Alastair's Adversaria - Selden College (with Dr Timothy Edwards)

Episode Date: October 21, 2024

Dr Timothy Edwards is Principal and Academic Dean of Selden College, a new Christian liberal arts college, which opens its doors to students in October 2025. He joins me to discuss his vision for Selden College (https://www.seldencollege.co.uk/), the work that has already been undertaken to found it, and what lies ahead. Over the course of our conversation, we also consider the distinctive character of Christian education and the way it can benefit the UK. Follow my Substack, the Anchored Argosy at https://argosy.substack.com/. See my latest podcasts at https://adversariapodcast.com/. If you have enjoyed my videos and podcasts, please tell your friends. If you are interested in supporting my videos and podcasts and my research more generally, please consider supporting my work on Patreon (www.patreon.com/zugzwanged), using my PayPal account (bit.ly/2RLaUcB), or by buying books for my research on Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/3…3O?ref_=wl_share). You can also listen to the audio of these episodes on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/alastairs-adversaria/id1416351035.

Hello and welcome. I'm joined today by my friend Dr. Timothy Edwards, who is currently undertaking an amazing new project. And so I wanted to invite him on to talk about it. And so thank you very much for joining me. Well, thank you. That's all of having me. It's a pleasure to be here. So can you tell us a bit about this new project that you have in the works? I've been hearing about this for a while. and things seem to really be getting a bit more momentum at the moment. Yes, so I'm in the process of establishing Selden College, which will be a Christian institution of higher education, offering a degree, a liberal arts degree within the classical Christian liberal arts tradition.

Now, I say degree, you can't obviously use that term until you're accredited. So initially it will be a degree level, three-year degree-level course, but Lord willing, we will be accredited in time. So the plan is to open doors October 2025 here in Oxford with a small cohort of students, Lord willing. So use the term Pascoe Christian liberal arts. What do those terms mean? Yeah, those are all very, in some ways, navalist terms and used by. many people in many different ways. So classical would be in reference to us positioning ourselves within the historic Christian tradition, thinkers such as Augustine Cassiodorus, Hugh of St. Victor,

who have thought a lot about education and pedagogy and teaching. Liberal arts is a somewhat nebulous term today. So there are a There are 30 plus liberal arts offerings in UK universities today, which generally means a choose your own adventure, broad degree with a sort of a major focus, but they still quit liberal arts because you do lots of other things. The way we're using that term would be in a more historic perspective. I mean, not to the extent that we're offering the seven liberal arts, of the classical world.

But the way I described it was the use of Bonaventia in his short sort of, it was an academic treatise on the reduction of the arts to theology. And he talked about the liberal arts in really in contrast to the mechanical arts. Mechanical arts are vocationally oriented. Right then, agriculture, making armor, weaving, etc. And opposite of that would be what we call the liberal arts, which are focused on truth in relationship to speech, in relationship to, what he says, things, which is a very technical term.

It doesn't sound very technical in English, but the nature of reality and the nature of something. And then the truth in relationship to conduct. So it's, it is generalist. We cover theology, we cover languages, history, literature. But the overarching theme is scripture says it's light on truth in relationship to those three areas of life. So what does the term liberal mean in that context? In that context, well, I mean, historically liberal means the education of a free man. So that's in this sense.

And in that context, in one sense, it's a liberating aspect. So it's an education for the free man and woman, but it also, I think, the truth sets you free. So there's a liberating aspect to these liberal arts in that regard. So something like Selden College is a very grand vision. What brought you to the point of coming up with this idea? And who were some of the interlocutors with whom you hatched the project? Yes.

So I home educated my children nearly all the way through their education because I can convinced of the importance of Christian education. The fact that God made the world and everything in it necessarily transforms you to understand the world and everything in it. So I was committed to Christian education and 11, 12 years ago now, I am. went out to, actually 11 years ago, went out to New St Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho, to take up a teaching post there as fellow theology, which is a Christian institution of higher education offering a liberal arts degree.

