Die Afrikaanse Protestantse Akademie Biblioteek

This publication presents all the papers read at a conference held at the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education during September 1975. The theme of the conference (initiated by Prof. HJJ . Bingle, at the time rector of the PU for CHE) was formulated as " Reformed Institutions for Higher Education as a Bulwark for the Kingdom of God -- present and future". The idea of such institutions as a "bulwark for the Kingdom of God" is toned down in the title of this book. The difference in tone may be explained as the result of the difference between a stage of planning and a stage of looking back on what was carried out of that planning. Such a re­ view of this enterprise cannot be unaccompanied by the feelings of being "sadder but wiser" . Something of this is reflected in the prefatory notes of Prof. Bingle to this book. Experiences of the conference came to be com­ mitted to paper in this publication and Prof. Bingle remarks very aptly amongst other things that this collection of conference papers reveals a probable "identification of important differences of opinion on Christian Higher Education." But if this insight meant a revision of the idea of in­ stitutions for Christian higher education as "bulwarks for the Kingdom of God", this publication also serves to put on record another experience of the conference: "that there are encouraging signs -of a will to find one another in our common pursuit of an honest appraisal of the Christian principle in higher education".