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September
6, 2002, 9:20 a.m. By Naomi Schaefer The Future of Religious Colleges, Edited by Paul J. Dovre (Wm. B. Eerdsmans) 368 pp. |
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uring
a panel at the recent meeting in New York of the Philanthropy Roundtable,
two presidents of conservative think tanks made reference to the oft-repeated
observation by Milton Friedman that the Right may have been lost the battle
in America's universities but its ideas are alive and well in Washington's
think tanks. Though neither Friedman nor his admirers would be likely
to suggest that think tanks can do the job of universities in its entirety,
the hopelessness of conservatives when it comes to American higher education
is as pervasive as it is unfortunate.
Oddly, though conservatives have invested financially and intellectually in faith-based alternatives to everything from soup kitchens to elementary schools, they have given comparatively little attention to religious colleges. This is due to a combination of factors, the most important being the loss of religious identity at the major Catholic universities and the historical lack of intellectual respectability at evangelical colleges. While the former has changed significantly less than the latter, religious colleges, taken as a whole, are more numerous, diverse, religiously committed, and intellectually serious than at any other point in their history. The Future of Religious Colleges, a new collection of essays that contains the results of a conference at Harvard on the topic, goes a long way toward demonstrating this.
Out of the 4,077 institutions listed in the 2000 Higher Education Directory, 764 have religious affiliations. Many of the essays authors acknowledge the ambiguity involved in the phrase "religious college," but most would probably agree to the definition presented by Rev. David M. O'Connell, president of Catholic University, that it "refers to those institutions of higher learning where the religion of the founding or sponsoring religious group has some direct influence upon the institution itself." He further explains, "By 'direct' I mean real, observable, clear, and effective, with an active connection between a particular religion and a particular academic institution."
But even this standard is a not a little ambiguous. Perhaps like the Supreme Court's view of pornography, it's easiest to say that you know a religious college when you see one. As Judson Carlberg, president of the evangelical Gordon College in Massachusetts writes, "Evangelical colleges are defined not only by their basic theological commitments but also by the daily routines of campus through which their convictions are given concrete expression." Students, for example, who attend the over 100 member institutions of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), have, according to Carlberg, "some unique characteristics…. [They] care about both the life of the mind and the life of the spirit. They attend church regularly, often more than once a week." And on campus, they "frequently create their own informal worship options." Carlberg also emphasizes the "heightened practice of voluntary service" on many of these campuses. "It is not unusual for over half the student body to be involved in soup kitchens, outreach to the elderly in nursing homes, tutoring urban youth, or visiting prisoners in jail."
But as any administrator on a secular campus will tell you, it's not particularly hard to get college kids to volunteer. And for evangelical students, who have grown up in a tradition of service and mission work, service work in college is nothing new. The bigger challenge for some evangelical colleges (like their secular counterparts) is getting students to engage in the intellectual life of the college. And this is where religious schools get interesting. As Carlberg notes, "Perhaps the most compelling distinctive practiced on many evangelical campuses is a commitment to develop a Christian worldview through the integration of faith with serious scholarship." This concept is elaborated in an essay by Joel Carpenter, provost at Calvin College, who quotes one of his colleagues, James Bratt, on "what makes higher education Christian." The answer, Bratt writes is:
not required chapel or Bible courses, not opportunities for extracurricular "service," not the cultivation of "character" or "citizenship,"… but the classroom as chapel, scholarship as devotion, Christianity at the base of the curriculum and suffusing all studies, the norms of faith guiding professional development….
It is this last idea — that faith can actually inform the way these graduates perform their jobs — that should most intrigue outsiders to the world of religious colleges. As Mark Roche, Notre Dame's dean of the College of Arts and Letters, suggests, the Catholic nature of the school drives the school's intellectual pursuits. "Christianity recognizes only one God, before whom all persons are equal irrespective of their origin. Out of this tradition, Christianity developed the concept of universal human rights, with its emphasis on the dignity of every person and the value of the common good." Not only, according to Roche does this explain the emphasis in the liberal arts curriculum on "poverty and development," but it is also revealed in the business school which "seeks to educate knowledgeable professionals whose work is informed by moral principles" and the College of Engineering, which "views its research as the utilization and development of the earth's resources in order to help humanity and thereby serve as an agent for God's work." Meanwhile the Regent University and Ave Maria law schools are trying to inform their students' understanding of the American legal system using the Christian intellectual tradition. And Baylor University is offering an extensive array of courses in medical ethics with a Christian emphasis.
From law to business to education to medicine, the writers of these essays emphasize that religious-college graduates can have an influence as "salt and light" throughout society. This represents a new political vision as much as a cultural and religious one. Carpenter is right to note that many Christian scholars have grown "weary" of the "culture-wars mentality, led by spokesmen such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson," which pits the religious against the intellectuals. More important, students also are no longer satisfied with being told that their religious beliefs can be reduced to a vote against abortion. Even Pat Robertson may have noticed that a more complex understanding of how religion can inform politics is necessary. In the same year that he resigned from the Christian Coalition, more than one graduate of Regent University's law school (of which he is the founder) won political office in Virginia.
Of course, some of the other Christian colleges discussed in this book take an entirely different view of theology and politics. The struggling but still strong Anabaptist-Mennonite colleges have, according to Paul Keim, academic dean at Goshen College, "a tradition of non-participation in military, police, and even political institutions." Though he emphasizes that not all students are pacifists, "the Mennonite peace position stands out as a clear institutional distinctive, and sharpens the sense of countercultural faithfulness so central to our sense of corporate identity."
Maintaining identity is the name of the game for religious colleges. As James Burtchaell and other scholars have well demonstrated, the forces working against these schools can be overwhelming. Aside from the temptations administrators face to attract a larger pool scholars and students by watering down their religious commitments, the schools must navigate some difficult legal waters. Three essays at the end of the book present a fascinating and comprehensive overview of these difficulties from regulations for government funding, to academic freedom and hiring. Then there are the financial considerations. Among the many other difficulties of religious schools cutting or loosening ties with their sponsoring churches is that they no longer receive the same degree of financial support. And many didn't have sponsoring churches to begin with.
Despite the practical uncertainties about the future of individual colleges, the book's essays accurately present the great revitalization of religious higher education. Not only has there been a significant increase in enrollment at many of the colleges but, as Paul Dovre, president emeritus of Concordia College and the book's editor, observes, "Religiously informed scholarship is finding an expanding audience." In fact religious-college graduates are finding an expanding audience, taking their unique ethical perspective into the widest range of professions. It's no wonder that Dovre writes of the scholars' conversation: There was "clearly a distinguishable mood of hopefulness."
— Naomi Schaefer is currently writing a book on religious colleges.