The Inner Restoration

Abstract

This study demonstrates that a religious system of thought – Christian humanism – shaped three historic universities and the construction of general education models deep into the twentieth century. Challenging the common historiography of the triumph of science and secularism, this study instead emphasizes the role of religion and ancient truth in the shaping of contemporary American higher education. Indeed, the study presents new evidence that nominally secular universities were sacred in their approach to knowledge in the twentieth century. I show that educators at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, working on the shoulders of their ancestors, infused twentieth-century core curricula, humanities courses, honors programs, admissions, and selectivity with Christian humanist philosophies. Based on thirty separate archival collections, the study tracks classicists, literary critics, university presidents, trustees, historians, and other humanists in a collective fight against secularism. I raise new questions about the foundations of truth and rational epistemology in the post-World War II era and beyond.