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Robert Benne. Quality With Soul: How Six Premier Colleges and Universites Keep Faith with Their Religious Traditions. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2001. Pp. 217.
O'Callaghan, John
O'Callaghan, John
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BR71.pdf
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"Christianity is a story that is "comprehensive, unsurpassable, and [a] central account of reality" (96). It stands to reason that communities and traditions committed to this thesis would be involved in developing and passing on such a story through any number of social institutions. The concern in this book is how it is embodied in institutions of higher education in the United States. Here Robert Benne seeks to defend and uplift the prospects for Christian higher education. It is written partially in response to James Burtchaell's recent The Dying of the Light: The Disengagement of Colleges and Universities from Their Christian Churches. Burtchaell put forward a deeply pessimistic view of the future of Christian higher education. But Benne wishes to temper that prospect with the hope that all is not lost. Burtchaell had adopted the method of case studies, examining in detail seventeen instances of schools Christian in their origin, in order to weave together a narrative of how they proceeded from explicit religious commitment to complete or near compete secular status. Benne's project is at once similar, though more modest in the use of case studies - he chooses Baylor University, Calvin College, St. Olaf's College, The University of Notre Dame, Valparaiso University, and Wheaton College, six schools that, with the exception of St. Olaf, Burtchaell had not examined. As a consequence, it is more positive than Burtchaell's effort. He proposes to "examine the success of schools that have maintained both quality and soul. [He] will elaborate why and how [the] six schools . . . have kept their version of the Christian vision publicly relevant in all dimensions of the life and mission of their schools" (ix). Benne is also more theoretical as he seeks certain organizing principles around which to evaluate the schools and their continuing commitment to the project of Christian higher education, while making positive suggestions for retrieving and, or maintaining that project in other colleges and universities."(pg 1)
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2002
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With permission of the license/copyright holder