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The Idea of a Christian College: A Reexamination for Today's University
About the Contributor(s): Todd C. Ream (PhD, The Pennsylvania State University) is Professor of Higher Education at Taylor University and a research fellow with Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion. Perry L. Glanzer (PhD, University of Southern California) is Professor of Educational Foundations and a faculty fellow with the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University. Together, they serve as the book review editors for Christian Scholar's Review and are the authors of Christian Faith and Scholarship: An Exploration of Contemporary Developments and Christianity and Moral Identity in Higher Education.
174 pages, Paperback
First published October 27, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 31, 2018
“The purpose of the university should be to develop human beings or persons to their full capacity.”
Christian higher education seems to have always been on the defense. As small liberal arts colleges gave away to land grant and research universities, Christians had to create their own realm of higher education. As society changed through the tumultuous twentieth century, big universities were on the forefront of this change while Christian schools lagged behind. When Christian campuses did change, it was met with great reluctance and resentment.
There have been plenty of books written about the purpose and mission of Christian higher education, yet, to me, they all seem to give the same message: Christian schools are better than non-Christian schools because they have the real truth in Jesus. Now, of course, no one says it that bluntly or absurdly.
While reading The Idea of a Christian College: A Reexamination for Today’s University, it like the authors were being very defensive, as if their book was responding to the accusation that Christian colleges and universities were inferior. To me, there was a strong us versus them mentality.
Although, I understand their defensiveness; Christian higher education has been a bit under fire as of late. I guess I am just getting tired of the war between Christian higher education and public universities. I don’t think one is better than the other, but they do serve different – yet both important – roles in our society.
In the end, I didn’t feel like this book was a great addition to the work published by Holmes back in 1975. I want to see a book dive deeper into the practices of a Christian university rather than just the soul and mission.
But there were a couple good quotes…
“Failure to place Christian worship at the center…of the Christian university, at the center of our common educational experience is to allow us to run the risk of being re-enslaved to gods of our own creation.”
“This side of eternity, we may never have all the answers. However, we will know the questions we should ask and trust in the wisdom God offers us to live faithfully in the meantime.”
Christian higher education seems to have always been on the defense. As small liberal arts colleges gave away to land grant and research universities, Christians had to create their own realm of higher education. As society changed through the tumultuous twentieth century, big universities were on the forefront of this change while Christian schools lagged behind. When Christian campuses did change, it was met with great reluctance and resentment.
There have been plenty of books written about the purpose and mission of Christian higher education, yet, to me, they all seem to give the same message: Christian schools are better than non-Christian schools because they have the real truth in Jesus. Now, of course, no one says it that bluntly or absurdly.
While reading The Idea of a Christian College: A Reexamination for Today’s University, it like the authors were being very defensive, as if their book was responding to the accusation that Christian colleges and universities were inferior. To me, there was a strong us versus them mentality.
Although, I understand their defensiveness; Christian higher education has been a bit under fire as of late. I guess I am just getting tired of the war between Christian higher education and public universities. I don’t think one is better than the other, but they do serve different – yet both important – roles in our society.
In the end, I didn’t feel like this book was a great addition to the work published by Holmes back in 1975. I want to see a book dive deeper into the practices of a Christian university rather than just the soul and mission.
But there were a couple good quotes…
“Failure to place Christian worship at the center…of the Christian university, at the center of our common educational experience is to allow us to run the risk of being re-enslaved to gods of our own creation.”
“This side of eternity, we may never have all the answers. However, we will know the questions we should ask and trust in the wisdom God offers us to live faithfully in the meantime.”
June 13, 2024
I really enjoyed this book til the last few chapters and now I am unsure what to think. That being said, it touched its finger on a number of issues in the Christian academy today.
February 20, 2014
This book was not what I wanted it to be. That may be my own fault. When I read an interview with the authors, I was immediately interested. As someone who graduated from a Christian university, did graduate work at another Christian university, and now teaches at my alma mater, I believe an articulation of the idea and ideals of what is distinct about Christian higher education is much needed. From my experience, many students, many faculty, and even many (most?) administrators don't have a cogent or cohesive understanding of what Christian education means. I made the assumption that this book would be written to academics to fill this need.
