While striving to meet the challenge of being a Christian professor at MVNC, I recall that the greatest patterns of Christ's nature in my own college experiences were found in the day by day lives of my professors at Eastern Nazarene College. I sang in the Wollaston Church's choir with my Spanish teacher, Kathryn McConnell, and attended a Sunday School class taught by a maintenance staff member, Rev. Saunders. One of my most vivid memories is Dr. Ruth Cameron pausing before the beginning of class to pray especially for me when she sensed that I was going through a particularly difficult time. It is this kind of day in, day out, lifestyle among teachers which I feel presents to students the true integration of Christian faith with the profession of learning.

Thus, when students comment that they enjoyed my, their English teacher's, song leading at Lakeholm's Wednesday service, or saw me with my wife doing an instrumental duet in chapel, or--most importantly--felt free before opening prayer in class to share a special need, I have hope that I am following the example set for me back at ENC. I want them to know that even above being a scholar of literature and writing, I am a follower of Christ.

Of course with that basic truth implanted within my students' minds, I feel a responsibility that my pursuit of a Christ-life life must translate into giving my utmost in every aspect of my profession, Knowing what I claim, my students have the highest expectations concerning my commitment to their spiritual and collegiate welfare. They have the right to expect information, evaluation and guidance given in the spirit of God's wholeness. Thus, from class preparation to material presentation, and from student interaction to student evaluation, I try to achieve all within the frame of ethical love.

Furthermore I am blessed to be working within a field which offers a wide opportunity to include and examine the claims of Christianity while presenting my discipline. When he visited us, OS Guiness said that Francis A. Schaeffer, the Christian apologist, had once told him that if he could have done it all over again he would have been a literature teacher since the study of literature offers such a wide range of ways to examine God's truths.

Certainly I have found this to be true. Some works are overtly Christian such as Paradise Lost or Pilgrim's Progress. However, when teaching Introduction to Literature [ENG 173] my students analyze the great themes of human life which are repeatedly treated in literature: the cause of human isolation (Hamlet and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"), the stress between men and women (Taming of the Shrew, and "The Wife of Bath"), the cause and continuance of war, (The Red Badge of Courage and "The War Prayer"), and the ultimate mystery behind the nature of death (A Grief Observed and In Memoriam). So central are these questions to our faith that keeping the Word of God out of class discussion would be nearly impossible. God's claims and His Word spring up in class discussions concerning works including those above with little prompting from me, but of course because Jesus is central to my thinking, His claims are an integrated part of my presentation notes.

Introduction to Literature: Lit of the Fantastic Literature [ENG 173] follows similar lines while emphasizing that Fantasy and Science Fiction allow truths to be presented while sneaking around the automatic defenses which Schaeffer lamented. C.S. Lewis' motivation behind writing the Narnia novels was to get around such "sleeping dragons." What I have found as a professor is that even among my students, there are dragons within their hearts which do not recognize they are being ministered to while reading a good book.

Along with such themes, Masterpieces of World Literature [ENG293G] allows me to present the universal truths of ancient writers while also showing their hearts' desires for the complete truths found in Christ. In Metamorphoses, for example, Ovid in his doubt wishes for a great god who would love mankind.

The Novel [ENG353G] examines a genre which by its breath is able to illustrate and analyze the human condition, and for the Christian scholar offers innumerable opportunities to point students towards the truths of Christianity. The Christian theme of loss and reclamation, for example, is pursued all through Charles Dickens' David Copperfield emphasized by his use of Christian images or typology. And even when a work is not written by a Christian nor portrays a Christian life-style, such as Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the honesty of the author which made him or her great will often show the desperate nature of human sin. When analyzing Hemingway's For Whom the Bells Tolls (a work featured in Contemporary Literature [ENG203G]) and the complete despair of the war scarred hero, I as a Christian teacher have the opportunity to point out that what is true for Hemingway need not be the truth for believers.

Thus literature offers innumerable opportunities to integrate my faith with my class presentations. However, it is not only literature which allows for such opportunities. The art and process of writing, the thinking out of issues and presenting them in a reasonable format has proven to be easily integrated with concerns of faith because Christianity thrives within the thoughtfulness of its believers.

In Expository Writing [ENG143G] students are faced with a number of important issues within American culture about which they are challenged to think and write. My text, Living in the USA, offers a wide selection of insightful readings on the problems of homelessness, gender roles, the effects of media, and racism although the writers rarely include the Christian perspective. Of course the Christian perspective comes up in class but is augmented by the evangelical author Tony Campolo in his collection 20 Hot Potatoes Christians are Afraid to Touch. Some of the topics my students write on are the role of women in today's church, how should Christians allow their children to be educated, and in what way might American culture block what is God's best in one's life?

Meanwhile in Creative Writing [ENG323] students struggle with the concept of the freedom of art along with the challenge of glorifying God in all art. What, we ask, is meant by a Christian artist? Are there times when a Christian artist must offend his or her culture? And to what audience should Christians be writing?

These are just a few of the opportunities I have found while serving here at MVNC to incorporate my faith with my discipline. The freedom to do so, the exultation to present to students the "best that has been thought or said" within the context of Christian higher learning is the central joy of my work here at Mount Vernon Nazarene College.