| Berea
College has a particular Christian self-understanding that makes
it stand apart from most other schools that call themselves “Christian.” First,
Berea College’s founder argued that the Christian
gospel could be described best by the phrase“
impartial love” that welcomed students and staff from“
every clime and every nation” to study and to work
together. Second, Berea College was founded prior
to the Civil War in the 1850s as an abolitionist college
that welcomed black and white men and women
students in a day when such equality was not
supported in most Christian communities in Kentucky
and much of the United States. Third, from their beginning the Berea
schools were never associated with any denomination or sectarian
Christian church.
Finally, Berea College was rooted in a Christian
spirituality that was egalitarian, socially provocative,
and focused on serving the black and white students
and communities of Appalachia and beyond.
John G. Fee founded Berea
College out of
convictions about education and about humanity that
were rooted deeply in the Gospel of the New
Testament. The heart of the Christian gospel for Fee
was summed up in the two great commandments
enunciated by Jesus: “You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart and soul and mind….and you
shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:37-40).
Another biblical text that expressed the heart of the
gospel for Fee and the Berea College community was
the statement of the apostle Paul, “God has made of
one blood all peoples of the earth” (Acts 17:26)—a
text that has stood as Berea’s motto for more than a
one hundred and twenty-five years. Together, these
and other such inclusive scriptural texts constituted
what Fee understood as “the gospel of impartial love” which
guided and challenged the earliest Berea community and still does
today.
One instance of Berea’s current Christian selfunderstanding
is the preamble to the Great
Commitments that says, “Adherence to the College’s
scriptural foundation, ‘God has made of one blood
all peoples of the earth,’ shapes the College’s culture
and programs so that students and staff alike can
work toward both personal goals and a vision of a
world shaped by Christian values, such as the power
of love over hate, human dignity and equality, and
peace with justice.” From Berea College’s beginning
to the present day, it has welcomed “all peoples of
the earth” with a hospitality that is inclusive. Currently,
the College is made up of students and staff from
many religious traditions and of no religious tradition
who accept Berea’s Great Commitments.
As a way of providing an overview of Berea
College’s history and Christian self-understanding,
the following nine points provide guideposts for
prospective students, staff, donors, and friends of
the College1:
Berea College was chartered in 1859 by an
independent, non-sectarian Christian community
founded in 1853. John Fee and the Berea
community were explicitly anti-sectarian. -
Berea College is and always
has been a college, not a church. While founded in the nineteenth
century as a college “distinctly Christian” (Fee),
it has never conceived its Christian identity in
any ecclesiastical or sectarian sense, such as a “church-related
college” or as a “Bible college” or as many of the contemporary “Christian
colleges” might define themselves.
-
Berea College’s Christian identity is rooted in the
founders’ “gospel of impartial love,” an expression
of the biblical commandments to love God and
to love neighbor as self, and in their commitment
to live out this “gospel” in a practical way
through lives of service to others. Throughout its
history the Berea College community has sought
to put these ideals into practice.
-
The “gospel of impartial love” and the motive of
service to others that grows out of it have always
been understood as a work in progress, an
ongoing challenge, an aspiration with notable
achievements and unfinished business. Each
generation of Bereans has struggled to understand
for itself what it means to be “Christian” in the
context of this gospel and motive of service. This
is true for our Berea College community today.
-
We understand Berea’s Christianity to be inclusive.
In this we are following the example of John Fee
who, in the spirit of hospitality, welcomed
persons “from every nation and clime” (Fee).
Extending this historical tradition, Berea College
welcomes all who accept Berea College’s core
values of impartial love and service to others,
whatever their culture, faith or philosophy.
-
Out of this Christian
self-understanding and a deep commitment to the liberal
arts, Berea College has pledged in its Great Commitments
to educate its students about the many literary,
historical, and contemporary expressions of
Christian faith, ethic, and motive of service
through its curriculum, convocation programs,
worship services, and other means.
-
Out of this same Christian
and liberal arts identity and by like means, Berea College
has committed
itself to fostering social justice and equality for
all men and women, especially for those in the
African-American and Appalachian communities.
-
The Preamble to
Berea’s Great Commitments begins, “Berea
College, founded by ardent abolitionists and radical reformers,
continues today as an educational institution still firmly
rooted in its historic purpose ‘to promote the
cause of Christ.’ ” The question arises, “Does
one have to be a Christian to promote the cause of Christ?” Berea’s
historical record says no (W.J. Hutchins, 1929; F.S. Hutchins,
1943). Throughout
its history, Bereans have encouraged and
challenged one another, whatever their personal
faith or philosophy, to commit themselves to a
cause that is consonant with Berea’s core values
now expressed in its Great Commitments, and
which its Christian members might express as
the cause of Christ.
-
To be Christian and welcoming to all is Berea
College’s tradition. We must acknowledge that,
while Berea College is a diverse community,
many if not most of those who learn and work
at Berea College identify themselves as Christians.
Yet even Christians here do not share a common
understanding of what that designation means. Berea College strives
to be a place where
people with various Christian interpretations,
different religious traditions, and no religious
tradition work together in support of Berea’s
Great Commitments.
Over the past century, various leaders of the
College have applied the College’s inclusive scriptural
foundation and spirit to their expanding world and
welcomed those whose beliefs were consistent with
the Christian gospel of impartial love. Therefore,
Berea College today affirms its inclusive Christian
tradition even as it respects the traditions of Jews,
Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus as well as other
world faiths. Bereans have always struggled to
express this inclusive Christian tradition in the midst
of divergent views. We will not ignore our differences,
but rather seek to understand each other honestly
and respectfully, and together create a climate where
anyone can openly discuss what they believe without
fear of sanction. To that end, all persons who are
willing to share in the spirit and the work of the Great Commitments
as shaped by its preamble are welcome
to study, to teach, and to work at Berea College.
Adopted by the General Faculty on March 14, 2002
Adopted by the Board of Trustees on May 11, 2002
1 These points are articulated
more fully in a paper, “Berea
College’s
Christian Vocation and Self-Understanding: A
Tradition of Inclusion and Spirited Debate,” May 22, 2000.
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