In Thy Light We See Light

The Lutheran Character of Valparaiso University

Valparaiso University is an independent Lutheran comprehensive university committed to excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Its distinctive heritage, hospitable to the interaction of religious faith and secular learning, provides a solid foundation for an educational community dedicated to serving humanity through the vigorous pursuit of truth and the transmission of knowledge. As a university, we seek to ask humankind's deepest questions with clarity and sharpness and to test answers to those questions by means of research and reason, hypothesis and experiment, imagination and art.

Valparaiso's Lutheran character anchors and enhances its work as a university. The Lutheran Reformation movement, nurtured in the lecture halls of the University of Wittenberg in the early sixteenth century, sought to employ Renaissance learning to keep the Christian gospel at the center of the church's life and teaching. Lutheranism's charter document, the Augsburg Confession (1530), was presented in a spirit of deep commitment to the preservation of the unity of the whole Christian church, and its purpose was to affirm Lutheranism's fundamental convictions. The following are some of those convictions:

• On account of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, human beings are justified, forgiven, put right with God, as a result of God's free and unmerited grace, when they trust that divine promise;
• This gospel message, Lutherans are convinced, is the heart of the Bible; accordingly, they hold the Scriptures to be the unique standard and authority for what the church ought to teach and how it ought to order its life;
• The tradition of the church catholic is to be preserved its liturgy and sacraments, its creeds, and its ordered life;
• A high premium is placed on education at all levels. In its concern for higher education, Lutheranism stands solidly in the Christian intellectual tradition, seeking to relate the truths of faith to the truths discoverable by human reason, art, and science;
• The Lutheran tradition emphasizes the concept of vocation, by which it means to affirm the godliness and inherent value of all honorable occupations and to make it possible to connect one's faith with one's work in the world. As a result, the University encourages each graduate to use his or her God-given abilities in the service of God's world and its people, so that, beyond simply having a job or career, one develops a dedication and passion to meet profound human needs.

Independent of ecclesiastical control, yet grateful for a history of generous and visionary support (in particular from people of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod) Valparaiso University maintains close and friendly ties with all the Lutheran churches. It serves the evangelical and confessional ideals that have been the hallmark of Lutheranism at its best. It supports the efforts of all the churches to relate to the surrounding culture with a sense of relevance and hope in the face of the culture's ambiguities. It energizes those activities with the ennobling vision of God s gracious, transforming purpose for the whole creation. Those efforts are nourished by Lutheranism s sense of sacrament: that finite creatures of God can be bearers of God s infinite grace. And those efforts are carried out with a gospel-given sense of freedom to pursue truth and understanding wherever the search may lead. To be a university faithful to the founders' vision, to be Lutheran in a way that is faithful to the Reformation tradition, Valparaiso University strives to be a place where fundamental issues are explored from all angles, with intellectual rigor, with integrity, with openness, with respect - a place where faith and learning are held together in lively interaction.

The University's commitments to excellent teaching and learning, to scholarship and service, are informed by the recognition that scholarship, freedom, and faith are ultimately grounded for this community in the gospel's promise of God's unconditioned grace. Likewise, its commitment to justice and its openness to inter-Lutheran, intra-Christian, and inter-faith dialogue in which all members of the University community have an honored part, are shaped by the conviction that all its members are equally God s creatures and equally the objects of God's gracious love. Accordingly, the University seeks leaders, faculty, students, staff, and constituents who are committed to academic excellence and are interested in sympathetic and critical engagement with the Christian intellectual tradition. Therefore it welcomes people from all Christian churches and from other religious traditions, and it values their contributions to its common life.

The Chapel at the center of the campus is a sign of the University s commitment to sustain a gospel ministry of word and sacrament for the nurturing of faith. Similarly, the University maintains a strong department of theology and requires all students to engage in intensive and ongoing study of theology as a part of general education, so that they have opportunity to reflect on issues of faith and value and to develop a mature and vital understanding of Christian thought and faith. And, though it asks no test of faith, the University expects every faculty member to respect the Christian intellectual tradition and to be willing to engage that tradition from the perspective of his or her discipline, both in teaching and in scholarly and professional work.

By combining a robust secularity, the spirit and methods of the modern university, and the perspective and freedom and courage emanating from the Christian tradition, this Lutheran University seeks to produce graduates who are able to bring Christian intellectual and moral life into mutual engagement with the best of contemporary culture and learning, and who thus are able to make their distinctive contribution to humanity.

In Thy Light We See Light. (Psalm 36:9)

Questions and comments for this page may be directed to Debra.Albers@valpo.edu

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