He also said the board received support from the church in granting the professors the right to dissent on this issue.
The issue is not over, however. In granting the professors’ wishes, the board said it would be revising professors’ guidelines on how to continue their work in a way that respects the authority of the denomination but also protects their academic freedom.
The revised guidelines are expected in the next few weeks.
“Our desire is that Calvin be a place where even our disagreements are characterized by love, charity, and grace,” Provost Noah Toly said in an email. “We are hopeful that this process and outcome can serve as a model for others as we continue to wrestle with important issues.”
A spokesman for the university said candidates for faculty positions will be asked to affirm Calvin’s confessional standards. If they cannot, they will be expected to submit a gravamen to the Professional Status Committee and the Board of Trustees before they are hired.
The Rev. Zachary King, general secretary of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, said Calvin has a long history of both confessional commitment and academic freedom.
The university, King said, “allows dialogue and research on a range of matters touching theology and doctrine. ”
Asked how she felt after the board’s decision, Benita Wolters-Fredlund, dean of the School of Humanities, wrote in an email to Religion News Service that she had many reactions. including, “relief that my job was spared, as well as the jobs of others in the group who I care about deeply,” and “gratitude to the Board for a response that emphasized unity rather than discord.”
“I hope that this decision will allow us to focus on the shared work of equipping students to be Christ’s agents of renewal,” Wolters-Fredlund wrote.
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This article originally appeared on ReligionNews.com.
