The End of College: Religion and the Transformation of Higher Education in the 20th Century by Robert Wilson-Black

Abstract

Reviewed by: The End of College: Religion and the Transformation of Higher Education in the 20th Century by Robert Wilson-Black Robert Benne The End of College: Religion and the Transformation of Higher Education in the 20th Century. By Robert Wilson-Black. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2021. 281 pp. This book is an adaptation of one of the last dissertations advised by the great American historian of religion and distinguished Lutheran, Martin Marty. His student, Robert Wilson-Black, has been CEO of Sojourners since 2013 but earlier served as an administrator at the University of Chicago and then as a college and seminary vice [End Page 99] president for a decade. He has written widely and serves on the board of Lynchburg University. The book describes the great debates about if and how religion ought to be taught in the constantly changing face of American higher education from the beginning of the 20th century to its midpoint following World War II. Its scope and depth of research are truly remarkable. The author seems to have covered the thoughts on this subject of almost every elite intellectual in every elite university in America from the turn of the 20th century to its mid-point. Early on he develops a typology of thinkers who argue their vision of the nature of religion and how it ought to be presented in academia. The types are "skeptics," "pious true believers," and "those who functioned primarily as reconcilers between them for each college or discipline" (xx). After World War II, as after World War I, many educators were so shaken by the collapse of civilization in the Christian West that they thought deeply about how higher education should wrestle with the civilizational crisis illuminated by the wars. Christian and secular humanist movements existed in both periods; members of those movements wondered how young Americans should be shaped as good citizens by higher education. For them, the role of religion in education was crucial. But how to go about it? This book plumbs that question in great detail, especially among the best and brightest in the educational world. Wilson-Black traces the many debates that took place in the elite colleges. Some atheists and skeptics from outside the Christian humanist movement argued that secular humanism could supply the moral fiber needed in the new generation. Most, however, saw an important role for religion, especially Christianity, for such a task. Should religion be presented through a department of religion at the undergraduate level? Should it be spread throughout the curriculum as kind of a tutoring in natural law? Should it be limited to a graduate school of divinity? Should it be embedded in other departments? Further, should religion be taught objectively and scientifically as religious studies? Or should it have a persuasive dimension to its teaching? These questions have not gone away by any means. Indeed, it seems that "religious studies," with no privilege [End Page 100] offered to Christian studies, is increasingly dominant, even in our church-related colleges. The powerful "diversity, inclusivity, and equity" movement ensures the demotion of Christian perspectives, especially of an orthodox Christian sort. The book covers the role of religion in higher education up to the 1950s. Interestingly, that period featured many intellectuals who thought that the Christian faith was crucial in the moral development of young Americans. Such intellectuals are fairly rare now, with many instead believing that orthodox Christianity should be banished from an influential role. Other movements—ecological, sexual, anti-racial, multicultural, and "diversity"—are seen as far more promising in shaping young minds. Perhaps the author's next book will take up that great change. One limiting factor in this book is its exclusive attention to elite higher education. It does not discuss at all the role of religion in the many ethnic, evangelical, and Roman Catholic colleges of the time. In those places, Christian faith—not only in its moral dimension—played a robust role in the shaping of millions of non-elite Americans, whose important story should also be told. Robert Benne Institute of Lutheran Theology Brookings, South Dakota Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.