Love to Know

Students come to Laidlaw because they want to know God, or know others, or know how to counsel people, or how to educate children, or how to study and preach from the scriptures. Some people come because they love knowledge itself. It was JRR Tolkien who famously celebrated people who loved knowledge of other things simply because they were “other.” And Laidlaw College invites both people who long to know how to be something or how to do something, but also those who value learning in and of itself.

In other words, we welcome anyone who “loves to know”. On a deeper level “Love to know” says far more. At the heart of Laidlaw College’s vision is the belief that without love we cannot know. This is derived from our core beliefs about God — that he is relational as Father, Son and Spirit, and that love defines who and what he is. And also about people — that, as image-bearers of God, we were created to discover our personhood in relational encounter with God and others.

These beliefs are foundational to the College’s vision of engaging society, the culture, and the world, from a richly theological perspective. So, we love in order to know. Without love, we cannot truly know. Without truly engaging with others, or without truly treasuring others in their otherness, we cannot hope to “know” in a way congruent with who we believe God and people to be.

This is the spirit behind our degrees, our programmes, our research, and our mission and vision statements. Laidlaw College understands its mission to be the equipping of people to renew their communities with a faith that sees and anticipates the New Creation, and which, on that basis, engages the world in love. So, at Laidlaw College, love is prior to knowing. And knowing comes because we love. Hearts engage minds, and relational formation is the key to intelligence. All in service to our vision of shaping the world with love compelled and informed by the gospel.