- January 11th, 2019, 3:16 pm
#569548
Inside Higher Ed wrote:‘The Resilience of Religion in American Higher Education’They wrap up their discussion with us related to Trump (yeah, I know):
Authors discuss new book about the diversity and strength of religion in academe -- as well as some of the tensions.
By Scott Jaschik
January 11, 2019
William F. Buckley Jr.'s 1951 book God and Man at Yale popularized a view of higher education as hostile to faith. A new book, however, The Resilience of Religion in American Higher Education (Baylor University Press), finds faith alive and well in American higher education. The authors find that resilience evident both at public and private institutions. And they find it at religious institutions with varying ideas about their missions.
To be sure, the book does not present issues of religion in American higher education as simple or without tensions. But they find "a surprising openness" to religion in academe.
Q: During the Trump presidency, Liberty University has emerged as the president's favorite college and its president has become a consistent advocate for President Trump. How is this shaping public perceptions of religious higher education?Click Here for Full Story
A: The alliance between Liberty University and the Trump administration contributes to the cynicism many Americans have about religion and public life. While such coalitions go back to the Reagan administration (and are rooted in the fraught racial history of white evangelicalism), there is a growing sense that evangelicals will do anything for political power. Because of its immense online footprint, Liberty looms large in public perceptions of Christian higher education. Yet scholars at dozens of other evangelical institutions (see, for example, the work of Kristin Kobes Du Mez, John Fea and Soong-Chan Rah) do not identify with Jerry Falwell Jr. and Franklin Graham. They are also alienated from the 81 percent of white evangelicals who voted for Trump. Many faculty have ditched the evangelical label. Others have articulated an alternative vision of evangelicalism that rejects misogyny, racism and xenophobia, though it is hard to shout louder than Falwell and Graham.