The Christian Foundations of an Engineering Education (original) (raw)
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Christian Worldview and the Engineering Context
2012
Baylor University’s recent commitment to “Vision 2012” has created implied imperatives for the faculty to seek ways of using Christian perspectives to shape classroom instruction and encourage the expression of Christian faith in the intellectual life 1 . Teaching from a Christian worldview is part of the University’s charge and Engineering faculty members are investigating how Christian perspectives might interact with various elements of the engineering curriculum. For example, engineering faculty are exploring avenues that incorporate Christian perspectives into engineering design methodology in such a way as to produce uniquely Christian contributions to the engineering design process, especially in terms of responsible and sustainable design. Central to this incorporation is the development of a methodology that creates and exploits meaningful categories and paradigms that are capable of informing and illuminating engineering practice. One example is the “Creation, Fall, Redemp...
A Christ-centered Dominion Mandate -Reflections on Integration of Faith and Engineering
Proceedings of the 2019 Christian Engineering Conference, 2019
This is the 3rd paper documenting the author’s work on the integration of faith and engineering that began at Geneva College. The other two papers appeared in the proceedings of the CES conferences in 2013 and 2017 (Che, 2013, 2017). This paper starts with a brief review of the dominion mandate as it applies to engineering and analyzes its challenges after men’s fall. Some discussions on sin and its effect on engineering followed. The benefits of God’s common grace and special grace and how these could be applied to engineering are discussed. It was concluded that a Christian higher education is of value to both believers and non-believers. For believers, it is a discerning process of a calling from God that he/she should serve God in the engineering profession. A metaphor from the Old Testament is used to illustrate this calling. For non-believers, it is a gift from God according to His common grace so that men can continue to prosper and flourish in this world. The picture of a Spirit-filled engineer is painted to point to a role model of a Christian engineer. A Christ-centered dominion mandate is proposed that would provide a structure to unite the teachings from both the Old and New Testaments on the integration of faith and engineering.
A Catholic and Marianist Engineering Education
2011
boasts large enrollments of 1,300 undergraduate and 350 graduate students out of a total of 7,000 undergraduates and 3,000 graduate students. It also boasts a faculty very active in research, which, under the umbrella of the University of Dayton Research Institute, is funded at a level of $100 million per year. In our region, we are looked at as one of the premier engineering programs in terms of the quality of the graduates we produce. In the last decade, the University of Dayton has sought to better articulate the impact of its Catholic and Marianist traditions, and faculty have been challenged to embody these traditions. University mission statements and unit strategic plans have also evolved to make better connections. In this context, our paper explores the historical and present connections to these traditions, and then more importantly presents a vision for better integration of them into the education of our students. The visioning really represents an early foray into thinking about greater embodiment of mission into the engineering 59
Theologians with Engineering Degrees: A New Theology School Model Integrating Religion and Science
TALİM: JOURNAL OF EDUCATION IN MUSLIM SOCIETIES AND COMMUNITIES, 2022
The Islamic civilization was more advanced than other civilizations in science and technology in the Middle Ages. By the 16th century, it lagged Western civilization scientifically and politically. Initially, Muslims considered the sciences as holistic and studied the religious and rational sciences together. The exclusion of rational sciences from the curriculum during the spread of madrasahs as higher education institutions was a consequential mistake that led to the decline of science and technology. Contrary to expectations, however, the religious sciencescentered understanding of education did not result in religious progress, and it inadvertently led to bigotry and dogmatism. Theology faculties were established instead of the madrasahs closed in the modern period. The mistake made in madrasahs was not corrected when establishing theology faculties; rational sciences were not added back to the curriculum. Today, besides religious sciences, culture, and formation courses, which are sub-branches of social sciences, are taught in faculties of theology. What needs to be done now is to add rational and experimental sciences to the curriculum in theology faculties. It would be appropriate to include engineering sciences, which are the rational, in theology education. We suggest that this program, which we call theology-engineering dual degree education, should be implemented in a few pilot faculties. The student admissions exam should be based on balanced numerical and verbal science scores. It would be best for the selected faculties of theology to specialize only in students in a dual degree program. We think that students will prefer the dual degree program more than the independent theology program, as it is expected to be a superior program in terms of both job opportunities and scientific and cultural competence. Graduated "engineer theologians" will have higher self-confidence and stronger motivation. In addition, they will look at events more holistically, their problem-solving skills will increase, and they will think more rationally about the issues. This new generation of theologians with more proficiency in the language of science will be accepted more in society as religious officials, teachers, or spiritual advisers. Society will adopt religious values more efficiently and give more support to scientific thinking. Thus, as Muslims, we will be able to reach our goal of realizing "revolutionary inventions" in a shorter time.
