Institute for Christian Studies

About Institute for Christian Studies

... Institute also maintains affiliated memberships with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, an evangelical academic organization that includes 100 institutions who are committed to maintaining high standards of intellectual excellence. It is also affiliated with the Association of Reformed Institutions of Higher Education in North America and the International Association for Promotion of Christian Higher Education. IAPCHE includes groups of five regional bodies in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia/Oceania, and Africa.

Campus: Facilities, Residence and Location

ICS provides resources to its students and the general public as well. The ICS Library offers its resources to everyone, although the students of ICS or Toronto School of Theology have the advantage of borrowing the collection of books much more easily. The ICS Faith and Learning Network helps bring together knowledgeable scholars who have Christian perspectives in their academic work. The Network offers bibliographic database and many other collections of Christian resources in one virtual station. The ICS Bookshop can be accessed online, and it offers transcripts, good books, academic papers, and tapes/cd’s of ICS events. The College’s newsletter is Perspective, and it offers many views and information about ICS and other campus events.

Student Services and Student Life

The The Institute for Christian Studies considers its students as its “Junior Members” and its faculty as its “Senior Members.” It knows that learning is not only confined to the classroom but also to the the community as well. Among it services include: a three-day orientation at the beginning of the year for incoming Junior Members; a twice a year annual retreat as a community; outings around Toronto, potluck dinners, gatherings in outdoor activities, entertainment and sports; off campus housing lists that can be obtained from the Student Service office; research facilities; computer facilities which include access to internet-connected computers and an email account; support from the Student Services office in administering Dossier Service for graduate study; academic employment, grants, and fellowships; assistance in the construction and editing of student papers; and provision of the Junior Member Handbook.

Academic Programs

The College offers masters and doctoral programs in interdisciplinary philosophy. These programs explore the association of philosophy with other fields of study, so it emphasizes six interdisciplinary clusters that are concentrated between the following areas: Aesthetics, Hermeneutics, and Philosophy of Discourse (Courses on the arts, culture, language, rhetoric, and inter religious dialogue); Anthropology and Ethics (Courses on community, ecology, embodiment, gender, and social critique); History of Philosophy (Courses on medieval, modern, and contemporary thought, with special attention to Aquinas, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Dewey, and Arendt); Knowledge, Truth, and Learning; Social and Political Philosophy (Courses on civil society); and Theology and Biblical Studies (Courses on theological aesthetics and hermeneutics, and spirituality and worship).

Scholarships and Financial Aid

The College offers the following scholarships to students: Bernard Zylstra Scholarship, Peter J. Steen Memorial Scholarship, Laura Dale Award, Wilma Cumming Memorial Scholarship, African Student Scholarship, Marinus Koole Memorial Scholarship, GDL Scholarship, Harry and Hilda Fernhout Ph.D. Award, Jean Olthuis Memorial Scholarship, Robert Lee Carvill Memorial Award, and Horticultural Services Scholarship.