I became dean very soon after arriving, so I was sort of in charge of the academic program, and that really gave an opportunity to work with people who've been thinking about Christian education at the higher education level, much longer than I had and who had established an institution. At that point, I still had no intention necessarily of coming back and doing something similar in the UK,

probably because I was too busy to think about anything else other than the job I had. But obviously, you're thinking about education all the time. But when the time came for me to come back, connected to my family responsibilities with my parents. The question then is what do we do? And many people, many friends of mine who are home educating and said, when are you coming back to start a college? So that was the sort of initiation. I'm returning. I need to do something. All these requests to come in. I'm thinking, okay,

maybe this is the time. And also, and this is something we'll probably come back to later. it was a great time of a change in the country, what with Brexit, with the death of Queen Elizabeth, and there was all sorts of constitutional realities and everything that was going on

post-COVID and pandemic, it felt like that there was a real need for Christians to step into this space and start training up generations of leaders. So that was the sort of impetus. In terms of whom I'm thinking, obviously New St. Andrews

a lot of the leaders there and the faculty there, I've been speaking about Christian education with them. So they're very influential in my ideas. Obviously, President Merkel, who's running the college. A friend of mine is Steve Keene, who's home educating his children, who has a doctorate within the social sciences. He was very on board. And Crawford Grubin, Professor Cropwood Grubin,

Queens University. I've interviewed him a couple of times. Yes, he's a friend and he who's now on the board, had initial conversations with him and various other friends of mine in terms of Christian education here. So it was exciting. They were excited. They responded positively. So we just kept taking step after step.

So my sense is that liberal arts education is far more established. developed within the US than it is within the UK. How have you found communicating your vision within a UK context? So amongst the Christian education community who have heard of classical Christian education, which again isn't a sort of an American, it's established in America, it feels normal to them. It's not difficult to communicate it to them because they're already thinking in those terms. They're sort of trying to bring up their children in that with a very strong awareness of the classical tradition and the classical heritage that we have. With others, it's taken a little bit of time. As soon as you hear the word liberal, some people start

getting nervous because they think I'm talking politically as opposed to its classical usage. So it's an ongoing task, I would say. It's an ongoing task. I think when we sit down and explain to parents and to students about the curriculum and what we're aiming to form in a student, they get that and they're excited about it. And in one sense, how you do that is secondary to what you're trying to achieve. So it's an ongoing task, but I think we manage when we get to have time to talk to people. And that's the challenge is time. Yeah. Can you tell me about the name? Selden. Where does that come from?

So Selden comes from a 17th century parliamentarian and lawyer called John Selden, who was a Christian Hebrist. And so my field is Hebrew and Jewish studies. So he's sort of close to my heart in that regard. And has been described by many as one of the architects of the Western political tradition. sort of conservative small sea western political tradition. He was a polymath was working in 13 different languages. And he, I mean, there's so many things about him which are important for us today. But in terms of a model of someone who has got that breadth, but commitment to tradition, classical learning,

here's a wonderful example. He also had a right distrust of human reason on its own, which I think is something we need to recover. There's the arrogance of the modern man that we, you know, man comes from man and we can do it all. It's a problem. So he always, whenever faced with a problem, particularly political problem, because he was a parliamentarian, he always went back to the sources. He always went back into history, and particularly the biblical and, Jewish sources because there was this healthy distrust of human reason working on its own.

So his method, I think his political tradition that his work sort of spawned is something that is very close in keeping with what Selden College is trying to do so, hence the name. Also, I should say, you know, he was unusual in the time he was his phylo-Semitism which I think is a fundamentally important issue in the environment

we're currently in today as well it's something that stands out so those of us a brief survey of some of the reasons where John Selden is important person. Do you think of the work of Remri Bragg

and others who have talked about the importance for the Western tradition of drawing upon the Jewish and the Greek and Roman sources as sources outside of themselves, that they're digesting and not just assimilating. And there's a sense of a dependence upon sources that are not us, but are sources from which we can become ourselves. Yes.

You know, Remy Bragg, I was just reading this week in the Kingdom of Man, the genocence and failure of the modern project, which is just a wonderful work of exposing this utter failure of the arrogance of man seeking to do away with anything outside of himself. I think so, yes. I can imagine that the task of setting up a new college is a fairly daunting and involved one, maybe especially within the UK.

