Some programs are so good, so powerful, and so important, that their impact is nearly impossible to describe to the outside world. The Torrey Honors Institute of Biola University is one such program. Wheatstone Academy, an offshoot, is another.
Since the early 1990s, Christians have increasingly focused on the role that ‘worldviews’ play in apologetics and the Christian life. Numerous programs and camps have worked to help Christians not only identify the tenets of their own worldview, but also the worldviews of other ideologies and religions.
For the most part, these educational efforts have been strictly didactic. Now, however, more programs are turning toward the process of articulating and defending ideas, rather than strictly reading or listening about them. The difference is enormous–by sharpening their thinking skills in the context of a community of friends, Christians are able to learn not only how to ably handle difficult questions, but how to do so in a friendly and engaging way.
No program has more experience or has had more success at this than Wheatstone Academy. A week-long conference primarily for high school students age 15-19, Wheatstone is a remarkably challenging–and enormously rewarding–week for those who attend. The video, which is one of the best promo videos I think I’ve ever seen, manages to capture exactly what the week is like for students.
If you know a high school student who is serious about their faith, do them a favor and send them to Wheatstone this summer. Wheatstone has been instrumental in deepening numerous students’ appreciation for the intellect, and in helping them see the need for its subservience to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
If you need any other reason to send a student, you should know that Drs. John Mark Reynolds, JP Moreland, Fred Sanders, and Paul Spears of ScriptoriumDaily all hang out there, as does my wife–who is vastly superior to them all.
Wheatstone Academy is hosting two conferences this summer. One at Chapman University from June 22nd-27th, and one at Biola University from July 6th-11th.
Matthew Lee Anderson
Matthew Lee Anderson is an Associate Professor of Ethics and Theology in Baylor University's Honors College. He has a D.Phil. in Christian Ethics from Oxford University, and is a Perpetual Member of Biola University's Torrey Honors College. In 2005, he founded Mere Orthodoxy.
