Last April, the trustees of Union University affirmed and adopted a document titled A Framework for Biblical Anthropology. This was the culmination of about two years of work, growing out of our university’s strategic plan (Protinus) and led by a few faculty members in our School of Theology and Missions, eventually involving all employees of Union. As you are well aware, the hot button issues of our day all revolve around what it means to be human, so we wanted to develop a document that would help us frame and discuss these issues in light of Scriptures’ teaching. All of life and learning is established on the Word of God, so we wanted a document that would summarize what the Bible teaches to help us submit our ideas and every academic discipline to the Lordship of Christ. This is what we understand true integration of faith and learning to be.
As a university our mission is very comprehensive, so we wanted to speak to Nursing, Pharmacy, Chemistry, Business, Engineering, the Arts, etc. We need to be able to think comprehensively on these matters in order to be of benefit to Church and society.
Our goal is for this document to provide clarity and guidance for our institution, for interested students and families, and for churches and other institutions. This document puts a stake in the ground for Union to make explicit where we stand. People should not have to guess about a Christian university’s fundamental guiding beliefs. This document also serves as a guide and teaching tool as classes and groups of students consider significant questions about who we are and what it means to flourish under God’s Word. Professors are already considering ways this framework can be used within their classes. We hope that when students wrestle with challenging questions, even outside of class, they will look to this framework as a resource to guide them.
As a Christian university we are focused on discipleship, pursuing for our students and ourselves growth in Christlikeness mentally, physically, and socially. Sadly, as Carl Trueman has noted, too many of our institutions have ceased “to be places for the formation of individuals via their schooling in the various practices and disciplines that allow them to take their place in society. Instead, they become platforms for performance, where individuals are allowed to be their authentic selves precisely because they are able to give expression to who they are ‘inside.’”[1] At Union, we do not want to give in to this cultural slide but rather to resist this deformation, providing robust formation assisting churches and families in raising up new generations of faithful disciples who think rigorously, work diligently, love faithfully, and act Christianly.
We also developed this Framework with the hope that it would aid churches. Christian colleges have a responsibility to serve the church. Christ has only one Bride— the local church— and universities, at our best, are handmaidens to the Bride. Churches have been contacting us asking for help and for resources dealing with the onslaught of challenges to biblical ideas regarding sexual identity and expression. This statement is intended to be a resource, and we are encouraged to hear of churches already using this framework as a teaching tool in various settings from their Wednesday night gatherings to small group studies. Some pastors have asked if their church could simply adopt the framework as a guiding statement. We are happy for churches to do that if it is helpful.
We also hope this framework will be helpful to other institutions, including ministries, non-profits, and other universities or schools, whether they choose to adopt this statement or to use it as a springboard to speak more directly to their own specific issues.
We have appreciated previous evangelical statements like the Danvers Statement and the Nashville Statement, with one of us (Oliver) being an original signer of the Nashville Statement. We have made use of both of these statements and will continue to do so. Our Framework simply seeks to address more foundational issues about anthropology to speak to broader questions in a way that resonates with those previous statements. Seeking to summarize the teaching of the Bible on what it means to be human, we essentially followed the flow of the first three chapters of Genesis and arranged things in these 10 topics:
- Created by God
- Bearing the Image of God
- Created as Physical and Spiritual Beings
- Created Male and Female
- Designed for Procreation
- Given Dominion over the Earth
- Made for Communion with God
- Created as Individuals for Community
- Fallen
- Restored in Christ
In these categories we address issues regarding sex, identity, race, sanctity of life, transgenderism, transhumanism, disability, and others, all framed within God’s good design, our rebellion in the Fall, and God’s gracious redemption in Christ. Of course, we could not exhaustively address these issues, but our goal was to summarize the Biblical teaching, drawing out key implications as a foundation for faithful engagement of these issues. It is by no means a final word, but we hope it is a faithful guide.
It is our prayer that it will be helpful to the people of God, useful in service to Church and society.
[1] Carl Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self (Crossway, 2020), 49.
Ray Van Neste has served at Union University since 2001 and also served as a visiting lecturer 1997-98. He serves as Vice President for University Ministries, Dean of the School of theology and missions and Professor of Biblical Studies. He has published books and scholarly essays on topics such as biblical studies, pastoral ministry, and church history. An ordained minister, Ray preaches and teaches regularly in local churches and has served in pastoral or other staff roles in Baptist congregations in Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Scotland.
Dr. Samuel Oliver has been the president of Union University since 2014. A native of San Antonio, Texas, Oliver completed a Bachelor of Science degree in education from Baylor University and a Master of Science degree in educational psychology and a Doctor of Philosophy in educational administration from Texas A&M. He previously served as president of East Texas Baptist University and in a variety of positions at Baylor, including director of student activities, associate dean for campus life, dean for student development and vice president for student life. While at Baylor, Oliver also served as a visiting professor in the Hankamer School of Business, an adjunct professor in the School of Education and interim university chaplain. He served in the U.S. Air Force in the late 1980s at Carswell Air Force Base in Texas.