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Classical Christian College Education(s)

Two classical Christian colleges are at philosophical odds.
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New Saint Andrews College, the original classical Christian college in Moscow, Idaho, has been forgotten within the media hype surrounding Patrick Henry College - a more recently established classical Christian college in Virginia.

It seems that the two colleges are at odds. Patrick Henry College might be on a "mission to save America," to quote the title of Hanna Rosin's new book profiling the school, but according to a quote in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine from Doug Wilson - NSA's founder - New Saint Andrews is "trying to save civilization."

According the writer of the New York Times Magazine story, Molly Worthen - who is writing a book about evangelical intellectual life - NSA is outspoken about differentiating itself from their classical higher-ed counterpart:

When you ask teachers and students what sort of school New St. Andrews is, they often cite one school they are not: Patrick Henry College, the evangelical college in Purcellville, Va., with a reputation for training home-schooled Christian students to wrest the reins of power from "secular humanists" in Washington. "We believe in a much longer view," says Joshua Appel, a professor at New St. Andrews.

And again:

[NSA's] curriculum is a "reformation in higher education," says Roy Atwood, the college president. "The last thing we wanted to be was a Liberty University or a Patrick Henry. We are not interested in political takeover." Patrick Henry - which requires classical core classes and offers a major in classical liberal arts as well as more political fields - hemorrhaged faculty and students a year ago as a debate over academic freedom and the role of the liberal arts in Christian education divided the campus. "I wonder if the N.S.A. people are right," says G. T. Smith, a philosophy professor who left Patrick Henry after the turmoil.

Is this rivalry just another example of what should be like-minded partnering but instead is a divisive "We are right. You are wrong." mentality?

March
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