Faith, Freedom, and Higher Education

Faith, Freedom, and Higher Education PDF Author: P. C. Kemeny
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1621896366
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
While debates abound today over the cost, purpose, and effectiveness of higher education, often lost in this conversation is a critical question: Should higher education attempt to shape students' moral and spiritual character in any systematic manner as in the past, or focus upon equipping students with mere technical knowledge? Faith, Freedom, and Higher Education argues that Christianity can still play an important role in contemporary American higher education. George M. Marsden, D. G. Hart, and George H. Nash, among its authors, analyze the debate over the secularization of the university and the impact of liberal Protestantism and fundamentalism on the American academy during the twentieth century. Contributors also assess how the ideas of Dorothy Sayers, C. S. Lewis, Wendell Berry, and Allan Bloom can be used to improve Christian higher education. Finally, the volume examines the contributions Christian faith can make to collegiate education and outlines how Christian institutions can preserve their religious mission while striving for academic excellence.

Faith, Freedom, and Higher Education

Faith, Freedom, and Higher Education PDF Author: P. C. Kemeny
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1621896366
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Get Book Here

Book Description
While debates abound today over the cost, purpose, and effectiveness of higher education, often lost in this conversation is a critical question: Should higher education attempt to shape students' moral and spiritual character in any systematic manner as in the past, or focus upon equipping students with mere technical knowledge? Faith, Freedom, and Higher Education argues that Christianity can still play an important role in contemporary American higher education. George M. Marsden, D. G. Hart, and George H. Nash, among its authors, analyze the debate over the secularization of the university and the impact of liberal Protestantism and fundamentalism on the American academy during the twentieth century. Contributors also assess how the ideas of Dorothy Sayers, C. S. Lewis, Wendell Berry, and Allan Bloom can be used to improve Christian higher education. Finally, the volume examines the contributions Christian faith can make to collegiate education and outlines how Christian institutions can preserve their religious mission while striving for academic excellence.

The Christian College and the Meaning of Academic Freedom

The Christian College and the Meaning of Academic Freedom PDF Author: William C. Ringenberg
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137398337
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
The Christian College and the Meaning of Academic Freedom is a study of the past record and current practice of the Protestant colleges in America in the quest to achieve intellectual honesty within academic community. William C. Ringenberg lays out the history of academic freedom in higher education in America, including its European antecedents, from the perspective of modern Christian higher education. He discusses the Christian values that provide context for the idea of academic freedom and how they have been applied to the nation's Christian colleges and universities. The book also dissects a series of recent case studies on the major controversial intellectual issues within and in, in some cases, about the Christian college community. Ringenberg ably analyzes the ways in which these academic institutions have evolved over time, outlining their efforts to evolve and remain relevant while maintaining their core values and historic identities.

Consider No Evil

Consider No Evil PDF Author: Brandon G. Withrow
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 162032489X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
Even casual acquaintances of the Bible know that the Truth shall set you free, but in the pursuit of that Truth in higher education--particularly in Christian or Jewish seminaries--there are often many casualties suffered along the way. What happens when faculty and students at religious academies butt heads with senior staff or dare to question dogmas or sacred cows that the institution cherishes? Consider No Evil examines seminaries affiliated with two faith traditions--Christian and Jewish--and explores the challenges, as well as prospective solutions, confronting those religious academies when they grapple with staying true to their traditions, as they interpret them, while providing an arena that incubates honest and serious scholarship.

The American University in a Postsecular Age

The American University in a Postsecular Age PDF Author: Douglas Jacobsen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019804349X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
For much of the twentieth century, it was assumed that higher education was and ought to be a secular enterprise, but that approach no longer suffices. The culture has shifted, and contemporary college and university students are increasingly bringing religious and spiritual questions to campus. In response, college and university leaders are exploring anew the relationship between religion and higher education. The American University in a Postsecular Age grapples with key questions: --How religious or irreligious are faculty and students today? What level of religious literacy should be expected from students? --Can religion be allowed into the classroom without being disruptive? --Should colleges and universities help students reflect on their own faith? --Is religion antithetical to critical inquiry? --Can religion have a positive role to play in higher education? This is a state-of-the-art introduction to the national discussion about religion and higher education. Leading scholars and top educators express a wide spectrum of opinions that reflect the best current thinking. Introductory and concluding essays by the editors describe the postsecular character of our age and propose a comprehensive framework intended to facilitate ongoing conversation.

Academic Freedom and Christian Scholarship

Academic Freedom and Christian Scholarship PDF Author: Anthony J. Diekema
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802847560
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
The dawning of the third millennium finds many Christian colleges and universities in a search for identity. Coming to grips with the confused, often maligned topic of academic freedom is an essential part of this search. In this volume an unabashed defender of academic freedom offers well-founded advice to an academy that has seemingly lost its way. Drawing on forty years in higher education, including twenty years as president of Calvin College, Anthony Diekema reflects on the extensive scholarly literature on academic freedom against the backdrop of personal experience. He develops the larger philosophical framework necessary for thinking about academic freedom but also offers pointed advice gleaned from specific events and challenges to academic freedom that he has personally confronted. This balanced approach provides a seasoned perspective for those struggling with the subject of academic freedom in their own institutions. In the course of the book Diekema develops a sound working definition of the concept of academic freedom, assesses the threats it faces, acknowledges the significance of worldview in its implementation, and explores the policy implications for its protection and promotion in Christian colleges.

