God invites us to participate in his grand plan of reconciliation through the vocation of restoration in a broken world. This vocation is a call to shine a light in the darkness. Like a jeweler who holds a diamond up against a black canvas to see the color and clarity, the vocation of restoration is best seen in the darkest places where people are hurting the most. These “day-blind stars” shine brightest in the darkness.1 Faculty at Samford University’s College of Health Sciences (CHS) help students see the image of God, or imago Dei, in themselves and others by participating in the vocation of restoration. In CHS, students are trained to see people at their worst and yet offer them hope in their darkest hour. Graduates from CHS hold the hands of their patients and weep alongside them. They acknowledge that this is not the way it should be, and the skills and knowledge they are equipped with allow them to participate in God’s physical healing of their patients in addition to the spiritual hope found only in Jesus. The College of Health Sciences serves as a beacon in healthcare education where faculty and students can respond to the imago Dei with the vocation of restoration.
Overview of the Theme Issue
To see someone as imago Dei is to see them as known and loved by God. In this themed issue, faculty members from all four schools within CHS will explain how they help students see the imago Dei in themselves and in those with whom they will serve after graduation, as people deeply loved and cared for by God. After my initial article addressing the tension between suffering and flourishing in the imago Dei for healthcare providers, the following articles focus on how faculty and students live out these tensions in each of the schools within CHS: the McWhorter School of Pharmacy, the School of Public Health, the School of Health Professions, and the Moffett & Sanders School of Nursing. But to better understand Samford University’s commitment to Christ-centered higher education and, more specifically, healthcare education, one must look at the origin of the university and CHS.
History of Samford University’s College of Health Sciences
Healthcare education has long been part of Samford University’s DNA. In 1841, Howard College was established as a college for men, but quickly evolved into a more comprehensive endeavor.2 Named to honor John Howard, 18th-century English social reformer who “embodied the college’s founding principles of faith, intellect, benevolence, and virtue,” the hope of Howard College was “to liberate young men from the corrupting influences of frontier rowdyism, plantation hedonism, and cultural secularism and transform them into useful and enlightened Christian citizens.”3
After surviving two fires, the Civil War, and two relocations, Howard College finally settled in Homewood, Alabama and was renamed Samford University in 1965. Shortly after changing its name, Samford began educating nursing students as part of its continued commitment to being a “community of learners who accepted and furthered the gospel message, pursued a deeper understanding of God’s universe, served their community and country, and exemplified good moral character.”4 Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing, originally established in 1922 as an independent institution, officially became part of the university offerings in 1973.5 In addition to the now-named Moffett & Sanders School of Nursing, pharmacy education has been part of Samford’s repertoire since 1927, when the McWhorter School of Pharmacy was founded as part of Howard College.6 Over the years, Samford has continued to deepen its commitment to educating students in the health sciences. “In 2013, Samford announced the College of Health Sciences, a new model for healthcare education that would build on the strengths of the university’s schools of nursing and pharmacy and allow for the creation of two new schools, School of Health Professions and School of Public Health.”7
Established on a Christian liberal arts foundation and having a deep commitment to health sciences education, Samford is in a unique position in Christian higher education. This position requires careful attention to be paid not only to what is being taught, but to the whole-person “development of intellect, creativity, faith and personhood” of the students who graduate.8 The goal of each school in Samford’s CHS is to provide high-quality academics to its students and to participate in the vocation of restoration by seeing those they serve as people made in the image of God.
A Commitment to Christ-Centered Education
As one of the demonstrated commitments to Christ-centered education, each school in CHS has adopted a theme verse to serve as a reminder and a north star to guide its practices through scripture. These verses are unique to each school and are seen in various places on the walls of the CHS building, as well as on t-shirts and printed materials, in some cases serving as constant reminders of their school’s missional focus.
The McWhorter School of Pharmacy
The school of pharmacy’s Practice- and Team-Ready curriculum focuses on the theme of “running.” This shared language is carried throughout each year of the student’s time in pharmacy school. Additionally, and keeping with this theme of running, the school has adopted Hebrews 12:1 as their theme verse, “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” This verse helps to center faculty and students on the bigger purpose behind their studies and grounds them in the hope of Christ. In their article, “Imago Dei: A Pharmacist Perspective,” Amy Broeseker and Caitlin Brown contend that understanding pharmacy education through the lens of the imago Dei forms students to see patients, colleagues, and themselves as bearers of God’s image and thus worthy of dignity, compassion, and faithful care.
