Report on new book ‘Cultivating the Spirit’

Alexander W. Astin, Helen S. Astin, and Jennifer A. Lindholm have just published Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students’ Inner Lives (Jossey Bass, 2011) and Beckie Supiana of The Chronicle of Higher Education [subscription may be required] offers a useful summary. The book looks at the relationship between spiritual and religious qualities and outcomes like leadership ability, academic success, and charitable involvement.

Noted evangelical scholar of the Old Testament fired for endorsing evolution

Inside Higher Ed’s Scott Jaschik reports on the firing of Bruce K. Waltke, an evangelical scholar of the Old Testament at the Reformed Theological Seminary, for a video he made for BioLogos Foundation in which he endorsed evolution and warned that when evangelical Christianity denies evolution it makes itself look foolish to the rest of the world.

"If the data is overwhelmingly in favor of evolution, to deny that reality will make us a cult … some odd group that is not really interacting with the world. And rightly so, because we are not using our gifts and trusting God’s Providence that brought us to this point of our awareness," he says, according to several accounts by those who have seen the video.

Jaschik’s report offers different perspectives from the participants, including a joint statement issued by Waltke and BioLogos (see also an earlier statement), and comments from the Michael Milton, president of the Reformed Theological Seminary’s Charlotte campus and interim president of its Orlando campus, where Waltke taught. Jaschik also offers a useful overview of some the reaction to the firing. His article could serve to tee-off a faculty discussion on the issues of academic freedom and institutional identity.

Supreme Court Briefs in the Hastings vs. Christian Legal Society bias-policy case

If you’re following the supreme court case involving Hastings College of Law and the Christian Legal Society, Inside Higher Ed’s Scott Jaschik has a detailed overview of the briefs submitted on both sides of the case. The Christian Legal Society has sued Hastings College of Law (part of the University of California) over its refusal to give official recognition or funds to student groups that violate  Hastings’ anti-bias policy. That policy includes bias based on sexual orientation. Supporters of Hastings, including several major higher education associations, have, among their arguments advanced a line of reasoning involving academic freedom; supporters of the Christian Legal Society,  including the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, have, among other arguments, expressed a concern that a decision in favor of Hastings may undercut the right of religiously-affiliated colleges to hire only faculty members who share their religious beliefs.

For background, see this earlier Inside Higher Ed report.

Church study of Erskine College has faculty worried

Inside Higher Ed’s Scott Jaschik reports on a study of Erskine College, a liberal arts college in Due West, S.C., commissioned by its sponsoring denomination, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church or ARP. ARP is a small denomination that  describes itself as  conservative and evangelical.

The report says that the college is hurt by "irreconcilable and competing visions." With a presidential search going on, the report says that the church "must speak clearly" on its interests in the direction of the college, that the board must operate more independently of the administration, and that there must no longer be doubt about the church running the college.

The report has some faculty worried:

While the report has a polite tone, and praises the dedication of the college’s leaders and faculty, its repeated references to the "irreconcilable" philosophical views about Erskine and the "untenable situation" in which the college finds itself have many faculty members worried that hard-liners are aiming for a purge.

Jaschik, who has obtained a draft of the report, also provides important background including interviews of several of the key actors involved in the dispute. Recommended reading!

Sociologists may be studying religion more, treating it as an independent variable

Inside Higher Ed’s Scott Jaschik reports on a new study that suggests the sociology of religion has been getting more attention recently, and, particular, more attention as an independent variable:

The new study on sociology arrives as a working paper of the Social Science Research Council, based on analysis of 587 sociology journal articles on religion, published between 1978 and 2007. The paper — by David Smilde, a professor of sociology, and Matthew May, a graduate student, both at the University of Georgia — finds much that would encourage scholars who want to see more research on religion. But the paper also raises questions about whether American sociologists may be too narrowly focused on some religious groups over others, and over the impact of outside funding, which is growing.

Jaschik provides background, a helpful summary, and some reaction from scholars in the field.

This article could provide the basis for a faculty conversation on changes in academic interest in religion and the (problematic?) role that outside funding may play in these changes.

Criticism, Censorship, and Wheaton College

Scott Jaschik at Inside Higher Ed has another fine article, this one on a generally sympathetic but occasionally critical article on Wheaton College that was approved by its editor for publication in Books & Culture but then killed by the president of Christianity Today International. Books & Culture is, as Jaschik rightly puts it, “a highly respected publication … something like a Christian New York Review of Books.” Christianity Today International owns Books & Culture.

More on this later, but for now take a look at Jaschik’s detailed piece and associated links. Many things there to discuss with faculty colleagues.

College modifies policy banning facial veil, now allows veil for religious reasons

Inside Higher Ed does a fine job (here, here, and here) tracing the controversy surrounding a ban on “any head covering that obscures a student’s face…either on campus or at clinical sites” introduced in December by the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. The security policy initially had an exemption only for “medical reasons.” After a federal civil liberties complaint and extensively publicity, the College added a religious exemption.

The second and third posts offer sufficient background and detail to undergird a useful campus conversation. Recommended reading.

Profile of Notre Dame’s President

The Chronicle of Higher Education offers a sympathetic profile of John I. Jenkins, President of the University of Notre Dame and a priest in the order of the Congregation of the Holy Cross. As might be expected, the article revolves around the decision to invite President Obama to be last year’s commencement speaker and the aftermath of that decision. [Subscription required.]

Interview of author of new book on religious colleges

Inside Higher Ed interviews Samuel Schuman on his new book Seeing the Light: Religious Colleges in 21st Century America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009). During his career Schuman served as chancellor of two public institutions—the University of Minnesota at Morris and at the University of North Carolina at Asheville—and as vice president for academic affairs and acting president of Guilford College, a Quaker institution.

"Resistance: Taking a stand against war, 1960s to today"—A conference at Goshen College

A conference at Goshen College, IN, on 13 and 14 November brought together a group of Mennonite draft resisters and their supporters to tell their story and answer questions from the audience, a third of which were students. Here’s the setup:

In a historic gathering of the biennial Mennonite General Conference delegate session at Turner, Ore., in August 1969, a small group of college students called on the delegate body to recognize draft resistance – in addition to the historic peace position of nonresistance – as a valid and faithful peace witness. And they did, somewhat to the students’ surprise.

The group of resisters who brought that concern to the conference was led by three Goshen College students – Doug Baker of Goshen, J.D. Leu of Brunswick, Md., and Jon Lind of Manassas, Va. The delegates were initially suspicious of the students because of their appearance, but the group – mostly long-haired, scruffy college students who had been staying in an improvised tent colony on the edge of the conference grounds – engaged in serious conversation with church leaders and shared how they connected their actions with being followers of Jesus.

"We thought there would be a lot of opposition," said Leu. "As things unfolded, … it was interesting that the primary concern was that we could show this position was consistent with biblical teaching and with tradition. This made it much easier to come to common ground and a decision there. … It really felt like the Spirit was leading, the way things meshed despite our differences."

Baker, Leu, and Lind were at the conference to tell their stories and to hear the accounts of other Mennonites who resisted the draft or supported those who did.

The article does a fine job summarizing the highlights and offering short, individual vignettes of resistance.  The article could be fruitfully used to illustrate the central role of story and history in maintaining and transmitting Mennonite identity.