What it was instead was a freshman connections textbook. Maybe that's okay. Many Christian colleges (mine included) have an "Intro to College" course that freshman take their first semester with the goal of introducing them to the philosophy and history of higher education in general and their own institution in particular. This book seems pretty clearly to have been written for such a course. Ream and Glanzer use scripture, history, and the words of scholars both historical and contemporary to argue that Christian education is unique in its (ideally) holistic approach with the goal of forming complete individuals who love God and love learning. This is, they claim, in contradistinction to secular universities in which learning has no true goal or telos beyond career preparation or the propagation of particular academic disciplines. They argue that against the fragmentation and individualistic ethos of the modern university, the Christian university has a distinct and separate mission with the classical understanding that all knowledge must hold together and find its completion in knowledge of God. They also introduce students to the work of Christian scholars like Noll, Polkinghorne, and Hauerwas.
There wasn't much I disagreed with in this book. Ream and Glanzer are consciously building on the work of Arthur Holmes, who is quoted throughout. I have not read his 1987 study, but according to the authors this work focused on a Christian college in the traditional liberal arts sense: a place where knowledge is passed along but not where new knowledge is necessarily created. Because of the rise of Christian research universities in recent years, the authors believe it is time for Christian institutions to give more mind to the creation of knowledge and the conduct of research in a Christian context. Here they seem to be following the likes of Marsden and Noll in arguing for an evangelical life of the mind and love of learning. (Note: though the language is inclusive and we're treated to a summary of the rise of medieval universities in a Catholic setting, the book is definitely written from an evangelical perspective.)
My major complaint with the book was its delivery. I had hoped it would be a good book for a faculty discussion group to provide an avenue into some of the key topics Ream and Glanzer emphasize: the challenge of holistic education in the face of pressures toward technical or vocational training. I quickly realized academics were not the intended audience. With the "college life" vignettes beginning each chapter and the concluding discussion questions, this is a freshman college text. A good one, maybe. I'd have to try it out with a class to be sure. But a challenging and insightful text for college faculty and administrators? Not so much. Something like Noll's Scandal would be a better bet for the faculty discussion group.
What it was instead was a freshman connections textbook. Maybe that's okay. Many Christian colleges (mine included) have an "Intro to College" course that freshman take their first semester with the goal of introducing them to the philosophy and history of higher education in general and their own institution in particular. This book seems pretty clearly to have been written for such a course. Ream and Glanzer use scripture, history, and the words of scholars both historical and contemporary to argue that Christian education is unique in its (ideally) holistic approach with the goal of forming complete individuals who love God and love learning. This is, they claim, in contradistinction to secular universities in which learning has no true goal or telos beyond career preparation or the propagation of particular academic disciplines. They argue that against the fragmentation and individualistic ethos of the modern university, the Christian university has a distinct and separate mission with the classical understanding that all knowledge must hold together and find its completion in knowledge of God. They also introduce students to the work of Christian scholars like Noll, Polkinghorne, and Hauerwas.
There wasn't much I disagreed with in this book. Ream and Glanzer are consciously building on the work of Arthur Holmes, who is quoted throughout. I have not read his 1987 study, but according to the authors this work focused on a Christian college in the traditional liberal arts sense: a place where knowledge is passed along but not where new knowledge is necessarily created. Because of the rise of Christian research universities in recent years, the authors believe it is time for Christian institutions to give more mind to the creation of knowledge and the conduct of research in a Christian context. Here they seem to be following the likes of Marsden and Noll in arguing for an evangelical life of the mind and love of learning. (Note: though the language is inclusive and we're treated to a summary of the rise of medieval universities in a Catholic setting, the book is definitely written from an evangelical perspective.)
My major complaint with the book was its delivery. I had hoped it would be a good book for a faculty discussion group to provide an avenue into some of the key topics Ream and Glanzer emphasize: the challenge of holistic education in the face of pressures toward technical or vocational training. I quickly realized academics were not the intended audience. With the "college life" vignettes beginning each chapter and the concluding discussion questions, this is a freshman college text. A good one, maybe. I'd have to try it out with a class to be sure. But a challenging and insightful text for college faculty and administrators? Not so much. Something like Noll's Scandal would be a better bet for the faculty discussion group.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews