Nazarene International Education Association

The Nazarene International Education Association (NIEA) is now called Nazarene Educators Worldwide (NEW) and is a part of the Church of the Nazarene. The Church of the Nazarene owns and operates 11 liberal arts institutions in Africa, Canada, Korea, and the United States, as well as 3 graduate seminaries, 37 undergraduate Bible/theological colleges, 3 nurses training colleges, 1 junior college, and 1 education college worldwide.[1] At least in terms of the American institutions, the Church of the Nazarene seems to have changed its original official philosophy of abandoning academies, bible colleges, and universities to focus on liberal arts colleges, as 7 of the 8 "liberal arts colleges"[2] call themselves universities, and there is now a bible college in Colorado Springs. The early-twentieth-century philosophy, as expressed by J.B. Chapman:

It was originally the plan to call every school we started a “university” ... It was our ultimate aim to have universities and our schools were named according to our vision of future developments. But I am, personally, convinced that we should definitely abandon the idea of building any universities, that we should drop these names from our schools... [Moreover,] it is my conclusion that we ... cannot permanently maintain academies and they do not meet our need, that a special Bible school does not meet our needs and that we should express ourselves on this conviction.... That the College, with the necessary fitting school and Bible department[,] is the school that we need and will build."[3]

  1. ^ About the Church of the Nazarene Archived 2010-04-28 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Eastern Nazarene College is the only Nazarene school to retain the "college" moniker.
  3. ^ J.B. Chapman, remarks to the General Board of Education, February 15, 1922. Typescript. In the General Board of Education Collection, Nazarene Archives, file 604–13., found in "Why These Schools? Historical Perspectives on Nazarene Higher Education," by Stan Ingersol Archived 2008-06-24 at the Wayback Machine