The Trinity Institute

STUDY PROGRAMS

The Institute provides two basic avenues for study: Seminars and Individual tutorial study.

Seminars

From time to time (check back for specific topics and dates) seminars are offered where learners of all ages can come to learn how to become equipped with the tools to "think Christianly" about any field or endeavor they choose in life. Seminar students can receive a grounding in the fundamentals of the historic Christian faith and in its defense and promotion. One can learn how to discern truth from falsehood and apply Biblical truths to life's ultimate questions. In the past we have had guest speakers such as Phillip Johnson (author of Darwin on Trial, Reason in the Balance), James Sire (author of The Universe Next Door) and William Dembski (author of Mere Creation, Intelligent Design).

Individual Tutorial Study

Students also can come to the Institute for a period of individually guided tutorial studies. The topic will be selected in consultation with the resident Tutor. At the present time there is a Tutor in residence only during the summer months but we are searching for someone to be in residence throughout the year. The program involves studying 4 hours a day, working 4 hours a day and a set fee. Write to get more details.

In the former Soviet Union, by law churches could not be represented on maps. E.F. Shumacher, the economist and author of the best-selling Small Is Beautiful commented on this phenomenon in saying, "This was not the first time I had been given a map which failed to show many things I could see right in front of my eyes. All through school and university I had been given maps of life and knowledge on which there was hardly a trace of the many things I cared about and that seemed to me to be of greatest possible importance to the conduct of my life."

This analogy captures the conflict evangelical Christians experience in trying to understand the world in which they live. Unfortunately as a rule the church has not prepared their people to think Christianity from a Biblical world and life view. On the one hand students attend secular educational institutions where God and the Christian faith have been erased from the maps. Their faith comes under attack intellectually and morally. Mere preservation of Christian commitment is considered a victory. It is commonplace for young people raised in Christian homes to go to college, lose their heads and turn away form the truth of the Christian faith Ð that Christian faith is somehow intellectually or morally deficient. Yet the real problem is that these young people are ill-equipped to handle the assaults on heart and mind that they encounter at the colleges and universities. As Os Guiness says, "It is not surprising that universities are littered with dropouts from (Christian) groups. Their non-rational, subjective faith is cruelly punctured by varsity-level questions, and many manage to survive only by resorting to s severely schizophrenic faith which they hold to be true religiously but not intellectually, historically or scientifically."

If one wants to learn how to think critically from a Christian perspective, the seminars provide an environment where serious intellectual reflection and critical thinking can occur in a non-threatening environment. Our goal is to help equip people through the medium of intense studies so that the student is prepared to face the assaults on their faith and be equipped to respond with an articulate and reasoned answer.