Can you say a bit about what is involved in setting up a new college and give a sense of what stage you are at within that project process. On one level, anyone can set up anything and it can start the next day. You say, I've got a college and off you go. Obviously, we want to do something a little bit more established. That we're concerned is generational faithfulness. You want an institution that lasts and lasts faithfully. So, you know, we've gone about that a little bit.

slower than some would want and we are very conscious of the in one sense the bureaucratic and legal realities of our country as it stands and so we really want to be clear what we can do legally and what stands we can take as Christians that are within the law currently and be aware of what are the bureaucratic realities of things like accreditation and this particularly accreditation so so it's a lot of reading of extremely tedious documents and and a lot of wisdom needed to navigate navigate a way through things like you know diversity and equality requirements for the ones a charity or not a charity all those sorts of things. Accreditation I mean I've done it being through accreditation processes with New St Andrews three times and one sense the process doesn't frighten me if your

processes are set up properly and you're self-reflective about what you're doing and you're consistent with your policies then all is is well But it is a little bit more overbearing in this country than the states, I think, and the expense is considerable. And so there's, yeah, so that's that whole side. And then the other side is trying to let people know that we're, what we're doing. And the encouraging thing about that is it's sort of gained a momentum by itself. People share it with people, which share it with people. So, you know, we've got over 600 email addresses that we're really emailing out now. And then we're just trying to, you know, raise awareness and the need. And then the third challenge would be the financial challenge in terms of higher education funding in this country is broken.

So university fees were brought in back in 2009 or 2012, but quite a long time ago, and have increased by, I think, 250 pounds a year over that whole period of time. And so essentially there's almost a 30% reduction in how much university is allowed to charge, which is completely unrealistic. And so it is subsidized by overcharging overseas students. And because we don't want to take any government money, because that gives them leverage into what we can and can't do and say, we are freed from that fee cap and therefore makes it looks like

we're a little bit more expensive than everyone else. But that's because we're saying we want to charge what it costs. And if you're an overseas student, we'll charge what it costs, to you as well rather than subsidize it. So yes, there's a lot, been lots and lots of things to think about. And each day comes as another thing to think about. But three weeks ago was a sort of a big step forward for us publishing the website opening applications. We have one applicant so far,

which is wonderful within three weeks, which is very exciting. And we're praying that the Lord will spread the news, which is we're grateful for this interview and we'll see more applicants. And then the last challenge, obviously, is faculty. In order to give the sort of education that we want to give, a particular type of person is needed to be to teach in that institution. And also because liberal arts is generalist degree and not as specifically, it's very different to how everyone is trained in this country.

And so we're looking for a particular skill set, really. But again, we've had a number of people send in CVs, and we're very capable men and women. And it's just a matter of now solving what I call the chicken and egg problem. You need students in order to employ faculty, but you need faculty to attract students. those two. And so we're trusting the laws for that. You mentioned that you'll be based in Oxford. Can you say a bit more about why you chose Oxford

and a bit more about the location for the college? So two reasons primarily for choosing Oxford. One, we knew we would have to rely on adjunct faculty for a certain amount of time. And there are some human resources here in Oxford which enable that to happen, who are in lockstep with us in terms of our ethos and what we're trying to do. Because we're reformed, the faculty need to be reformed in their theological outlook, not students, but the faculty. There are now two Presbyterian churches in Oxford, one in Oxford pres and the centre of Oxford and then Christchurch-Heddington, which is in the east of Oxford. So you have two confessional churches and then there are other churches which are reformed

theologically they may not be confessional so there's there's a there's a church community or church communities here that would enable our faculty to come and find church homes and be incorporated which I think is really important for us and in terms of location, it's to be decided. Yeah. Can you give some sort of idea about how Christian education looks in the UK right now, not just at further education level, but just more generally, and how Selden would fit into this? Yeah. So you have, I'd say three different categories. You have the Christian home education community, which is diverse and broad and not easily traceable in many ways.

