Institute for the advancement of Calvinism

This publication presents all the papers read at a conference held at the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education during September 1975. The theme of the conference (initiated by Prof. HJJ . Bingle, at the time rector of the PU for CHE) was formulated as “ Reformed Institutions for Higher Education as a Bulwark for the Kingdom of God — present and future”. The idea of such institutions as a “bulwark for the Kingdom of God" is toned down in the title of this book. The difference in tone may be explained as the result of the difference between a stage of planning and a stage of looking back on what was carried out of that planning. Such a re­ view of this enterprise cannot be unaccompanied by the feelings of being “sadder but wiser” . Something of this is reflected in the prefatory notes of Prof. Bingle to this book. Experiences of the conference came to be com­ mitted to paper in this publication and Prof. Bingle remarks very aptly amongst other things that this collection of conference papers reveals a probable “identification of important differences of opinion on Christian Higher Education.” But if this insight meant a revision of the idea of in­ stitutions for Christian higher education as “bulwarks for the Kingdom of God”, this publication also serves to put on record another experience of the conference: “that there are encouraging signs -of a will to find one another in our common pursuit of an honest appraisal of the Christian principle in higher education”. These proceedings may be viewed (in the words of Prof. Bingle) as a valuable expression and documentation of an “attem pt at ecumenicity within the context of Christian Higher Educa tion” .