Fundamentalist U

Fundamentalist U PDF Author: Adam Laats
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190665645
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
Colleges, universities, and seminaries do more than just transfer knowledge to students. They sell themselves as "experiences" that transform young people in unique ways. The conservative evangelical Protestant network of higher education has been no different. In the twentieth century, when higher education sometimes seemed to focus on sports, science, and social excess, conservative evangelical schools offered a compelling alternative. On their campuses, evangelicals debated what it meant to be a creationist, a Christian, a proper American, all within the bounds of Biblical revelation. Instead of encouraging greater personal freedom and deeper pluralist values, conservative evangelical schools thrived by imposing stricter rules on their students and faculty. In Fundamentalist U, Adam Laats shows that these colleges have always been more than just schools; they have been vital intellectual citadels in America's culture wars. These unique institutions have defined what it has meant to be an evangelical and have reshaped the landscape of American higher education. Students at these schools have been expected to learn what it means to be an educated evangelical in a secularizing society. This book asks new questions about that formative process. How have conservative evangelicals hoped to use higher education to instill a uniquely evangelical identity? How has this identity supported the continuing influence of a dissenting body of knowledge? In what ways has it been tied to cultural notions of proper race relations and proper relations between the sexes? And perhaps most important, how have students responded to schools' attempts to cultivate these vital notions about their selves? In order to understand either American higher education or American evangelicalism, we need to appreciate the role of this influential network of dissenting institutions. Only by making sense of these schools can we make sense of America's continuing culture wars.

Christian Faith and Scholarship: An Exploration of Contemporary Developments

Christian Faith and Scholarship: An Exploration of Contemporary Developments PDF Author: Todd C. Ream
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
In the twenty-first century, religious faith has reemerged from the margins of modernism and moved back to the center of contemporary scholarly conversations. "When Jacques Derrida died," Stanley Fish recently wrote, "I was called by a reporter who wanted to know what would succeed high theory and the triumvirate of race, gender, and class as the center of intellectual energy in the academy. I answered like a shot: religion." A group of evaluators of the Lilly Endowment's Initiative on Religion and Higher Education recently agreed. "There is today more discussion about the role of religion in the academy than at any time in the past 40 years and more commitment to the project of Christian higher education than there was just ten years ago." In recognition of these developments, this particular monograph offers an overview of the various ways conversations about religion and religiously informed scholarship are increasing in the academy. Although a growing number of faith traditions are finding their place in this conversation, the Christian tradition in its various forms is still the dominant voice. This monograph addresses the history of secularization in American higher education and scholarship; the historical and resistance by dominant religious traditions to that secularization; the contemporary ways that individual scholars, networks, and institutions approach the question of religious faith and scholarship; the concerns such a question raises for academic freedom; and the relationship between religious faith and scholarship.

The Christian Academic in Higher Education

The Christian Academic in Higher Education PDF Author: John Sullivan
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319696297
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
This book offers a Christian engagement with the realities of academic life and work. Examining this topic from intellectual, institutional and spiritual perspectives, the author explores how the two identities – as a Christian and an academic – can both coexist and complement one another. The author provides a ‘road map’ for academics demonstrating the interaction between religious faith and the responsibilities, challenges and opportunities of university scholarship and teaching. Addressing questions such as the contentious nature of religious faith in the university environment, the expression of faith within the role of professor, and the consequences of consecrating oneself to learning, this pioneering and practical volume will be relevant to Christian scholars in any academic discipline.

Community Engagement in Christian Higher Education

Community Engagement in Christian Higher Education PDF Author: P. Jesse Rine
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000294803
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
Originally published as a special issue of Christian Higher Education, this volume showcases diverse forms of community engagement work carried out by faith-based colleges and universities throughout the US. Acknowledging the rise of community engagement as a contemporary expression of a longstanding civic impulse, Community Engagement in Christian Higher Education explores how religious mission and identity animate institutional practice across various forms of Catholic and Protestant Higher Education. Offering perspectives from faculty members, administrators, and community partners at nine different US institutions, chapters highlight effective initiatives that have been actively implemented in rural, urban, and suburban contexts to meet local needs and serve the public good. With a focus on practical community work, the text demonstrates the very concrete ways in which Christian values can inform and foster community engagement. This volume will be of interest to scholar-practitioners, researchers, and academics in the fields of higher education, sociology of education, religious education, and practical theology. More broadly, the text offers important insights for faith leaders and the faculty of faith-based institutions exploring issues of community, identity, and shared purpose.

Religion and Higher Education in Europe and North America

Religion and Higher Education in Europe and North America PDF Author: Kristin Aune
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317227387
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
Religion and Higher Education in Europe and North America illuminates the experiences of staff and students in higher education as they negotiate the university environment. Religious extremism has been rising across Europe, whilst recent attacks have thrown public debate around the place of religion on campus, the role of universities in recognising and managing religious fundamentalism and freedom of speech on campus into sharper focus. Despite these debates, research exploring religion on campus has been largely absent from discourse on higher education outside of America, with policy and practices designed to deal with religion on campus largely founded on supposition rather than evidence. This book speaks into that void, including results from recent studies in the field which form an empirically grounded base from a broad variety of perspectives on religion at universities. Aiming to offer a deeper perspective, more dialogue, and engagement on the experiences of students, Religion and Higher Education in Europe and North America presents us not only with an opportunity to counter growing trends of intolerance, but for people to connect with the humanity of others. Focusing on what research reveals about staff and students’ experiences, it incorporates research from different academic disciplines including sociology, education, social policy, theology and religious studies, and across different faith and belief groups. This thought-provoking and challenging volume features chapters written by researchers involved in informing policy and practice relating to religion and belief in higher education in the UK, US, Canada, France and the Netherlands . Spanning the academic-practitioner divide, students and academics interested in the sociology of religion and of higher education, as well as those responsible for the practical management of campus life, will find this text of particular importance.