Beyond Academics: The Heart of Veritas, Bryan College’s New Honors Program

By Jackson Gravitt, Instructor of Christian Studies/Director of Veritas: The Honors Program at Bryan College

This semester, Bryan College launched Veritas, which is the campus’s new honors program. Veritas aims to support students as they cultivate excellence in the spiritual, intellectual, and moral spheres of life. To accomplish this end, the program emphasizes how the academic environment fosters opportunities to develop Christlike virtues. This semester, students have read and discussed Andreas Köstenberger’s book Excellence: The Character of God and the Pursuit of Scholarly Virtue, which argues that it is possible “to be a better person and a better scholar — without needing to sacrifice our faith at the altar of academic respectability.” Köstenberger’s work taught students about classical virtues like courage, humility, and love, while also exploring qualities that usually do not appear in ethical conversations, like creativity and eloquence.

Veritas has a cohort structure, which allows students to engage in interdisciplinary peer learning. While it is important for each student to pursue excellence in their major field, this interdisciplinary environment invites students to become well-rounded thinkers. Students are currently reading John Henry Newman’s The Idea of a University. In Discourse 6, Newman argued that if students only allow one subject to be their teacher, they will never “ascend…to command [their discipline].” Mastery of a single discipline can only come through interactions with multiple disciplines; otherwise, students will always remain a pupil under their subject, unable to speak to its shortcomings or limitations. Veritas gives students this opportunity to ascend, helping them to stand over – not just under – their chosen fields.

Our program aims to support Bryan’s overall mission statement: Educating students to become servants of Christ to make a difference in today’s world. To do this, we emphasize that every academic discipline is inherently theological. Take, for example, J. Gresham Machen’s reflections on how his Christianity affected his historical posturing in his book Christianity and Liberalism: While secular historians usually argue that history is the story of human progress (from superstition to scientism), the Christian must disagree. We look backwards to the prophets and apostles to learn objective truth. Our theology changes our entire posturing towards a discipline like history, and the same will be true for any number of other disciplines that students may pursue.

While Veritas cares deeply about cultivating academic excellence, we care even more about the type of person that the program produces. As ancient educational theorists like Plato and Hesiod noted, excellence should be pursued as an act of neighbor love. Society will count on each of us for something, so we ought to serve our fellow man by learning how to do our vocations well. While many honors programs can become marked by pretentiousness, Veritas seeks to intentionally cultivate attitudes of humility and servitude. If you are interested in learning more about the program or joining us, please visit the information and application page, or email Jackson Gravitt, the program director, at jgravitt0904@bryan.edu.