Theological Position

The Theological Position of Regent College consists of a Doctrinal Statement and a Moral Vision.

Doctrinal Statement

The Educational Mission of Regent College speaks of “the handing on of living faith from one generation to another.” We believe that the content of this faith is set forth in the revelation of God given in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. We confess the faith therein set forth and summarized in such historic statements of the Christian church as the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. We here explicitly assert doctrines that we regard as crucial to the understanding and proclamation of the gospel and to practical Christian living:

We believe in:

1. The sovereignty and grace of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in creation, providence, revelation, redemption, and final judgement.


2. The divine inspiration of Holy Scripture and its consequent entire trustworthiness and supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.


3. The universal sinfulness and guilt of human nature since the fall, bringing everyone under God's wrath and condemnation.


4. The substitutionary sacrifice of the incarnate Son of God as the sole ground of redemption from the guilt, penalty, and power of sin.


5. The justification of the sinner by the grace of God through faith alone in Christ crucified and risen from the dead.


6. The illuminating, regenerating, indwelling, and sanctifying work of God the Holy Spirit in the believer.


7. The unity and common priesthood of all true believers, who together form the one universal Church, the Body of which Christ is the Head.


8. The expectation of the personal, visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Moral Vision

Our statement of Global Mission speaks of "commitment to Jesus Christ," which implies the embrace not only of the truth, but also of the way of life that He invites His disciples to inhabit. Consonant with this, our statement of Educational Mission expresses the hope that our students will not only have "their minds filled with the truth of Christ" and "their imaginations captivated by the glory of Christ,” but will also have “their characters formed according to the virtues of Christ." We embrace a moral vision. The content of this vision, just as the content of the Christian faith, is set forth in the revelation of God given in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and it is passed down in the tradition of the Church. Important aspects of the vision are captured in the following affirmations:

1. We affirm that as a Christian community—a community under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and in communion with Him, and the Father, and the Holy Spirit—we do not regard it as being our task to construct a moral vision, but rather to receive this vision from God, as God has revealed it to us in the Scriptures. It is not for human beings, we believe—whether individually or in groups—to invent morality. It is for God, who made us, to show us what we were made for and to lead us in His way. The Christian moral vision arises out of the vision of God and the revelation of God (and the Christian moral life is indeed intrinsic to and empowered by the Gospel which brings persons into union with Christ by the Spirit). This vision is not rooted, for example, in what is claimed to be the consensus or the majority view.


2. We affirm that we do indeed understand ourselves as a Christian community. Our statement of Core Values refers to Regent College as at its heart “a community of Christian scholars,” aiming “not simply to be informed by study but also to be transformed by the Holy Spirit through study, to the end that we might become more Christ-like and therefore more fully human.” Into this continuing community we welcome our students, who are sojourners within it. They are invited to join us for a time in the hope that our curriculum “will establish them in the evangelical tradition” and “deepen their faith and theological understanding.” It is important to emphasize this holistic, communal, integrated understanding of our life together at Regent College, in a world that has become accustomed to thinking of educational institutions as concerned only with thinking and not with virtue. We reject such a view of the educational institution, its continuing members and its sojourners. We do not think of our educational mission as involving only the mind. We aspire together to something grander and nobler, centred on the core Christian ideas of love for God and love for neighbours.


3. As a Christian community, we affirm indeed that we need to take all our neighbour- relationships seriously, seeking to understand and live them in light of our biblical and theological commitments. We want to embrace the vast implications of being the “new humanity in Christ,” loving our neighbours as ourselves. This implies at least two imperatives:


• On the one hand, there is the imperative to include and to embrace others – the imperative to be hospitable towards and respectful of those who are different from us. This hospitality and respect should extend to those who are different from us in sex (male and female), ethnicity or race (cf. Galatians 3:28); and in denominational and theological commitments and perspectives. Regent College takes this imperative seriously, in welcoming students as varied as the whole people of God (and indeed from beyond the community of faith) and seeking to create an environment in which all students are encouraged to engage in courteous and respectful conversation in the pursuit of truth, as we seek to be formed and reformed by the Scriptures. The College also welcomes and actively pursues qualified faculty who share this commitment.


• On the other hand, there is the imperative to challenge and correct others, where they adopt postures or indulge in behaviour that is out of line with the Christian moral vision, and to encourage others in the pursuit of holiness. We should not confuse love for our neighbours with indifference to, or even approval of, sin, nor should we be reluctant, because of love for our neighbours, to prompt them towards the good. Regent College also takes this imperative seriously, expecting all members of its community to live the Christian life, to encourage each other to do so, and to hold each other accountable when we do not.
4. Although this is not the place to articulate fully the Christian moral vision that arises out of the vision of God and the revelation of God, as contained in our Christian Scriptures, we affirm that it certainly includes the following:


• A posture toward our neighbour and indeed toward creation at large, that is informed by such virtues as meekness, mercifulness, peaceableness, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Matthew 5:1-12; Galatians 5:22).


• Choices and actions that are informed by a concern for justice and designed to promote such justice on behalf of those who are deprived of it (Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 16:19, 24:17; Amos 5:24).


• Choices and actions that are informed by love for, and a concern to look after, the good creation that God has made (Genesis 2:15; Psalm 8).


• Choices and actions that are informed by a reverence for human life, from conception to the grave (Psalm 139:13-16).


• Choices and actions that are informed by an acceptance that in God’s creation purposes the physical expression of our sexuality may only rightly occur within a marriage between one man and one woman; that marriage itself is designed to last a lifetime; and that celibacy is the right path for those who are not married (Genesis 2:20-24; Malachi 2:13-16; Matthew 19:1-12; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

The Christian moral vision includes all of the above. We do not believe that Jesus calls us to adopt a casual attitude towards justice or care of creation. Nor do we believe that the embrace of holiness is less important than the embrace of justice or care of creation. Jesus did not offer hospitality to the sinner in order to establish the sinner in his or her sin. In sum, it is not our right to choose which aspects of the Christian moral vision to accept, and which to reject. It is rather our duty, and as we grow up as Christians it increasingly becomes our delight, to seek to love God and God’s creation in all the many ways that we are called to do this, paying attention to “the whole will of God” (Acts 20:27).

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Each year, all faculty (both full-time and sessionals), senior administrators, and members of the Board of Governors subscribe in writing to the College's theological position.