The Future of Religious Colleges

Reviewed by Don J. Briel

In the last ten years a series of significant studies by historians George Marsden, Philip Gleason, and Douglas Sloan, as well as by James T. Burtchaell, a former provost at the University of Notre Dame, have provided sobering accounts of the gradual but seemingly inexorable secularization of many religious colleges and universities. On the whole, prospects seemed bleak for religious colleges and universities, already defensive about their traditional commitments.

But perhaps the claims of faith are not so easily marginalized. As Burtchaell noted in his book The Dying of the Light, it is now clear that the religious climate of American culture and of the American academy is changing. There has been an uneven but distinct increase in religious interest and practice on both secular and religious campuses. There has been a remarkable increase in faith-informed scholarship. The resurgence of religious claims and conflicts throughout the world has led to a perhaps grudging acknowledg-ment that religious traditions and movements need more comprehensive and rigorous attention.

The continuing growth of evangelical churches and sharp criticism of secular culture and learning by emerging fundamentalist movements have produced a new awareness of the complexity of religious claims. Ex Corde Ecclesiae, or "from the heart of the church," Pope John Paul II's challenge to Catholic universities to reclaim a vital sense of their distinctive identity, and the subsequent debate about its juridical norms, has contributed to a new energy and a more comprehensive vision for many Catholic colleges and universities.

In addition, several major funding groups, most notably the Lilly Endowment and the Pew Charitable Trust, have undertaken major initiatives that seek to enhance the role of religion in American public life and in the academy. It can be argued that the religious climate of the American academy as a whole has begun to shift and, as a result, that prospects for religious colleges and universities have been significantly improved. Nonetheless, the situation of religious colleges remains somewhat ambiguous.

The Future of Religious Colleges brings together a series of articles written for a study project undertaken by Harvard University's Program on Education Policy and Governance and sponsored by the John M. Olin Foundation. The volume's contributors represent a wide variety of Christian traditions and institutions. Although their reflections and their assessments of the prospects for religious colleges vary, the book conveys a new sense of promise, and indeed of purpose, for religious higher education in the United States.

Several of the book's essays echo the recent observation of Francis Cardinal George of Chicago that a university without an integrating vision is merely a high-class trade school. In "Beyond Scientific Humanism," George Marsden argues that we live in the aftermath of a dominant cultural paradigm that has lost its force and that rather than seeing religious universities as lagging behind the progressive forces of secular universities, "it may make sense to see religious colleges as having preserved something valuable that has been lost elsewhere." Similarly, Mark Schwehn insists that academic institutions are ultimately incoherent without a transcendent horizon, and asks "[c]an a liberal democracy continue to be served by higher education that exalts ideals of freedom, enlightenment, progressive development, problem solving and the relief of human kind's estate without commensurate attention to the meaning and significance of the overwhelming facts of human mortality and finitude?"

There is a clear sense in the book that religious colleges' most vital contribution may be that of providing sustained attention to what Virginia Woolf called the general question of the meaning of life. But several contributors express concern about the depth and authority of the intellectual sources on which some religious colleges depend, suggesting that not all such institutions have equally coherent intellectual traditions.

One section of the collection focuses on academic freedom in religious colleges and related issues of state and federal funding for religious colleges and universities. The contributors generally agree that none of these issues poses an insurmountable problem for religious higher education. Joseph Herlihy, general counsel at Boston College, argues that the implementation of Ex Corde Ecclesiae provides evidence that Catholic universities are religious institutions and therefore makes them vulnerable to challenges to their federal funding. On the other hand, he contends that the substance of the document and the way it is being implemented in America make it unlikely that such challenges will be successful. Eugene Bramhall, former general counsel at Brigham Young University, and Ronald Ahrens, a graduate of its law school, insist that religious colleges must balance concern for free speech against concern for institutional integrity. They point out that academic freedom has never existed without limits, noting that academic freedom is traditionally limited to areas of disciplinary competence and that many commentators insist that offensive, harassing, or hateful speech is not protected by academic freedom. They emphasize the fact that religious speech is restricted by secular institutions. Finally, they argue that religious institutions' long-standing and coherent intellectual tradition has made significant contributions to society, and reject the claims of some AAUP members that such institutions should forfeit the title of "university" if they restrict the exercise of academic freedom.

The diversity of religious colleges in the United States makes it difficult to generalize about their long-term prospects, but the book's overall tone is one of tempered optimism. This in itself is a remarkable shift from the weary resignation of the recent past.

Don Briel holds the Coach Chair in Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas.

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