Chapter Five. Liberal Education At The American University Of Beirut (Aub): Protest, Protestantism, And The Meaning Of Freedom

Abstract

In the 1897?98 course catalogue, the Syrian Protestant College (SPC) General Statement declared for the first time that ?the Collegiate Department gives a liberal education in language and literature, science, history, and philosophy, leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. The institutionalization of liberal education at the SPC/American University of Beirut (AUB), and the concomitant expansion and secularization of the curriculum, succeeded spectacularly in altering the religious basis of the school and in making its graduates competitive in the new, more specialized and industrialized economies of the Middle East and America. Liberal education contained a host of components when the SPC adopted its motto in 1897. The development of the liberal educational curriculum at the SPC/AUB established a well-known persona for the school that extols freedom of inquiry, but simultaneously formed the basis for the conflicts that have arisen over freedom?s parameters.Keywords: American University of Beirut (AUB); liberal education; Syrian Protestant College (SPC)