This article suggests that denominational representation at denominationally-affiliated colleges and universities is declining.
An (not the) explanation?
The perceived high cost of a Christian education alongside drops in denominational loyalty have contributed to the changing demographics….
“So many people now think that everything is just a different flavor,” said Mike O’Neal, president of Oklahoma Christian University, a Church of Christ school. “If I’m a Methodist, generally I don’t care that a university is Nazarene or Calvinist or whatever. The perception is, we’re all alike.”
Are we speaking here of denominational loyalty among prospective students and their families, among the colleges and universities, or both? The two factors are related, but distinct. To the degree that the college can’t faithfully transmit or inculcate a denominationally distinctive point of view (I know I could have said worldview, but I’m not trendy enough for that), it is difficult for folks in the pews to have a clear and coherent sense of what they’re supposed to be about.
But there are also other considerations growing out of the “culture” (I’m trendy enough to use that word). There’s a great deal of pressure to care about excellence and to define it in largely secular terms (anything from sports success to law school admissions to research productivity). There’s an obvious tension between excellence defined in this way and denominational fidelity in hiring and admission standards.
And I haven’t even mentioned the powerful and distracting lure of popular culture, which certainly strengthens adherence to some sort of national character at the expense of religiously distinctive subcommunities.
Other thoughts?
January 14th, 2011 | 2:51 pm
I was raised Methodist in the 1970s, but later drifted away from Christianity, then came back to the faith in adulthood, as a Catholic. Back then, I couldn’t have told you the difference between Methodism and any other kind of Protestantism, except in terms of worship style (e.g., the Baptists were enthusiastic, the Episcopalians fancy and liturgical). I had no idea what we believed as Methodists that made us distinctive, and that was never, ever taught to us. As far as I could tell, all Protestantism was pretty much the same, except the Baptists stressed having a “born again” experience. The next generation in my extended family has remained Methodist, but I’m pretty sure it’s only out of habit, because in having theological conversations with them (OK, yes, they’re still young), they have not even a basic working knowledge of theology, and appear to believe that the only important thing is that you and Jesus be friends. That’s something that can be accomplished in any denominational setting, so it’s not at all a surprise to me that religious particularism is waning in America.
I don’t mean to get down on Protestants. Christian Smith’s work on “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” shows that religious ignorance and the concomitant loss of religious particularism among the young exists across church boundaries, and even across religions in this country.
January 14th, 2011 | 2:58 pm
I think the fact is that most of these colleges are denominationally named or nominally affiliated, but functionally atheistic. Even with its excellent divinity school, is there anything about Duke that would say to a high school senior that the university is oriented toward anything other a secular worldview? The education at Southern Methodist is no different from the education one would receive at UT Austin.
I have found it quite easy to discern which universities have more than a nominal commitment to the faith — just look and see if they have a ‘religious studies’ department or a ‘theology’ department. The rot starts there, at the heart of a Christian university, and spreads from there.
January 14th, 2011 | 3:53 pm
It all starts with Admin and Faculty.
If the Admin and Faculty aren’t upholding the denomination’s distinctives, then why criticize the students and their parents?
January 14th, 2011 | 7:50 pm
This ground has been plowed extensively. See Robert Benne’s “Quality with Soul,” which is mildly optimistic about the future of some church-related colleges and universities; James T. Burtchaell’s “Dying of the Light,” which is anything but optimistic; and George Marsden’s “Soul of the American University,” which falls somewhere in between Benne and Burtchaell.
The first chapter of Benne’s book, Joseph, will provide cogent answers to the questions you’ve posed here. (Upon reflection, I see that “baconboy” reflects Benne’s answers — and does so succinctly!)
January 15th, 2011 | 1:28 pm
DeclinING? Most historically denominational colleges went far beyond the point of return in this respect 30 years ago. I don’t mean to sound snarky, but this story reads like it should have been written in about 1970, when it was news that things were headed downhill.
Evangelical denominations have fared better, particularly with smaller institutions, though that is breaking down as well, but the Mainline Big Schools ceased to be expressions of their denominational affiliations, or even meaningfully religious institutions, decades ago.
January 17th, 2011 | 1:17 pm
When my niece applied to a Nazarene institution, I was not familiar with that denomination. So I asked her mother what the Nazarenes were about and how they were different from other Christian denominations. Neither of them knew, and neither of them had thought to ask. They had been to the school and attended its (nondenominational) chapel service. This is a family that is quite devout.
I felt a little awkward for asking the question, because they seemed so mystified by it. All I could think to explain it was, “Well, don’t you worry that they will teach something that you don’t agree with?” It is a whole different way to look at Christianity — the best I can do to explain it, because I don’t understand it myself, is that they overlook differences and feel free to disagree about anything. Almost no existing denominations believe what their founders taught, and they don’t seem to worry about that at all either.
My niece does go to the school and likes it very much. I think that less than half of the students are members of that denomination, but most are what they call “serious Christians” and attend their own churches while at school. It is not an atheistic institution, but it can hardly be said to be a Nazarene one either.
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