Keeping the Soul in Christian Higher Education: A History of Roanoke College by Robert Benne

Abstract

Reviewed by: Keeping the Soul in Christian Higher Education: A History of Roanoke College by Robert Benne Mark Mattes Keeping the Soul in Christian Higher Education: A History of Roanoke College. Robert Benne. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2017. xviii + 284 pp. Founded in 1842, Roanoke College is an ELCA-related college in Salem, Virginia. Benne's book is less a history and more a case study in this college's religious identity. At one time, church-related colleges not only were important pipelines for seminaries but also helped to develop laity for congregational and community leadership. Increasingly, church-related schools have become more secularized, unable to advance students to mature Christian leadership. Benne's story describes this loss, but also the attempt to retrieve a modicum of Christian identity in a place where he has been one of the chief players. Benne's standard by which to measure a college's Christian identity is "soul," the Geist, which provides the school's character and [End Page 81] shapes its mission (xv). Benne, who has been associated with Roanoke since the early 1980s, sees it as "intentionally pluralist": the school guarantees the Lutheran tradition a voice at the table, but does not privilege it beyond that (xiv). At its antebellum founding by Rev. David Bittle, Roanoke belonged to the "Americanist Lutheran" heritage, aligned with evangelicalism, in contrast to the Lutheran confessionalism which arose in the mid to late nineteenth century. To put it bluntly, Bittle's faith was akin to frontier Methodism: revivalistic, pragmatic, aimed towards the conversion of sinners, neither sacramental nor liturgical, and not bound to law and gospel preaching. Roanoke was one of many colleges established by Evangelicals for the sake of Christianizing America. Indeed, as the nineteenth century progressed, the quest of the college to instill moral virtues in its originally all-male student body was billed as "manly Christianity" (59). For the better part of nine decades, Roanoke was more or less true to its broadly evangelical intent to help educate Christian students for responsible American citizenship. However, by the mid-1950s, non- believing faculty members were hired. This began a trend which led the school to become unmoored from its Christian identity. Administrators mistakenly took for granted that there were enough Christians on the faculty to keep the college's original vision. In the early 1980s, Benne arrived to head the Center for Church and Society, now named in his honor. The Center's mission is to address issues facing both church and society for clergy, laity, interested faculty, and students. However, the attempt to retrieve the Christian identity of Roanoke increasingly was opposed by a "secularist wing" which sought to make the religious element disappear altogether or at least marginalize it (175). This came to a head in 2001 when a faculty majority insisted on toning down the Christian direction in a Lilly Grant proposal seeking to incorporate vocation into the curriculum. This move guaranteed that Lilly would reject the proposal (196). To put it bluntly: tolerance was not freely extended to those who disagreed with secularism (230). On a happier note, the most recent Roanoke president, Michael Maxey, a Baptist, paints Lutheranism in a positive light: "Lutherans encourage [End Page 82] respect for individuals, academic freedom, consideration of life's ultimate questions, and questioning authority … Lutherans give us more than room to breathe, they give us breath" (237). Additionally, some new hires are strong Christians who have crept in "under the radar" (265). Benne proposes that schools like Roanoke should establish task forces that elevate "soul matters" (270) and that they should encourage the enrollment of Lutheran students through competitive scholarships (275). Why shouldn't church-related higher education offer a distinctive niche in the educational market not covered by public education, one that is not afraid to specify the Christian faith as the source of truth and life? For those who treasure church-related education and believe that a strong Christian identity should flourish at these schools, Benne's evaluation of Roanoke is an honest portrayal of the challenges besetting this goal. Mark Mattes Grand View University Des Moines, Iowa Copyright © 2018 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.