Academic Programs

Admissions

Tuition & Financial Aid

Student Experience

Foundational DocumentsThe Cornerstone Christian Worldview

The Cornerstone Christian Worldview

The Christian worldview is a comprehensive outlook on all parts of life based on the Holy Scriptures – the Bible. We the people of Cornerstone University commit ourselves to The Cornerstone Christian worldview as our comprehensive outlook on all parts of life and as our guide for living and understanding the world.

* Affirmed by Cornerstone University Board of Trustees on September 21, 2022.

The Christian Worldview Statement

1. Purpose Statement: A worldview is a comprehensive outlook on all parts of life that a person uses as a guide for living and understanding the world. The Christian worldview is a comprehensive outlook on all parts of life based on the Holy Scriptures – the Bible. The Christian worldview clarifies our life in this world. It helps us to understand who we are, how we and the world have been harmed, what is the solution, and where we are going. It tells us the meaning of life, what is real, what is right and wrong, and what is truth and how we can discover it. We the people of Cornerstone University commit ourselves to The Cornerstone Christian worldview as our comprehensive outlook on all parts of life and as our guide for living and understanding the world.

2. The Christian worldview helps us to understand God and His world and holistically respond—in intellect, will, affections and body—to God’s gracious revelation of Himself.

3. The Christian worldview rises from the Bible and its major moments and movements: God’s good creation of all that exists, the fall of humanity, the redemption of humanity and creation through Christ, and the future and ultimate realization of God’s kingdom and all His purposes. God created all that exists. He uniquely and directly created Adam and Eve in His own image and likeness. But Adam and Eve sinned and rejected God’s purpose for them. Though still maintaining clear marks of God’s creative handiwork, His good creation was badly damaged by Adam’s rebellion, which corrupted the human race with the guilt and pollution of original sin and ravaged society, the earth, all living things, and our desires and abilities to appropriately respond to God. God declared all things would eventually be set right. God’s promises of redemption to Adam were sketched in the figures, lives, and actions of and revelation to the ancient Jewish people. From them arose the Messiah, Jesus the Son of God, fully God and fully man. Jesus lived the perfect life that we could not, so that His righteous life might count for us. He then offered His life in our place. He bore our sins, guilt and shame on the cross, enduring His Father’s wrath. He then rose triumphantly over sin, death and Satan. He ascended to heaven, where He reigns at the Father’s right hand, and He will return to establish His kingdom and live with us on the new earth. In the meantime, His Holy Spirit enables us to respond to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ to make disciples of all nations, the Cultural Mandate given to Adam and Eve for all generations to create a God-honoring world and to all of God’s other good commands. His children have been enabled to bring glory to God and enjoy Him, humanity’s chief end.

4. The Christian worldview motivates and directs the academic vision and the daily pursuits of the people of Cornerstone University. We commit ourselves to examine and be shaped by how the Bible and the biblical truth of creation, fall, redemption and the ultimate realization of God’s kingdom speak about reality (metaphysics), about truth and knowledge (epistemology), about what is good (ethics) and about what is beautiful (aesthetics). We do this so we might better love and praise our God with our whole selves, through our academic disciplines and through our vocations as members of our university.

5. What is Real? Our sovereign, triune God is Ultimate Reality. He exists apart from, is beyond and is entirely different than His dependent creation. Yet He is also fully present with us and in all of creation. Our holy and loving God created a world whose reality surpasses all merely social, linguistic or personal perspectives. And He created humanity in His image to responsibly steward this world on His behalf. A Christian liberal arts education empowers us to flourish as God’s image bearers: loving Him, serving neighbors, developing and influencing culture, and periodically resting even within a marred creation that maintains some of its inherent goodness.

6. What is Truth and Knowledge? Our sovereign, triune God is Truth, Wisdom and Knowledge. He provides human beings with access to these through His general revelation and, especially, His special revelation, as embodied in His perfect Son, Jesus Christ, and His authoritative, inspired and inerrant Scriptures. Any belief, claim or statement is true when it corresponds to God, His mind and His knowledge as communicated through His revelation. While we are finite and deeply harmed due to our sinful nature and condition, God has graciously and adequately equipped us to describe the world as it is. God’s Word at work within us through the Holy Spirit corrects our sinful suppression of His truth, instructs us how to interpret His broken world and renews our minds to better understand God and His purposes.

7. What is Good? Our sovereign, triune God is Good. He is the Ultimate Good and is the source of all that is good. Any goodness we encounter in the world is a reflection of Him. His holy nature grounds ethics, and His holy Bible reveals to us His moral principles, rules and defines the good life. All human beings are inclined to look to themselves and their communities as the standard of what is right and good, but God has not left us to ourselves. He has given us the Spirit who empowers us to live faithfully and judge morality and goodness by the standards of Scripture.

8. What is Beauty? Our sovereign, triune God is Beauty. He is the source of beauty and all that is beautiful. We seek to experience and reflect His truth, goodness and beauty through our own cultural endeavors in a fallen world. As such, these endeavors give voice to our sorrows and joys, pointing to what was, what is, what should be and what will be when our Savior returns to restore all things.

9. The Christian worldview asserts the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all creation, points to the inestimable worth and graciousness of the gospel, and calls for the true and proper worship of our triune God. In the context of Christian higher education, the framework it provides enables the people of Cornerstone University to be better agents of God’s truth and reconciliation as we submit to Christ and influence the world for Him.

Cornerstone University

Hours

MON - FRI: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
SAT & SUN: Closed

Want to Learn More About CU?

Connect with Cornerstone