'Great books' college takes unique approach

Operating amidst the traditional liberalism of Oregon's Willamette Valley, a small "great books" college is spurning lectures and instead fostering lively discussions among teachers and students, producing graduates who embrace a decidedly Christian worldview.

Gutenberg College, located in Eugene, Ore., not far from the much larger University of Oregon, seeks to foster "an unquenchable thirst for the truth," states the school's website.

"At Gutenberg College education is a means to an end. The goal is mature adults who know how to live well – people who have carefully crafted a sound worldview and have acquired the knowledge and skills to live productive and constructive lives."

Gutenberg College

The college mission statement talks of providing a liberal arts education "in an environment respectful of biblical Christianity. …

"Gutenberg course work emphasizes interaction with writings of exceptional intellectual merit and the development of sound learning skills."

According to Terry Stollar, the school's director of Admissions and Development, over 50 percent of the student body were homeschooled, and over half the faculty homeschool their own children.

Gutenberg's president, David Crabtree, describes what makes things different at the college:

"Rather than encouraging early specialization, Gutenberg is designed to provide an outstanding broad-based undergraduate education. Rather than having large lecture classes, Gutenberg has small discussion-based classes. Rather than reading textbooks that describe the ideas of the great thinkers of the past, our students read the great thinkers' works firsthand. Rather than being one of thousands of students studying at an impersonal institution, Gutenberg students are part of a small, family-like institution."

While one might think a biblically based education program would avoid reason, Gutenberg emphasizes it.

States part of its philosophy of education: "The Gutenberg College faculty are confident that biblical Christianity is both completely true and eminently rational; they believe that rationality is the trustworthy servant of spirituality and not its enemy."

"The Gutenberg College faculty takes the Bible seriously," states an online FAQ page. "It would be difficult to find another group of people committed to a higher view of the Scriptures. A class rarely goes by in which the tutors and students do not compare and contrast what they are reading with the biblical perspective."

Despite its emphasis on the Bible, the leaders of Gutenberg College stress that it is unlike any other Christian school. "Some of these students would not fit the mold or requirements of the traditional Christian college," states the site.

Founded in 1994, Gutenberg has 54 students and 10 faculty members, whom it refers to as tutors.

The college is a candidate for accreditation with the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. According to the college's website, tuition, room and board, and fees run $16,719 per year.

The school includes testimonies from some graduates of Gutenberg on its website.

Says graduate Axon Kirk: "It is difficult to write of my school – to pin it like a butterfly on velvet and say this is the species of my education. The difficulty is that Gutenberg has been so much more than a school to me and so defies description as such. Gutenberg has been an invasion of my life, an event that has colored my soul. The piece of paper with two certain initials [B.A.] on it will mean so little to me in comparison with the 'sea-change' that the cast of my life has taken. Gutenberg is not about the mind, but rather the soul. Thus, education is but a springboard to life, and Gutenberg seems to embrace this truth with a unique force."

Another graduate, now working as a journalist in the nation's capital, stated: "Because of your commitment, I have been able to live, study, and work in Washington while keeping my soul. I may never make $150,000 (journalism isn't known for its six digits), but I will always live for – and write about – the truth."

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