Is 'n Christelike universiteit moontlik?

Abstract

The question regarding, the nature o f a truly Christian University is addressed in this article. It is argued that such a university should develop a clear-cut concept of Christian scholarship (in the widest sense o f the term). Christian scholarship is not ‘derivect from the Bible or from any theology, hut founded in a radical Christian-philosophical view of reality and knowledge. A truly Christian university has the duly to work within and further develop such a Christian-cosmological and Christian-epistemological paradigm, and to point out and elaborate its relevance fo r the various sciences. If this is not done, scholars will, under the guise o f the Christian faith, unconsciously assume presuppositions of either a secular-humanistic, or a scholastic, or a biblicislic-fundamentalist nature. It is pointed out that the foundational questions concerning the various special sciences are necessarily of a philosophical nature, and that, if one wants to practise science on a Christian basis, one's philosophical paradigm has to be fully attuned to on e ’s Christian life and world view. For the time being, the author prefers the Reformational philosophy developed along the lines of Dooyeweerd, Vollenhoven, and Stoker, not because it is the best but because it is the only radical Christian, encompassing cosmology and epistemology available. The author makes this choice fully aware of the fact that this philosophy is, like all scientific theories, nothing but a fallible and preliminary construct, and that Christian scholarship vim not begun, or did not become possible, only with Dooyeweerd c.s.. The necessity of a radical Christian philosophy is based upon the presupposition that all human activity is founded in a ground-motif, and that the latter is necessarily of a religious nature.