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Abstract
Regent College is a unique institution, an ‘International Graduate School of Christian Studies,’ located on the campus of the University of British Columbia. Regent College's founding, though, was marked by several apparent paradoxes: a Plymouth Brethren heritage, its Vancouver location, and the Oxford ties of its founding principal, none of which appear logical when taken at face value. In order to discover and, if possible, explain the enigmas, the following organizing question was advanced: “If Regent College is the answer, what was (were) the question(s)?”
The inquiry, though historiographical in nature, was organized in the manner of a social science study and divided into five chapters: Introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, and conclusion. The study specifically identifies three strands of Regent College's tradition that directly led to its founding: Plymouth Brethren heritage (a small yet influential Evangelical Christian sect that traces its roots to the British Isles in the 1820s); an Oxford University connection (founding Principal Dr. James Houston); and a Vancouver location promoted primarily by businessman and Brethren elder, E. Marshall Sheppard. The study was primarily delimited along chronological lines, documenting the first iterations of the Regent College ‘vision’ in the early 1960s and concluding in Fall 1970 when the College opened its doors for the first time to full-time students.
In addition to building on the findings of previously published studies, additional sources of primary source information were utilized, including the Michael Collison collection (containing extensive archival material), and fifteen additional interviews, with persons of significance in Regent's early history (conducted in direct support of this study). Subjects were specifically queried regarding their understanding of Regent College's original vision and regarding the existence of a possible ‘competing’ vision. Subjects were likewise asked regarding their impressions of a unifying ‘meta-vision.’
The actual history (in Chapter 4) was related in terms of vision streams (Houston and Sheppard), chronological segments highlighting significant events from 1963 through 1970, and a concluding section, Contemporary Reflections, which summarized the fifteen recent interviews. Identifying Regent's founding vision with precision proved somewhat elusive, yet an overriding emphasis on theological training for the ‘whole people of God’ was almost universally endorsed. Several additional values emerged and were documented.
Emerging from the findings were several implications aimed primarily at Regent. Among these were the recommendations to recapture a measure of ‘Brethren’ identity (as part of its DNA). An additional recommendation involved revisiting Regent's affiliate status with the University of British Columbia (an unfulfilled part of the original vision). The study concluded with suggestions for further research.
