Back in May, I was invited to address the Cornell Christian Fellowship graduating seniors. I began with the common observation that they had received one of the best educations available, and that they therefore have certain obligations. I ended with the less common observation that education at the modern university is in many ways morally and intellectually incoherent. Let me explain.

Cornell co-founder A.D. White believed that scientific inquiry would eventually and inevitably replace "revealed religion" (e.g., Christianity) with what he called "rational religion." But just as "providence" gave way to "progress" as the motivating force behind education at the end of the 19th century, White's simplistic faith in science gave way itself at the end of the 20th century to the phenomenon of postmodernism.

Providence and progress have this in common: each infused education with purpose. Today, however, in a postmodern academic culture that celebrates the loss of "metanarratives," it is no longer clear how to answer the question, "What's a university for?"

Many continue to argue that the goal of higher education ought to be character development and citizen training. Indeed, whether one values perseverance and loyalty or idealism and empathy, conservatives and liberals both generally believe that education ought to be about more than mere technical training. (See, e.g., Bill Bennett's 1993 The Book of Virtues, and its liberal rejoinder, Greer & Kohl's 1995 A Call to Character.)

Not so, says Stanley Fish, a prolific postmodernist with whose conclusions I almost always disagree, but who is a master at demolishing arguments that don't work. "My main objection to moral and civic education," Fish writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education, is not that it is a bad idea (which it surely is) but that it's an unworkable idea." There is simply no evidence, he says, that large, non-religious educational institutions can develop character or induce virtue.

According to Fish, universities should focus on disciplinary training: equipping students with interpretive, computational, laboratory, and archival skills. "You can't make [students] into good people," he writes, "and you shouldn't try." College teachers "have no chance at all" of determining students' behavior and values beyond the classroom--no chance, that is, "short of a discipleship that is itself suspect and dangerous." The title of his essay, "Aim Low," says it all. (CHE, May 16, 2003).

What is a Christian to make of this? My own assessment is that Fish is, as usual, almost correct. Secular institutions are indeed not well suited for the task of character development. Especially at this moment in time--i.e., in the absence of a particular metanarrative that gives meaning and purpose to the educational enterprise--such institutions have no basis for inculcating virtue or promoting a particular vision of the good life. It is largely for this reason that George Marsden, a Christian historian not prone to hyperbole, has judged modern universities morally and intellectually incoherent. Fish seems to agree. The difference is that Fish likes it that way.

Fortunately, Fish isn't right about everything, and "aiming low" isn't the only solution to the present dilemma. All of which brings us back to the rationale for a Christian Studies Center.

If our universities are going to be more than factories of facts, they require a broader worldview to give those facts meaning. If universities can no longer provide a unifying worldview (which is perhaps as it should be), then it is only natural that various communities within the university--especially faith communities--seek to fill that void. I believe this is precisely the "ecological niche" that accounts for the recent founding of several Christian Studies Centers adjacent to secular universities in recent years.

Today's postmodernist climate at secular universities is an opportunity for Christians--an opportunity not only to be heard among a cacophony of competing perspectives, but also to articulate a worldview that connects theory to practice, learning to service, the various disciplines to each other, and which provides a legitimate basis for true discipleship. Contrary to Fish, Christians are free to "aim high"--to see the world in the light of the One who is Himself the light of the world, and to invite others to do the same. Aiming high, however, means taking seriously the public significance of our faith--no small challenge for a Christian subculture whose faith has been compartmentalized and privatized for most of the last century.

We will be discussing these and related issues at a keynote and panel discussion entitled "The Church and the Academy," on September 19th. Cornell's Richard A. Baer, Jr. will deliver the keynote address. Please see below for more details, and please consider joining us for what is certain to be an evening of stimulating discussion.

Thank you for your interest in and support of Chesterton House.

-Karl E. Johnson

Weekly when Cornell is in session:

Fridays, 1-5pm -- Resource Room Open Hours

Movie Night

Crossroads Life Center, 604 E. Buffalo St.

Dr. Richard A. Baer, Jr., Cornell University, and panelists

Clarion Hotel, 1 Sheraton Dr.

Movie Night

Crossroads Life Center, 604 E. Buffalo St.

Andy Crouch, Journalist

Anabel Taylor Hall Auditorium

Movie Night

Crossroads Life Center, 604 E. Buffalo St.

All Chesterton House events are open to the public. Watch our website for updates and additions to this schedule--Graduate Christian Fellowship Roundtables are yet to be announced.

Also of interest:

Friday & Saturday, October 10-11.

"Faith and the Challenges of Secularism"

The Providence Forum's 3rd Annual Clash of World Views Conference

Featuring Alvin Plantinga, Alister McGrath, Armand Nicholi, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Timothy George, John Finnis, Grank Beckwith, John DiIulio, and others.

Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

See http://www.providenceforum.org for more info.

We are very pleased to announce a new graduate fellowship program in partnership with the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies in Madison, Wisconsin.

The mission of Au Sable Institute is the integration of knowledge of the Creation with biblical principles for the purpose of bringing the Christian community and the general public to a better understanding of the Creator and the stewardship of God's Creation. The Graduate Fellows Program is designed to help graduate students relate their studies to the Creator and the care of Creation.

Au Sable Graduate Fellows are granted funds for the purchase of books and reference materials on Christian environmental stewardship and work with faculty members and other Graduate Fellows to keep their understanding of Christian environmental stewardship at a level commensurate with other aspects of their graduate study. Au Sable Graduate fellows meet regularly at Chesterton House for "Integrative Sessions," at which they and university faculty members present seminars to each other on Christian environmental stewardship themes.

We are currently taking applications. For more information, see http://www.chestertonhouse.org/ausable.html.

The literature on Christianity and education is vast. Some good reads that have not received as much attention as they should include the following: Nicholas Wolterstorff, Educating for Life: Reflections on Christian Teaching and Learning (Baker, 2002), Hauerwas and Westerhoff (eds.), Schooling Christians: "Holy Experiments" in American Education (Eerdmans, 1992), and Warren Nord, Religion and American Education: Rethinking a National Dilemma (UNC, 1995). I would also generally recommend the writings of James Schall, a Chesterton scholar who has written many books, including On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs: Teaching, Writing, Playing, Believing, Lecturing, Philosophizing, Singing, Dancing (ISI, 2001), and the works of Parker Palmer, a Quaker who has written a number of wise books, including The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life (Jossey-Bass, 1997). On the topic of worldviews, see David Naugle's Worldview: The History of a Concept (Eerdmans, 2002).

Our resource room continues to grow. In keeping with our mission (to facilitate discovery of the intellectual riches of the historic Christian faith), we have recently sought to acquire many "new" ancient and classical Christian texts. Below is a sampling of some of our recent acquisitions. Please stop by to use and enjoy these wonderful resources.

-George Marsden