A Love of Learning
The spirit that pervades every aspect of the Templeton Honors College is the ancient Christian ideal of the love of learning that leads to the desire for God. Little more than a century ago, almost all American colleges and universities shared that ideal. The seal of Harvard College featured an open Bible and the motto VERITAS ('truth'); Dartmouth College's seal carried the missionary plea, 'Come Over and Help Us.' They shared the conviction that all knowledge was given by God and led to God...that both the physical world and human nature followed a basic pattern of created natural law...and that the college students who would be the next generation of leaders had a special responsibility to use that knowledge for the fostering of a moral republic.
The Templeton Honors College at Eastern University seeks to revive this conviction, and with it, the ancient Christian ideal of the love of learning that leads to the desire for God. It recognizes that the student is more than just a social integer looking for credentials, but a rational person who wants a coherent world-and-life view and who wants it displayed at the most demanding intellectual level.
Students who are accepted into the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University will be concurrently enrolled in both the Templeton Honors College curriculum and in any of the regular undergraduate programs and majors offered at Eastern. THC courses comprise approximately 25% of the total undergraduate credits, and will stand in the place of Eastern University's normal Core Curriculum (as well as most of the college's general education requirements). (see course requirements)
Templeton Honors College students will then take the courses appropriate to their majors in the regular departments of the college. At least one Templeton Honors College seminar or tutorial will be offered each semester during a student's undergraduate program. Participation in the Templeton Honors College will become part of the student's personal academic record, and graduates of the Templeton Honors College will receive a special medallion in ceremonies at the Eastern University's commencements.