So you have groups like classical conversations, which is organized and has an increasing numbers of students joining their communities. You have others doing their own, completely their own thing, others connected with online schools, such as a manual online school or Veritas or Logos in the States. that is an increasingly large community of people as I've traveled the country talking about seldom more and more people

you realize more more people are home educating their children either out of a conviction because that it's the right thing to do or I just want to keep our children safe from all the things that are going on in this so that's the home education community you then have the Christian schools

And so there's a group called the Christian Schools Trust, which is a sort of an umbrella organization that assists Christian schools. And there was a big explosion in the 80s of Christian schools starting. And those have continued. Some have not survived. And they're starting to see a similar explosion, not quite maybe as large, but of people wanting to start or starting Christian schools in this. country currently, which is very exciting. So like King Alfred's in Wolverhampton, the Bowens. You have people trying to start a classical school in Cardiff. And there are Christian schools in Oxford as well, aren't there? There is. It's a manual in Oxford. And you have, I think, one's

about to start in Newcastle. So there's a lot. There's a lot. lot of activity within the Christian school. So these are groups that want to have a very specifically Christian education for their students. And the third group would be schools which are very definitely what we would call Christian ethos schools. So they very definitely Christian in their ethos, but the education they provide is essentially the same as would be provided in any other institution. So that's, that's a third category. It's not Christian education per se, but there are Christians who are doing good work in Christian,

in a context that is education. So I think it's, I would say Christian education as a whole has really taken root in this country now. And could well flourish in the coming years. There's always, however, this lurking threat or fear of government, overbearing government, intrusion into education. And there are good people out there keeping eye on things and mobilizing people to try and ward off

unnecessary oversight. And that's been true all the way through when I was, home educating there was it's called the Badman Report that was about to come out and you know, government aspects would have the right to interview your children on their own in the room, you know, all in order to find out what's going on.

And so that's always a lurking fear, but I just think it's taken root and I think it's a very exciting movement at the moment. It does seem to be considerably less developed than the Christian education networks that you'll find within the US. And it seems that there's potential there for significant growth. How will Selden encourage the growth of that wider ecosystem of Christian education?

Yeah, so as I started talking to people about Selden, I suddenly realized that, you know, once I start at a degree level, college is at the top of the triangle, it's the top of the pyramid. And I think for a number of people stepping out into Christian education is a huge decision and it can be quite a frightening decision but if you see

there's Christian education all the way through while we're up to the top that serves as an encouragement to them so that on one that level I think it and as I've talked to lots of people around the country it certainly encouraged them

in their own networks of Christian education. Secondly, I the years as Lord willing as we graduate students, some of those students, my expectation would be would want to become teachers within a Christian education context or at least in their own families be giving them Christian education. So it would become a tool for strengthening that network. And as we look at what has happened in America,

Christian school movement, especially the classical Christian school movement, was manned by volunteer parents who were two chapters ahead of their students all the way through the school. Now when you start having these colleges generating graduates and suddenly the quality of the teacher in terms of their understanding of the topics increases and that only goes to strengthen the education for the next generation. So Lord willing seldom will function in that way as well. You've mentioned at several points the importance of a distinctive ethos that Selden and other Christian educational institutions can provide. Can you maybe describe and fill out for us what that ethos involves? Yeah. So, the first element of the ethos would be our understanding of education as a Christian. as involving the whole person. So it's a moral, spiritual and intellectual development of an individual.

And that the intellectual development is not divorced from the moral and spiritual in any way. Sertiland in his book The Intellectual Life, which I'm sure you know, talks about the intellect being a tool. how we wield the tool will it determine its effects and so the ethos of a selden is we want to sharpen the tool and at the same time inculcate wisdom in such a way that the wielding of that tool will cause the effects to be fruitful and beneficial in God's kingdom And so, you know, that holistic understanding, we believe the worship of God is fundamental to students' moral formation and intellectual formation.

That's the foundation of all. So our ethos is found, we daily worship of God for students and staff. So this is a common life together bound up in our unity in Christ. and our worship of God, our ethos to form virtue in students. We need to grow morally. We need to go in Christ-likeness. And that's not limited to the chapel

or the pastor's office. It's also happening in the classroom where you ask questions about what is true, what is false, what is right. And then obviously the intellectual development. And so that's, that sort of is the broad picture ethos

obviously the reformed theological nature of the college informs who the faculty are and how they perceive their role as educators. You know, you're not, and this is a fundamentally important ethos for a Christian institution of education. You're not there just to transmit information. you're there to embody, you know, the Christian intellectual life and, and mentor your students in that. And so you don't just see them in the classroom. You know, you're worshipping together. They know your family life. They see you in that context as well.

So there's a, there's a, again, a holistic and more. or understanding of what education looks like. So those are some of the things of the ethos of the type of education we're giving. Going a bit further, how would you contrast the experience of a typical student in a typical UK university and the sort of experience of a student in Selden that you envisage?

So obviously the daily worship, as a requirement, there's something that everyone has to do would set it apart fundamentally, right? I think the number of, just on a basic level, a number of contact hours with their faculty in terms of, I think, would be more because we believe people, educate people, and that's fundamentally important. I think the, you know, and you know, drawing on my experience, experience at New St Andrews in Moscow. And I remember going into the classroom for the first time to teach there. And having faced with 25, 30 people eager to learn was quite something.

And thanked you after the class. So there was this, there's a culture with, Christian education, I think, and a mindset that Christian education develops that this is a gift from God. And it's a valuable gift from God that you are not to waste. And so you're eager to learn from people you trust. And you're eager to ascend it into your life and to grow. And you're grateful for it. And so, and then when I started doing office, as you'd have people come and ask you about what you said in class about a particular topic and you'd explain it to them but they'd always want to go further in terms of the application of that in their

lives and so there's a I think the nature of the education is very different and nature of the student is very different when that attitude and that ethos is present and you know we're not to provide housing student clubs in terms of you know the the the all the extras that now have required an education which basically are the one things that attract people to that education um that's not something we're interested in doing and we want our students in one sense being active members and of the local church and living adult lives in that sense. So we're trying to promote them moving into adulthood rather than delaying than moving into adulthood. Does that make sense?

It does. It seems to me that we've perhaps never experienced a period of time in which the philosophy of education is under more sustained attack from various material factors, particularly things like the development of AI, has thrown into question why you would study liberal arts, why would you invest your time in many aspects of education that you may never need because you can get the AI to write your essays for you. You can get all these different things that,

seem to make it redundant. What is it about a Christian philosophy of education that can rise to the challenge of justifying and sustaining institutions of higher learning in this current environment? Yes, and I think that's, you know, the access to information is never been more, it's never been easier.

I mean, it's remarkably easy. the information is just information isn't it you can read something and you now have understood that fact if it is a fact assuming it's a fact and i think the um the way that a christianese education comes in you're going to now ultimately we're not interested about facts we're interested about truth and AI isn't going to give you truth as understood from a Christian historical Christian orthodox perspective. It will give you truth according to the winds of the algorithm, the person who developed the algorithm. May hallucinate it. Yes.

And so that's a fundamental difference. Secondly, the question is, how do you? What do you do with that information? And what and how will you use that in ways that will be fruitful, both for yourself, for your family and for the common good of your community, be they Christian or not? You know, that. Again, technology doesn't allow that.

That's about forming a particular sort of person. And so the idea of a Christian philosophy education tied to wisdom and the formation of a person who is wise, who fears the Lord, in one sense, necessarily shunts that information-based education. And finally, you realize that you realize. and I think this is really important, which is that I think that one of the questions of the day which Christians need to grapple with, and I know you are grappling with these questions. The tools we use form us.

You know, I'm talking, you know, many years ago in a cafe in Moscow about phones and things like that. But the tools we use former. And they're not simply neutral. in that regard. And I think Christian education, the ethos of Christian education

is you want to be formed by people to be able to resist the formation that any tool that you use would seek to exert on you. You know, I've studied with some remarkable people, you know, being blessed. and who learned and academically at a time prior to these technological innovations. And I know that they would not have been the people and scholars they were

if they hadn't made their own concordances on index paper of books because there wasn't one available. there was there was something about the hard work necessary to find something that formed them in a way that made them who they were and when we shortcut that process and we lose something

I remember seeing an advert for a Bible software and it was 60 hours work at the click of a button. And you're like, no, it's not 60 hours work, I click a button. It's, that's a shortcut. And you will, all your, all you get is information and you pass on information and that will not be life giving. So that's, there's so many challenges that you present to us today.

And I think time and people are fundamental to Christian. education. And then the use of the tool will then be a benefit to them rather than of harm. My sense has always been that there's something distinctive about the church and the vision of education that arises from that as distinct from the state and the ends of the economy and social engineering to an extent. The concerns of such institution shaped by the state and by those social ends tends to be getting people credentialed, getting them equipped to function within the economy.

And many of the people that you study with, you know they're not going to go on to read anything later on in life. This is the end of their education rather than initiation into an ongoing life of study and thought and reflection. Or it's also the end of their community of education. and there's something about the church as an ongoing community of education involving many different types of learning, preaching, catechesis, mutual encouragement, teaching within groups, and the intergenerational character of the church as a very embodied community of learning where older generations are teaching younger generations in the passing on of a tradition. And it seems to me that that reality of the church,

if it's something that informs an educational institution is one that can be profoundly enriching and one that can extend a vision of education that sustains lifelong, self-motivated education beyond the institutional support. That is absolutely, absolutely right. And I think the sort of education, the sort of liberal arts education within the great tradition, encourages that because you're saying to people that read these dead men, you know, be part of this conversation that has been going on, people you agree with and disagree with.

It says you're part of something that has been going on for a long time and will continue on after you've gone. So keep being part of it until as long as you can. And I think, I mean, you see it so often. and it's particularly painful when you see it within seminary education. You have pastors who go to get their degree. And then essentially either stop reading or only read books that are contemporarily being published because that's the book of the moment.

Yeah, you want lifetime learners. And the church community is one that should develop that. You've mentioned the church at several points. You've mentioned the importance of having local churches that faculty can be members of and students, the importance of students being involved in their local church, and then also chapel services, things like that. Can you say a bit more about how you see Selden connecting with churches? And are there going to be official affiliate church bodies?

Is it something that is part of a wider network of churches? So I don't know, at this moment in time, there's not an official affiliate relationships. So I have very good relationships. Both Presbyterian churches, I attend one of them. I met with a pastor of another church. So I lived in Oxford, so I know a number of the church leaders, and I want to develop that relationship. And so we, and once faculty start attending those, those relationships will develop,

for me, the biggest, one of the biggest boons of having those relationships is the, the care of our students. Because we have a certain ethos, we have codes of conducts, we have statements of faith, all those sorts of things, there will be occasions where our students, you know, make mistakes. They sin. You know, I'm not thinking this is going to be a heaven on earth experience, but everyone at seldom.

And it's at that point where you want a two-pronged attack. You want the college institutionally working with a student, but you want the pastors of their church and their elders working with the students in order to bring about the peaceful food of righteousness for someone who's been, you know, who's repentant and caught up with, in sin in some way. And so the care of our students, the local church is primary, the pastoral care of our students. The college is secondary. And I think that's really important.

So I would see us very much in partnership and working closely with them. I also think, and I think as Christians in the UK, we have perhaps have not, we've undervalued the importance of institutions. I think an college and institution of higher education has a great potential for strengthening the local churches in terms of, I say, the influx of faculty and students who are committed to, you know, the intellectual life within a Christian context, I think can only help those churches grow and flourish over time. Can you say a bit more about the programs of study that you imagine students will be taking,

what sort of variety of programs will be on offer? Okay. So the liberal arts degree, we made up of the backbone of the liberal arts degree will be theology and language. So Greek Hebrew Latin, although, and if students come to us already with a good level of Latin or Greek, then sort of the collection of languages of old English, Norse is as a world willing, faculty allowing will be available to them. And so for all three years, you're doing theology, which will start with biblical theology and work its way through chronologically

up to sort of modern theology. And then three years of study in one language. I'm utterly convinced that just doing one year or two years and then doing something, you get. to know a language, get to another text in that language. And then alongside that backbone, you'll have literature, history, philosophy, politics, economics, human flourishing, that idea of what that looks like, particularly connected to the UK context, legal, religious, political history of the UK constitutional we need to understand what has been destroyed what needs to be rebuilt what needs to be held on to because so much constitutional change is going on and it's been threatened we really are throwing away a heritage that has been a gift to us

and then also i think fundamentally important is that i don't like the term but I'm going to use it, the Abrahamic faith context of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, Judaism and Islam. And there are different understandings of law in many respects and the religious life and what that looks like. So that would be the broad scope of the degree, which would culminate in an individual research project, in an area that they particularly want to work in and the degree will be given once we're accredited based on the exams

at the end of your third year, which will be on all three years. So we're departing from the American model, which is becoming more and more popular over here of degree by increment. I'd say, no, you're going to study for three years and then you've got nine three-hour exams. You've mentioned the association with local presbyter

Presbyterian churches and others within the reformed tradition. Can you say a bit more about the theological stance of Selden, how it relates to Christians outside of the reformed tradition as well? So for faculty and staff, they have to be reforms. We have a, you know, except any of the reformed confessions of faith, be it Baptist or, you know, Westminster Confession of Faith, 39 articles as a historic reform confession of it. Plus, we have our own set of statements which are built off of those things, but also touch on some of the issues of the day regarding

human sexuality and gender and things like. So we think it's very important for faculty and staff to be united in a more confessional context in order for that united body to be able to form students. But students, the statement of faith is far more general. It's more based on, you know, what would be the ecumenical creeds, plus the sort of topics of the day, the human sexuality and gender issues. So as I've gone around the country, I've talked in Baptist churches. I was at a small conference just the other day, predominantly African. and Pentecostal churches. So students who are Christian can come.

But they just need to know that people who are teaching them will be confessionally reformed. But there's no requirement to be reformed or end up reformed. In that regard, you know, that's not the goal. And, you know, for the majority of the theological course, you don't get to the Reformation Calvin until your third year. So there's lots of going on before them. Can you maybe say a bit more about the sort of students that you're looking for?

And you mentioned earlier, for instance, the fact that many UK institutions depend upon foreign students to raise their money to subsidise students from the UK. and presumably you'll be attracting both UK and foreign students. If someone were interested in attending Selden, what should they be pursuing right now? And what sort of requirements do you have for students? Okay, so we're looking for students who, obviously, in keeping with the mission and ethos of the college. who were committed to shaping that community of Christians

and not just a receiver, but a contributor to that college community. But also want a rigorous Christian education. It's going to be difficult. So those are the sort of three characteristics we sort of highlight in terms of the sort of student we're looking for. The whole application process is completely in-house. We're not going through UCAS.

and it will acknowledge and accept any educational experience up to take. So whether you've done A-levels or not, whether you've done international baccalaureate or not, or the SAT or ACT or CLT, whatever, doesn't matter. You apply, you give us your CV and summarising of your educational experience, and then we take up pastoral and academic references. and then there's an in-house entrance examination at interview.

So the examination is a three-hour examination, which has four parts to it. First part is language aptitude, which requires them to work out, well, it's a made-up language, and they have to translate from that made-up language into English, from that English into that made-up language based on the information given. Can they work out how language works?

There's text analysis, so an excerpt from an ancient text with various questions, starting from the sort of very basic reading apprehension to analysis and understanding. It'll be an essay, which could be on anything. And then there'll be what we call something, creative writing which is it's not so much testing your creativity it's testing your writing ability can you write well and that will take various forms and depending on you know the exam at the time and then the interview will be 30 minutes to an hour with two people again there we're

wanting to get to know the type of person who wants to come as well as their ability to interact with ideas under pressure or criticism, so to speak. You said this, why would you say that? You know, those sorts of, and see how they respond. Because the type of class we want to develop is one where it's based around texts and reading your text and an interrogation of text and your ideas of what you're saying about the text. Not in a threatening context, but you've just got to get used to that idea. So that's what we're looking for. And, and students can, the website, link to an application form, currently a Google form, and they just have to answer a couple of questions about why they want to come.

International students you asked about, currently we can't give international visas, but so we probably can't take international students come October 2025, but I think soon after that we should be able to, once we get registered with the office for students. So what comes next in the planning and setting up sell them for you. Now the, we need students and I need to

confirm faculty. And like I said, it's a chicken and egg situation. Faculty need to be paid and be able to live. So I need money to be able to pay them. But I need students to get money to be able to pay them. They don't have them. So that's a chicken and egg thing.

We're really, every step of this as there's been a, it's a walk of faith. You know, it's utterly, It's an utterly impossible task unless God performs many miracles. And he keeps doing it thus far. And so we've yet to hit the wall.

We can't go any further. So we're recruiting students as best we can. And I'm talking to various people at faculty. And we're looking for donors and people who are excited about the project. I actually think now this is strategic and significant for this country, which I believe it is, and who are willing to say, I'm going to help get this going to. So, you know, a remarkably expensive thing to do. Accreditation, just as an example, from registering to, you know, starting the degree of

process, the end-daps it's called. First three years it'll be roughly in the region of 200,000 pounds, which is an absurd amount of money for an institution that will be a micro entity initially. So we need people to catch the vision and be willing to, you know, as the Lord leads, to provide finances for us to be able to do this thing. So how can people help at this point?

Pray, pray, pray. I mean, that's fundamentally the most important thing. Really pray. We'd love to get, and then there are lots of people out there praying. The more, the better. Certainly spread the news to your friends and family, to your network, saying, you know, this is happening. This is an exciting opportunity.

We'll take a lot of faith for people to send their children. there at this point, but faith is a good thing. Give. I mean, those of us who are working on at the moment, there's a few of us are working out. We're all working, you know, in our own time. You know, none of us are being paid. And that's fine. We've all got other work that we're doing. But this is, it takes a lot of time and energy and work to do this and it does cost money so we have to we do have to pay for things so we'd love people to give and to give regularly and then keep praying that's that's that's that's that's key so you mentioned early earlier that you have a new website how can people

and follow new developments how can people get to know you a bit better, are there initial events that you have coming up? So this last year I've travelled around on various regional meetings around the country. This coming here, so there's, I mean, I'm speaking at a day conference in London, 26th of October. We're going to have a booth there. We're going to have a booth at the Answers in Genesis conference. Christian Concern have a Education Revolution conference in April, where I will be taking part and there will be a booth there.

If you're, if you've got, you know, my contact details are on the website, so T Edwards at southerncolle.com.uk, I will happily come and speak at your church in your home education group. I will, you know, I'll do whatever needs to be done. If you've got a group who are interested, I am available. So reach out and we can set some things up. I'm very happy to travel. This is because I realize, you know, we did a summer school last summer,

which was a great success. We had 15 students and, you know, about 65 people with parents and siblings. We're going to have another summer school right at the end of July this next year in Oxford. 90% of the people who came that summer school I had never met or spoken to in my life which was a wonderful thing on their part

I realized I've been out of the country for nine years and there's a lot of trust involved with education well there should be a lot of trust involved in education generally we just hand out our children over to some name this large, big box institutions and there's no person, there are no people that we really committing your children to. I'm saying we should think about education as committing our children to people to educate. And so I realize people need to get to know me, they need to get to

know Steve, they need to get to go to faculty as we get appointed. And the more we can enable that building of relationships, the better. So they should email me and I will all, you know, work something out for with them. Thank you so much for joining me, Dr. Edwards. I'm going to post the link to the website and any other details that you want to recommend to my listeners. And if you have any final words of exhortation or encouragement for people who would be considering either going to sell them themselves, sending their children there, or just supporting its work as it goes on. yeah so thank you yeah and i think the um christian education is a good in and of itself okay it um and i think it has a remarkable potential in the hands of god to raise up um leaders in this country

okay so our you know the mission statement which we stole from john milton to to graduate faithful christian men and women who are prepared to act justly skillfully and magnanimously in every office public and private in peace and in war you know and you know if we think about what every office means you've got public and private you've got family you've got church you've got nation these institutions that god has established or nation isn't an institution in and of itself, but you know what I'm saying. And we want, I think Christian education, Christian higher education in particular has the potential in God's has to raise up people who can make differences in those,

each of those three areas. So as we pray for our nation, which is in desperate need of reformation and revival, I mean it is, and, and the level of discourse, public discourse, is so low in, even within the church, quite often. We have to think strategically, and strategic thinking is always long term. How do we recover that which we've lost and which has been destroyed?

How do we train up generations so that over time the Lord can, you know, do a wonderful work in this nation. And I think Christian education has a unique, it's not a sole role, but a unique role in that. And so I think please take hold of the vision, pray about it and see if you can. And strategically, I think it is very, very important. Thank you very much.

If you're interested in finding more about, more about the work of Selden College, then please look in the show notes. click on the links and please pray for its work as it goes on. God bless and thank you for listening.