1. The Secular Approach...The idea..or thesis..of the Secular Approach is that everyone should be intimately familiar with the standard collection of classical literature in the western tradition-often called the western canon. This western canon includes the works of Homer, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, Dante, Shakespeare, Gibbon, etc. The Harvard Classics and the Great Book philosophy represent this approach. This approach highly esteems the traditions of western civilization. It is humanist in principle because it implicitly measures all things by human standards.
2. The Devotional Approach...This approach is the opposite, or anithesis, of the Secular Approach. Thi sholds to a smaller, more denominational canon consisting of religious and devotional literature, which may include confessions and catechisms, commentaries, devotional and practical works. The religious tradition or denomination (Reformed, Lutheran, Baptist, Pentecostal, Amish, etc) determines what particular literature is included. The more intellectual might read theological works and Puritan writings. Many of those who follow the devotional Approach will discourage reading outside the canon of their own denomination. They tend to withdraw fromt he secular world into their own private circle. They particularly fear the defilement which can come from reading much worldly literature, such as the western canon of classical literature.
3. The Religious-Intellectual Approach...This approach uses essentially the identical western canon of classical literature as the Secular Approach, to which it adds more religious literature - though broader than the denominational canons of the Devotional Approach.
4. The Mature Christian Approach...What we need is a mature Christian approach. By mature, we mean fully developed, with everything in its place, performing its proper function. We here present what, in our opinion, are the principles from which to develope an approach which is acceptable to God. Christians should step outside the immature process of bargaining between extremes, and into the real world of absolutes and of accountability to God. Christians should focus, neither on the intellectual, nor on the practical, nor on a compromise between the two, but upon the God of both intellect and of practice. A true intellectual should be someone who is thoroughly familiar with the Scriptures and who knows how to practically apply the truths of Scripture to every facet of human culture. Christians do not necessariily shun nor do they embrace other literature until they first determine from where it comes, and to where it leads......
Sorry for any typos...