Teaching as Believing: Faith in the University

Studies in Religion and Higher Education

by Chris Anderson

The public university classroom is a place where socialization still occurs: it's where students learn to be citizens of the world. Having attended to political correctness and multi-culturalism, universities are now facing the issue of spirituality in their quest to educate the whole person. In this book, Chris Anderson takes up this task by carefully exploring how a professor of faith can help a public university accomplish its pluralistic mission. Anderson illustrates how the study of secular literature throws fresh light on the ways in which the Bible can be read. He also deftly shows how a sympathetic study of the Bible trains secular readers for understanding the abiding significance of the Western literary canon as a kind of scripture. Anderson thus gives readers a book that is as much about the experience of a faithful teacher and the proper ends of education as it is about discovering the right ways to read texts be they sacred or secular."

230 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2004

About the author

Chris Anderson is professor of English at Oregon State University, a retreat leader, an author, blogger, and a Catholic deacon. An award-winning writer and teacher, he explores the struggle, joy, and doubt of contemporary spirituality through personal story & literary collage. He is the author of 14 previous books, including poetry and nonfiction, and was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. When not behind the writing desk, teaching podium, or altar, Chris is walking in the woods of McDonald Forest in Corvallis, Oregon. Visit his blog “The Imperfect Catholic” at www.deaconchrisanderson.com.