The Christian Foundations of an Engineering Education (original) (raw)

Christian faith is to be like yeast in bread dough, permeating every part of a life. Therefore, it naturally also shapes the teaching, learning, and practice of engineering for Christian engineers. A Christian worldview will influence an engineer, whether or not it is acknowledged. Within a Christian engineering education, it is useful to explicitly delineate some of the ways that faith can and should influence engineering thought and practice. This paper presents some principles upon which a Christian engineering education should be based: 1. Engineers construct models in an attempt to study the mechanisms and systems under which God’s creation operates. 2. A Christian engineering education must shape the character as well as the mind. 3. In order to be effective kingdom servants, Christian engineers must learn professionalism. 4. Redemptive work is needed within the field of engineering. However, even if the ideals are agreed upon, it is not always obvious how to achieve these goals in education. Some practical methods for how to incorporate Christian faith into education, in a yeast-like manner, are presented. While these are developed with a Christian liberal arts college in mind, many of the concepts could be relevant to an educator at a secular school.