires—and does not require—of students has been carefully considered. The tutors of Gutenberg College do not view themselves as people who have mastered the art of learning, but as more advanced students who can give helpful direction to those who are as yet less skilled. McKenzie Study Center McKenzie Study Center (MSC), the biblical-studies institute of Gutenberg College, is a Christian ministry to college students and the community at large that seeks to promote an accurate understanding of the Bible’s teaching, conformity to that truth, and uncompromised commitment to biblical Christianity as a philosophy of life. Mckenzie Study Center Art Project Art Project, the arts institute of Gutenberg College, exists (1) to promote an understanding of the biblical worldview among those whose encounter with the arts has raised personal and vocational questions and (2) to encourage artists to pursue their art-making in a manner that embodies the biblical vision of life. The role of Art Project in the life of Gutenberg College is threefold: to provide Gutenberg College students with extracurricular activities to help them grow in their understanding and appreciation of the arts, to sponsor art events as a way to serve the larger community and raise public awareness of Gutenberg College and its institutes, and…

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