Page 261 - tesis
P. 261

b. Relationship between faith and secular knowledge\u000AWith regard to the relationship between faith and secular knowledge, representatives of the ESH School affirmed that their lessons are based on a Christian philosophy that integrates the Jewish-Christian biblical foundation with the academic contents that the Ministry of Education demands (L7ESH). Equally, according to the Rector of the Pan-American University of the ICV:\u000AThe biblical and secular knowledge is part of a unity. They do not have to be separate. Knowledge and wisdom for example, evolution and creation, scientific method and divine illumination are aspects that from our perspective do not belong to a dual system. That is to say, one thing is this and another thing that, but rather they constitute a unity. This unity allows us, for example, at the level of our own university, to raise shall we say the issue of knowledge through all the existing pedagogical processes, but also allows us to cultivate faith, love and that series of apparently subjective biblical principles but that if they are built into a person. They will feed the interior of the person resulting in moral, ethical, and professional conduct of the person, but I insist that we do not separate these things, for us they are united (L6ICV).\u000ATheir affirmation criticizes indirectly some of the dualism which some of their pastors and lay people maintain about the relationship between science and faith. In the past, some Pentecostal pastors considered the university as a threat to faith and as such they look on higher education with some reservation seeing a conflict of faith with scientific knowledge. This opening in the relationship between faith and academics shows an opening that goes hand in hand with modernity. In the Neo-Pentecostal schools they seek to integrate the materials provided by the Ministry of Education with principles of the Christian faith. Further studies could prove up to what measure these schools integrate Christian faith with the scientific task, if they are able to relate to Guatemala\u2019s socio- economic challenges, and if the students can assume these challenges for the benefit of the wellbeing of the population within the structure of Christian ethics.\u000AThe majority of lay people affirmed that Christians must take note of subjects related to science and other themes. The social science books and instrumental enrichment programme [PEI] are concrete examples of how LDG and ESH schools seek to integrate knowledge and faith into their programmes. This tendency is observed similarly in the result of the GSNPL on the relation faith-science [Table 5.2]. The fact that these books\u000A248\u000A


































































































   259   260   261   262   263