New York Times Magazine Features Biola
Biola University was featured in the Sept. 5 edition of The New York Times Magazine.
In March, Samantha M. Shapiro, a freelance journalist for the magazine, traveled from New York to Biola’s campus in La Mirada, Calif., where she lived in a dorm for two weeks so she could interview students and faculty members about life at a Christian college.
Shapiro chose to report on Biola because of the university’s unique commitment to integrating a Christian worldview in all coursework and because of the school’s consistent enrollment growth, which has doubled in the past decade. California state schools on average have seen only a 2 percent increase in enrollment during this same period.
Shapiro noted that many Christ-centered colleges like Biola once only offered training for those students seeking to work in full-time ministry. Today, many Christian universities now compete on an academic level with secular schools. For example, the article mentioned how Biola places graduates in top philosophy Ph.D. programs. Fifteen years ago, Biola did not offer a masters-level philosophy program.
This change is due, in large part, to the fact that the evangelical movement in the United States is no longer striving to retreat from culture but instead engage culture without compromising Christian values.
In her article, Shapiro stated, “evangelicals believe that the way to change culture is to participate in it, albeit with caution. Particularly in the last decade, as the movement has matured, intellectual institutions — journals, scholarly presses and advanced academic work — have quietly budded within evangelical circles. Biola’s evolution from a Bible college to an accredited liberal-arts university offering advanced degrees is just one manifestation of this change."
Read the complete The New York Times Magazine’s article (PDF).