LEARNING
Faith Integration
A Recent Grad Reflects: How CSU Professors Changed Me By Zach Pace ’21
“Christians must recognize that the Bible is fundamentally a book of history. Jesus was an actual person, in an actual place, and what He did constitutes the basis of our faith. We must not lose sight of that.” — Dr. Nathan Martin Associate Professor of History
10 CSU magazine
CSU made me a better reader, writer, and thinker. CSU made me a better reader by simply making me read better books. I didn’t know that there was such a thing as a good or bad book. I just hadn’t put in enough hours reading to know the difference between the two. CSU made me a better thinker by making me a better reader. I didn’t just read for a good mark on my reading quiz; I read to understand the text. The more I read to understand, the better I began to discern the arguments and intent of the author. Once I began to spot the author’s overarching goal and how all the pieces in the book led to that end, I began to see whether the author accomplished their goal and whether I agreed with their conclusion when they were through. CSU made me a better writer by making me a better reader and thinker. The more I was able to engage with complex subjects and understand how different authors came to different conclusions about the same thing, the better I became at choosing which conclusion I would stand with. Once I was able to take a stand upon a particular conclusion, I was able to both argue for my position and argue against opposing viewpoints while using their critiques to refine my view.
Zach Pace
All this came to me, not primarily through learning in my major of choice, but rather through the teaching and guidance of those professors from the College of Christian Studies. I never expected this. In fact, I thought that the professors from the College of Christian Studies would be the most narrow-minded professors at CSU. I thought that they wouldn’t be able to engage with opposing viewpoints, and I certainly didn’t think they would be able to reason objectively.
Fall 2021, vol.31 no.3
