Jón Bjarnason Academy - 01.05.1931, Blaðsíða 27

will deal with the universe as a whole and not with isolated
and unrelated fragments of knowledge, while the Church will
take its store of knowledge to enrich her own and ever deep-
ening experience.
The whole world is seeking, with eager hearts for the
fruits of our science and our education. To give it education
without religion is to work ruin, and it is the first task of the
Church to so reach so-called Christian lands that all our edu-
cation may be religious education and lead up ever more fully
to life in God. When such education is exported to non-
Christian lands, it will give to them the secret of whatever is
great in our civilization and release for future enrichment
whatever is good in theirs.
Many different attempts are being made to bring religion
into the life of our Universities. The Student Christian Move-
ment and the Y.M.C.A. have organized study groups in differ-
ent University centres. While these have been helpful to
large numbers of students, they do not carry the full force of
the life of the Church into the University and are looked upon
as another extra curricular activity for a select few, by a great
majority of the students.
In recent years Chicago University and Yale University have
followed the example of many of the older Universities by
establishing beautiful chapels on their respective campuses,
presided over by men of recognized scholarship and gifts of
leadership. While this is helpful and is bound to have far-
reaching influence, these chapels and their ministers are not
integrated into the daily life of the student and so can only
make a limited contribution.
At least one Canadian Church has followed the habit of
establishing a Theological College with a large residence, on
every University campus. This gives visibility to Theology as
a faculty of the University, but reaches only part of the students
of that denomination.
The most comjnon practise, especially in the United
States, is to establish Preparatory Schools and Arts Colleges
under distinctly Church control. In such an institute religious
education can become an integral part of the curriculum and
what is still better every part of the curriculum can be in-
tegrated with the life of the Church which is represented.
Where the staff is carefully selected and consists of men
of sound scholarship and a deep religious life, men -who win
the respect and affection of their students, a still greater ser-
vice can be performed; young people can be tided over the
difficult period of adolescence and expanding knowledge with-
out the loss of a real religious experience or a dimming of their
childhood’s faith.
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