2023-2024 Undergraduate Catalog

For Graduate Catalog, select the down arrow at the top right.

Revised July 2023

Our Mission

We challenge one another to explore and express Christ’s preeminence in all things. 

The Covenant College Motto and Logo

Covenant’s motto, “In all things Christ preeminent,” is based on the apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossian church, in which he reminds young believers of Jesus Christ’s central and exalted role in relationship to the created order: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.” (Colossians 1:15-18) Jesus Christ’s status as the firstborn of all creation is the foundation of Covenant’s educational mission, as the College seeks as a community of learning to know and celebrate his preeminence in all dimensions of existence.

There is a long tradition in Western academia of higher educational institutions being represented graphically by a shield bearing heraldic insignia associated with the institution. Covenant’s icon is also a shield, indicating the College’s close affinity with the best aspects of the Western higher academic tradition. However, while other colleges employ a simple shield shape, Covenant’s logo is distinctive, unique to the College.

In the left half of the shield lies an iconographic thistle. Used as a logo from the earliest days of the College, the thistle has a much longer history as the national symbol of Scotland. In the College’s context, the thistle points to the distinctly Scottish heritage of Presbyterianism. But for the Scots themselves it is a reminder of the legendary day in 1263 when the invading Vikings of King Haakon IV stepped on the prickly spurs and cried out in pain, thus alerting the sleeping Scots to their presence. The Norsemen would never rule over or attack the Scots again.

Offset in the right-hand side of the shield is a swatch of Covenant tartan. Many academic shields contain some sort of symmetrical chevron, cross, or division. Covenant, in keeping with that tradition, employs a chevron in its shield. But, as was the case with the shield’s shape, this element strays from the bounds of Western tradition to emphasize again Covenant’s distinct character. The swatch of plaid used for the chevron is derived from the Clergy tartan worn in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by Scottish pastors and employed by the College in various uses since its founding.