Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker, two sociologists from the University of Texas at Austin, have explored the question of whether a college education turns students away from religion and come to some unexpected conclusions. Though their paper, How Corrosive is College to Religious Faith and Practice? [.pdf] , dates to 2007, it’s difficult to imagine American university culture has undergone dramatic change since then, so it’s worth perusing.
While the paper underscores the point than authentic education and genuine faith are not only not in conflict but can be mutually reinforcing and fruitful, the authors’ main purpose is to call attention to the reason for both the perceived and actual decline of faith in college. Contrary to fears of proselytizing atheist professors commandeering the minds of naive young people, the authors note that there isn’t all that much conscious hostility towards religion among college students, even those who stop going to services:
Religious decline is more of a passive than an active process. Smith and Denton (2005) note this already during adolescence: about half of all American teenagers who disaffiliate from their religion do so for passive reasons; they simply lost interest, stopped going to church, or were altogether incapable of articulating a reason. These passive rationales for religious decline, we hold, are similarly prominent in early adulthood, which brings with it a host of responsibilities and opportunities that simply crowd out religious participation and diminish its importance. Religious decline is seldom a cognitive decision. Religious commitments are simply low on the list of most young adults’ priorities.
And for those who arrive at college already seriously religious, a campus environment can actually help foster their commitment:
They arrive on campus expecting challenges and hostility to their religious perspectives. When they don’t get it, they’re pleasantly surprised; when they do, it merely meets their expectations and fits within their expected narrative about college life. Campus religious organizations anticipate such intellectual challenge, and often provide a forum for like-minded students. In fact, college campuses are less hostile to organized religious expression and its retention than are other contexts encountered by emerging adults, such as the workplace. The arrival of postmodern, post-positivist thought on university campuses has served to legitimize religiosity, even in intellectual circles.
This isn’t to say that colleges are paragons of moral excellence, but rather that “the college experience—more than the education itself—[can be] corrosive to religious faith,” and only among “those who were at an elevated risk of such corrosion when they arrived on campus.”
Of course it is not the case that an unchallenged belief cannot be lost. On the contrary, this kind of slow fade into irrelevance—call it a manifestation of acedia —can be even more damaging to a young adult’s spiritual life. But in any event, these movements are unlikely to be prompted by the educational process itself, and this survey offers yet another reason why Christians ought to stop lambasting “education” per se .
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