The founders of Perelandra College imagined a community like none they had ever encountered, wherein writers of Christian belief or those seeking answers about the faith could develop their craft, explore their individual voices and wrestle with the themes and quests they felt called to follow.

While artists may free themselves from the chaos of infinite possibility by imposing boundaries and structures, they will rarely produce work of any value while allowing themselves to be limited by the doctrines, visions, attitudes or world views developed by others.

In our community, student writers are guided by mentors who encourage the search for inspiration, the courage to risk offending timid thinkers, and the willingness to challenge even the most time-honored theories.

We agree with the comment of Branch Rickey, a wise and influential baseball executive: “Prefer excesses of enthusiasm to the complacency of wisdom.” While we don’t advocate excesses, neither do we fear them. What we fear and oppose is complacency. So we encourage our students to dismiss the formula What Readers Want and instead to consider such writers as Feodor Dostoyevski, Graham Greene, Flannery O’Connor, Annie Dillard and C.S. Lewis, who achieved both artistic and commercial success by writing from their Christian hearts. Such authors can upend readers' lives and send them on new paths.

The Counseling program exists to promote spiritual, emotional and cognitive growth by enabling students to become productive caregivers and counselors sustained and inspired by both Biblical wisdom and insights from theorists and researchers in the field of psychology.