The School of Public Health
The school chose Ephesians 2:10 as their theme verse, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Helping students to see that they have been created with a purpose is vital to the work in the School of Public Health. By empowering students to see that God is equipping them for their vocation, students are able to find meaning in the work they do. In their article titled, “Public Health: Interprofessional Reflections on the Image of God,” Faculty members, Emily Bourne, Amy Cameron, Ashley Licata, Dennis McCay, Rachel Hagues, and Rachel Bailey describe how public health education shaped by the imago Dei forms students to understand their work as a Christian vocation, equipping them to pursue human dignity, justice, and the flourishing of individuals and communities through their professional callings.
The School of Health Professions
The theme verse of the School of Health Professions is 1 Peter 4:10, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” This common language shapes the community of students, faculty, and staff, reminding them that their gifts are entrusted for the service of others. In “Imago Dei in Practice: Service, Vocation, and Healthcare Formation at Samford University’s School of Health Professions,” C. Scott Bickel, Brad Cantley, Kameron Carden, Alan Jung, Maegan Powell, and Sarah Ross show how programs in Samford University’s School of Health Professions integrate theological reflection on the imago Dei with clinical education through initiatives that engage culturally diverse communities, support bilingual families, and involve students in international medical mission work.
The Moffett & Sanders School of Nursing
The nursing school has Hebrews 6:10 as their theme verse, “For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.” They are committed to teaching students that their work is an act of service to God. This approach shapes how they interact with instructional materials, classroom relationships, and those they serve in the clinics. Students offer physical care as well as a spirit of hope for their patients’ souls. In “The Golden Thread of Caring: Living Out Hebrews 6:10,” faculty members, Amy Snow, Kristen Johnston, and Ashley Turner describe how the Moffett & Sanders School of Nursing forms students to recognize the imago Dei in patients, families, and fellow learners, cultivating nursing practice that integrates clinical skill with Christ-centered compassion. Through initiatives such as reflective mentoring, where faculty guide students in connecting faith and practice; Thrive, a program that supports students’ spiritual and emotional well-being; and Ida’s Clothes Closet, which provides clothing and essentials for patients in need, they demonstrate how nursing education can form caregivers who attend to both physical and spiritual needs.
While each school is dedicated to its guiding verse, the articles in this issue show that these scriptures are more than just symbolic mottos. They shape the faculty’s pedagogical imagination and the students’ Christian formation. Throughout the College of Health Sciences, the shared theological conviction that every person bears the imago Dei guides how faculty teach, mentor, and prepare students to serve patients, communities, and colleagues with skill, compassion, and hope.
The final article reflects a focus group discussion by the faculty authors of these pieces, offering practical ways in which the integration of faith and learning informs their teaching, research, scholarship, and, most importantly, their greater role as faculty members.
Editor’s note: These articles offer readers an inside view of how one Christian university has intentionally brought Christian thought and formation to the forefront of both its curriculum and co-curricular life—particularly within the health sciences, where questions of faith-learning integration have received relatively limited attention. While rooted in the context of Samford University, the practices described here point toward a broader possibility: that theological convictions such as the imago Dei can shape not only what is taught in healthcare education but also how students are formed to serve others. We hope these examples encourage other institutions to create faculty working groups that reflect on how their curricula and formative practices can be more intentionally and comprehensively grounded in Christian thought.
- Wendell Berry, “The Peace of Wild Things,” Reader’s Digest 174, no. 1044 (2009):171. ↩︎
- “History,” Samford University, accessed November 6, 2025,https://www.samford.edu/about/history. ↩︎
- S. Jonathan Bass, From Every Stormy Wind That Blows: The Idea of Howard Collegeand the Origins of Samford University (Louisiana State University Press, 2024), 5. ↩︎
- Bass, From Every Stormy Wind That Blows, 6. ↩︎
- “Nursing History,” Samford University, accessed November 7, 2025,https://www.samford.edu/nursing/history ↩︎
- “Pharmacy History,” Samford University, accessed November 7, 2025,https://www.samford.edu/pharmacy/history. ↩︎
- Katie Stripling, “Samford Dedicates Revolutionary New College of Health Sciences Facilities,” September 9, 2016,https://www.samford.edu/news/2016/09/Samford–Dedicates–Revolutionary–New–College–of–Health–Sciences–Facilities. ↩︎
- The Samford University website states that “The mission of Samford Universityis to nurture persons in their development of intellect, creativity, faith and personhood.As a Christian university, the community fosters academic, career and ethical compe-tency while encouraging social and civic responsibility and service to others.” See,“Samford Mission, Vision, and Values,” Samford University, accessed December 16,2025, https://www.samford.edu/about/mission. ↩︎
