Restoring the Soul of the University: Unifying Christian Higher Education in a Fragmented Age

Abstract

In terms of money, prestige, power, and freedom, American universities appear to have gained the academic world. But at what cost? We live in the age of the fragmented multiversity that has no unifying soul or mission. The multiversity in a post-Christian culture is characterized instead by curricular division, the professionalization of the disciplines, the expansion of administration, the loss of community, and the idolization of athletics. The situation is not hopeless. According to Perry L. Glanzer, Nathan F. Alleman, and Todd C. Ream, Christian universities can recover their soul--but to do so will require reimagining excellence in a time of exile, placing the liberating arts before the liberal arts, and focusing on the worship, love, and knowledge of God as central to the university. Restoring the Soul of the University is a pioneering work that charts the history of the university and casts an inspiring vision for the future of higher education. -- Introduction: Can the soul of the university be saved? -- Part 1. Building the university -- Creating the original blueprint of a university -- A cracked pinnacle and shifting foundation: attempting to repair the university (1517-1800) -- The state takes over the academic palace in Europe (1770-1870) -- The American idea of the university: freedom within the bounds of science (1825-1900) -- Fracturing the soul: the creation of the American multiversity (1869-1969) -- Part 2. The fragmentation of the multiversity -- The fragmented soul of the professor -- Falling to pieces: declaring independence from curricular coherence -- Fragmenting students: the curricular/cocurricular division -- Chief fragmentation officer: the advent of the professional administrator -- The multiversity's religion: the univying and fragmenting force of athletics -- The consequences of multiversities with fragmented souls: online and for-profit higher education -- Part 3. Restoring the soul of the university -- When theology serves the soul of the university -- Reimagining the academic vocation -- Reimagining the academic disciplines -- Reimagining the cocurricular: transforming the bubble to a greenhouse -- Reimagining academic leadership -- Conclusion: Can a university with a singular soul exist?