I’m an unapologetic advocate of a traditional liberal arts education. Unfortunately, the liberal arts have been in decline in American higher education for the better part of a century. Though most schools maintain some sort of core curriculum that is common to all undergraduates, the degree to which these core classes reflect a true liberal education varies widely from school to school. This is why we need Gene Fant.

Fant, who serves as executive vice president for academic administration at Union University, has written a very helpful short volume that seeks to reintroduce students (and professors) to the importance of the liberal arts. The Liberal Arts: A Student’s Guide (Crossway, 2012) is one of several recent entries in Crossway’s excellent Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition series, edited by David Dockery. Other volumes in the series include an introductory volume and short introductions to philosophy, political thought, literature, and biblical and theological studies.  In the Series Preface, Dockery argues that these books are a valuable asset to Christian students and others who are associated with higher education:

The Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition series is designed to provide an overview for the distinctive way the church has read the Bible, formulated doctrine, provided education, and engaged the culture. The contributors to this series all agree that personal faith and genuine Christian piety are essential for the life of Christ followers and for the church. These contributors also believe that helping others recognize the importance of serious thinking about God, Scripture, and the world needs a renewed emphasis at this time in order that the truth claims of the Christian faith can be passed along from one generation to the next. The study guides in this series will enable us to see afresh how the Christian faith shapes how we live, how we think, how we write books, how we govern society, and how we relate to one another in our churches and social structures. The richness of the Christian intellectual tradition provides guidance for the complex challenges that believers face in this world (p. 13).

In his volume, Fant argues that knowledge of the liberal arts informed by a distinctively Christian worldview glorifies the Lord and equips believers for Christ-centered thinking and living. This is an important point to make, especially in an evangelical subculture that is often suspicious of a broad education. Along the way, Fant discusses a biblical view of wisdom, explains the Christian roots of liberal arts education, grounds several of the classical disciplines in a Christian understanding of general revelation (even math!), and engages various challenges to liberal arts education.

One of the characteristics of this volume that I most appreciate is it’s theological acuity. While one could legitimately make the case for the liberal arts based on natural law reasoning, Fant is quick to ground his case in the Scriptures. Rather than arguing for the liberal disciplines as ends unto themselves, he argues for a christocentric account of the liberal arts that sees acknowledgement of Christ’s lordship over all things and love for God and neighbor as central to authentic education. Rather than arguing that the liberal arts help to ensure the preservation of much of Western Culture (which is surely true), he challenges readers to see the liberal arts as a global conversation for globally minded Christians. As a professor at a self-confessed “Great Commission Seminary,” I appreciate this globally conscious approach to the liberal arts.

(On a lighter note, this is surely the first book I’ve ever read that uses the word “fulsome” more than once. In fact, Fant uses the word seven times in a hair over one hundred pages. Whether this constitutes a fulsome use of this term is up to the interpretation of the reader. Perhaps Fant, ever the English professor, has done this deliberately so as to encourage a revival of the word “fulsome” in everyday discourse. Doesn’t that sounds like something an English professor would do?)

The Liberal Arts: A Student’s Guide is an excellent resource for any Christian age 16 or older who is or plans to attend a college or university. It is also an indispensable resource for professors who teach in an undergraduate setting. Finally, it’s even a very helpful tool for those of us who primarily teach graduate students because it reminds us that our own unique disciplines (like church history and historical theology) are actually one part of what ought to be a Christ-centered, intentionally integrated whole. Highly recommended.