Professional Engineering Ethics and Christian Values: Overlapping Magisteria
Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, 2008
College and has taught there for thirteen years. She is a Calvin alumna who obtained a masters degree in manufacturing systems engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University. Her technical specialties are manufacturing systems and machine dynamics. She has written papers on engineering ethics, women in engineering, and Christian perspectives on technology and is a frequent contributor to the biennial Christian Engineering Education Conference. She resides in Hudsonville, MI, with her husband Eric and their three school-age children.
It is no secret that women are under-represented in engineering schools across the U.S. At Christian colleges, this disparity is even higher. Many programs are in place to attempt to increase the number of women engineers. Is this simply a case of political correctness run amok as policy, or do these programs represent a justifiable attempt to correct a serious problem? The evidence, both biblical and psychological, supports that women are as capable as men of doing engineering work. Thus, from a justice standpoint, Christians should be concerned that there are not barriers preventing women from pursuing an engineering career. However, this is not to say that women and men are identical. In fact, women engineers likely would, on average, make different contributions to the field. Both from a moral standpoint and because of the practical benefits, Christians should be eager to embrace the richness that a more diverse workforce would bring to engineering. In 2004, Ermer surveyed the status of women, both nationally and at Christian colleges. This paper presents updated data regarding the status of women (both students and faculty) at Christian engineering schools. New initiatives being tried at one Christian college in an attempt to improve the gender balance are presented. Reasons for the under-representation of women, both anecdotal and scholarly, are discussed. Some practical suggestions are provided for increasing the number of women graduating with engineering degrees.
Pursuing Dialogue Between Theologians and Engineers
2012
Specifying the Distinctions between Theology and Technological DiSCiplines Key to the quest for unifying knowledge is distinguishing between technology and Catholic theology, the primary religion examined at Catholic universities. Defining technological and theological disciplines requires identifying their distinct data, methods, purviews, and limitations. Students should understand that each discipline has its own methods and contents and is not qualified to do the work of the other.
Religious and Political Values and the Engineering Ethos
Steen Hyldgaard Christensen, Martin Meganck, Bernard Delahousse, (eds.), Engineering in Context, pp. 417-434., 2009
In this chapter, I propose to examine the relationship between engineers‟ political views (leanings as well as interest) and some of the issues discussed in the field of engineering ethics. I will also examine the relationship between religious commitment (belief and practice) and such issues. This reflection is based on the findings from a study that included 3901 French graduate engineers2. Although the survey on “Engineers, Science and Society” (ESS) is more relevant in its national context, it contributes to supporting three ideas that are worth considering outside of France: firstly, engineering ethics is neither independent of political persuasion nor of religious values; secondly, there is a need for a more sociologically informed approach to engineering ethics; thirdly, this may have some implications for the teaching of ethics to engineers.
Sustainable and responsible design from a christian worldview
Science and Engineering Ethics, 2004
Many aspects of design require engineers to make choices based on non-quantifiable personal perspectives. These decisions touch issues in aesthetics, ethics, social impact, and responsibility and sustainability. Part of Baylor University’s mission is to provide a learning community in which Christian life values and worldviews might be integrated into academic disciplines. In view of this institutional commitment, members of the Engineering faculty are investigating how Christian worldviews might interact with elements of engineering design in such a way as to produce uniquely Christian insights and inform the non-quantifiable aspects of the engineering process.
Clerico-Engineering: An Introduction
The political ascendency of Shi‘i clerics in the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian Revolution coincided with the national prominence of engineers and engineering schools. Together with the Islamic revolutionary commitment to the building of a divinely inspired society, the operational concepts from the field of engineering provided the foundation for an epistemic shift from an organic and curative to a synthetic and constructional conception of politics, religion, and culture. As a result of this shift, the rhetoric of engineering became increasingly hegemonic, influencing the conceptualization, description, and explanation of religion and politics in postrevolutionary Iran. As this essay argues, this is indicative of an ongoing figurative transformation of Persian- Islamic political language, which since the late nineteenth century had been informed by tropes stemming from the medical sciences.