We live in an age in which what we think we know from science is modified daily, theological stances on current issues seem to divide as much as unite communities of faith, and questions at the interface of faith and science keep shifting. Both history and present experience suggest that when theology and science point in different directions, it may be hard to predict which one is off target (or whether both are, or whether we have misunderstood the question). History and experience also suggest that Christians may be found on more than one side of the debates. How do we (all of us, even those who are not science teachers) offer a Christian education to students in this context? How might we best help students who will live in a culture in which science is trusted both too much (as if science, applied science, and technology were the oracles best suited to resolve every kind of question) and too little (as if any scientific finding that makes us uncomfortable should be dismissed as propaganda)? The essays in this issue of Christian Educators Journal tackle this question, drawing inspiration from the FAST project, a recent curricular initiative focused on the intersection of faith and science. The FAST project, developed by the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning at Calvin College and the Colossian Forum, was sparked in part by a conversation in a school classroom.

The Origins of FAST

It’s not every day that a five-minute conversation with a teacher during a professional development day turns into a four-year, half-a-million-dollar project. Yet that is what happened a few years ago when I was asked to spend time in conversation with each department at a Christian high school. I had just sat down to talk with the science teachers, and one of them decided to intervene before I could lob any of my alleged wisdom their way. He wanted me to know before we started that he did not need a pep talk about how he should have a Christian worldview or integrate faith and learning or offer a Christian perspective in his classes. He had no quarrel with any of that. He had served his time at conferences, read the books, worn the T-shirt—he wanted his faith to shape his teaching. He paused. “The trouble is,” he confessed, “most of the time I’m just explaining photosynthesis.” In other words, faith-science controversies only come up a few times a year, and most days in the classroom are spent explaining science about which no one disagrees, whatever their faith. Most of the time we are teaching science, and faith does not seem to be doing much work.

This way of looking at things seems to imply that faith only pops up in the classroom when there is a fight to be had or a theological commentary to be offered. Or perhaps faith is supposed to leap in when we don’t know the answer to a question, when the sciences are stumped. (I wonder if Bible classes provide a mirror image: Is science only mentioned when there is an apparent conflict or a mystery that science struggled to explain?) On this model, we can tell students every now and then that God made and sustains everything, but that seems to have little practical bearing on most of the tasks in front of us. It seemed as if this colleague had plenty of zeal for connecting faith and learning but was trying to drive all the traffic across a rather narrow bridge.

Let’s assume you’re right, I responded. Perhaps the moments at which we wrestle with truth questions at the intersection of faith and science are relatively few and far between. How else might faith and science connect? I have had time to think about this a lot since then and have no doubt embellished my answer in my memory (my recollection, of course, is that I was peculiarly eloquent), but I raised some questions like these:

• What about the character qualities needed to be a good scientist, a good colleague, and a good learner? What virtues are involved in doing careful lab work, in measuring and writing accurately, in observing well, in thinking rigorously? Are any of these related to Christian virtues? How do we grow in them? Does our teaching assume these character qualities are just there, or do we need a plan for fostering and strengthening them?
• What about collaboration? Professional science is not practiced solo but in teams and with a range of collaborators. We can raise the same questions about the virtues needed for collaboration as about those needed for disciplined observation: How do we teach them, and how might they connect to faith?
• How much time is given in school to considering ethical issues that arise from scientific practices? How about from the impact of science and technology on society? How do applied science and technology fit into faith-framed visions of human flourishing and love of neighbor?
• What motivates scientific work (in the classroom or in a career)? What difference does it make if it is motivated by the desire to serve others, pursue truth, and love God with our minds, or by the desire to be successful, to know better than others, or to increase our power, wealth, and security? When do students get to reflect on what drives our practices?
• Is there anything about how science is taught that leads students to beauty, wonder, and gratitude, rather than just task completion, deadlines, and grades?
• Do we imply to students that the relationship between the Bible and science is always a war or that it only arises when there is a conflict or a gap in our understanding? Do we imply that it is pretty much over by the tenth chapter of Genesis? What kind of relationship between the Bible and science do we implicitly model?
• When we plan science learning, how do we account for the effect of the students’ learning on their relationships with their parents, pastors, or youth leaders? Does the learning that we design ever involve the wider community? Do we teach students to support one another in class and to use their learning to build connections with others outside class?

What these questions (and others like them) are driving at is that the relationship between faith and science is rich and complex and not restricted to the moments when the Bible is quoted or debate is engaged. What stayed with me most from that conversation was the teacher’s response. He sat back and confessed: “I never thought about it that way before.” It started me thinking about how it might help his work and his students’ learning if he (and his colleagues in the Bible department) could see the relationship between faith and science not as a narrow footbridge constructed from occasional controversies but as a rich, crisscrossing web of connections to be explored. This thought gave rise to the FAST project and its focus on teaching FASTly.

Teaching FASTly

Teaching FASTly has nothing to do with hurrying up. FAST stands for Faith and Science Teaching. “And” may be the shortest word, but it is vital. Too often popular discussions of science and religion inaccurately portray them as two sides at war, asking us to embrace one and relish the defeat of the other. This picture is simplistic and misleading. There are some challenging controversies at the intersection of faith and science, but the relationship is much richer and more complex than a few high-profile arguments. Teaching FASTly means allowing both faith and science to remain in play, each with its own integrity, neither canceling out the other. The challenge is to develop a pedagogy that approaches students as whole people with beliefs, commitments, motives, callings, virtues, vices, and relationships, and not just as recipients of knowledge.

The main result of the FAST project has been an online collection of over 180 teaching activities together with training materials, book reviews, resources for school community conversations, and advice on pedagogical strategies. Teachers and teacher educators developed these and theologians and scientists reviewed them. They can be freely accessed at www.teachfastly.com. Many of the authors in this issue of CEJ were involved in this project, and they explore some facets of what they have learned about faith and teaching in their articles. As I suggested at the beginning, the matters discussed in these articles are relevant not just to science teachers but to all teachers insofar as they also contribute to how students think about the place of faith in STEM-oriented culture. These articles invite all of us to consider how this is a matter of pedagogical choices as much as it is a matter of right answers and righteous positions.

David I. Smith (PhD, University of London) is director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI.