The Arizona Center for Christian Studies (AzCCS) is a scholarly organization that explores a Christian faith perspective on academic studies, seeking an intelligent dialogue with all academic disciplines. AzCCS seeks to:
- benefit all colleges, universities, and seminaries in Arizona, as well as the wider community, and
- integrate faith and learning through lectures, classes, conferences, discussion groups, research projects, publications, websites, and other academic initiatives.
It is affiliated with local, national, and international organizations similarly committed to Christian scholarship and purpose, such as the Consortium of Christian Study Centers .
Historical Perspective
Over the centuries Christian believers have made masterful contributions in every area of study and endeavor, from philosophy to physics, and from literature to law — Augustine, Aquinas, Dante, Erasmus, Michelangelo, Luther, Calvin, Galileo, Donne, Grotius, Herbert, Rembrandt, Milton, Pascal, Newton, Leibniz, Bach, Edwards, Handel, Webster, Wilberforce, Faraday, Truth, Kierkegaard, Nightingale, Dostoyevsky, Mendel, Tolstoy, Maxwell, Carver, Chesterton, Eliot, Tolkien, Lemaître, Lewis, Endô, and King are among the notables, ancient and modern.
Therefore, AzCCS takes all disciplines as its purview: science, mathematics, engineering and technology; humanities and liberal arts; languages and literatures; architecture and design; art, dance, theatre, film and music; political and social sciences; historical, philosophical, and religious studies; theology and biblical studies; gender and ethnic studies; business and non-profit administration; communication, media studies and journalism; community development and social work; education; justice studies and law; medicine, nursing, and psychology; and environmental and sustainability studies.
We believe that “all truth is God’s truth,” and that believers must positively engage in every area of thought and life. It was for this very purpose that the greatest universities of Europe and the Americas were founded. AzCCS seeks to carry forward this great tradition in the institutions of higher education in Arizona.
Statement of Faith
zThe Arizona Center for Christian Studies affirms the historic, orthodox beliefs of the Christian faith as summarized in the Apostles and Nicene Creeds, which is also the statement of faith of the Consortium of Christian Study Centers. ACCS upholds the common Christian beliefs that C.S. Lewis called “mere Christianity” and is therefore nonsectarian.
Advisory Council
Advisory Council of the Arizona Center for Christian Studies (AzCCS):
- Ron Behee, M.S., Executive Director of Community Ministries International
- Dale Furnish, J.D., Emeritus Professor of Law, Arizona State University, and Chair of the Advisory Council of the Arizona Center for Christian Studies (dale.furnish at asu.edu)
- Todd Russell, B.S., Vice President, MidFirst Bank
- Ben Sanders, M.A., Campus Minister with Community Ministries International, Co-Director of the Campus Christian Center, and Executive Director of the Arizona Center for Christian Studies (veritas at asu.edu)