This article is an electronic version of an article originally published in Cultic Studies Journal, 1987, Volume 4, Number 1, pages 61-72. Please keep in mind that the pagination of this electronic reprint differs from that of the bound volume. This fact could affect how you enter bibliographic information in papers that you may write.

Teaching Students Who Already Know the Truth

David McKenzie, Ph.D.

Abstract

It is very difficult to encourage intellectual inquiry among the growing number of dogmatic college students who believe in the inerrancy and absolute authority of the Bible and deem rational discourse to be a waste of time, even satanic. 'Me dangers to a free society of this trend in contemporary Christianity should be confronted by a conscious classroom approach to the challenge: instructors should become familiar with the attitudes and arguments of dogmatic students and adjust approaches accordingly, cultivating friendly rather than adversarial relationships with these students, preparing specifically for the kinds of arguments they will make in class, and directly attacking dogmatism from the standpoint of the instructors discipline.

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