Abstract
What is the future of Christian higher education? What societal changes are impacting faith-based universities and colleges today? How might administrators and faculty at Christian postsecondary institutions respond to these challenges in faithfulness, humility, and courage? These are the kinds of questions Laurie Schreiner tackles in her 2018 edited volume Re-imagining Christian Higher Education. The book compiles nine chapters, which were originally published by 17 different authors in the 2016 volume of the journal, Christian Higher Education (vol. 15, combined issues 1–2). Schreiner’s overall goal is to highlight the distinctive challenges facing institutions of Christian higher education as well as “the many opportunities and possibilities for reviewing and reimagining Christian higher education that could emerge amidst these challenges” (p. 1).
Schreiner is positioned well to draw together salient voices throughout the field of higher education as Professor and Chair of the department of Higher Education at Azusa Pacific University, coeditor-in-chief of Christian Higher Education, and developer and principal investigator of The Thriving Quotient, an instrument used nationwide to measure college student well-being holistically. Authors throughout the text include two presidents, several (former) provosts or assistant provosts, several (former) vice-presidents, and professors or experts in student affairs, financial affairs, and enrollment, completing an impressive array of experiences offered.
The first chapter is Rine and Guthrie’s analysis of access, affordability, student outcomes, and financial sustainability of Christian postsecondary institutions. The authors compare these four domains, each of which has several measures, between evangelical segments of higher education and private non-doctoral sectors in order to provide an empirical assessment of where Christian higher education is inferior and superior. The authors find that Christian higher education is generally equal across these four domains, painting “a fairly positive portrait of the evangelical segment” of higher education (p. 17). More nuance, however, suggests that administrators need to be alert, particularly to increasing diversity and buttressing the financial sustainability of evangelical institutions, given comparatively low endowment to operating budget ratios.
Second, Longman and Anderson reflect on underrepresentation of women in senior leadership positions in Christian higher education, despite evidence that suggests when women are not in these positions, institutions do not reach their potential. Among other ideas, they urge administrators to “make clear institutional commitments to gender parity” (p. 33), “signal their desire to hear from diverse voices” (p. 34), and balance genders on governing boards, all to ameliorate the lack of parity currently at these institutions.
Ash and Schreiner’s third article-turned-chapter further examines the issue of diversity on Christian campuses, specifically utilizing Schreiner’s Thriving model to describe how students of color develop successful pathways toward holistic thriving while in college. Their results show two significant areas that predict student thriving among students of color. First, institutional fit, measured by a student’s emotional connections, social support, spiritual connection, perceptions of the institution’s integrity, and evidence of the institution’s commitment to student welfare, is the strongest predictor of student thriving. Second, important interactions, such as student–faculty interactions, faculty sensitivity to diversity, and interracial peer interactions, also predict student thriving. Given these findings, the authors assert that reimagining Christian higher education amidst an increasingly pluralistic society must entail examining admissions practices to better reflect the diversity of the body of Christ, the on-campus community to ensure that all students thrive, and training faculty for inclusive pedagogy.
The fourth chapter, by Rochenbach and Crandall, examines sexuality and Christian higher education. In light of recent Supreme Court decisions that have legalized gay marriage, the authors urge administrators in evangelical institutions to “engage in constructive thought and dialogue around LGBTQ-related topics, particularly those central to individuals’ growth and well-being” (p. 63).
Sriram and McLevain make explicit the importance of Christian higher education’s co-curricular activities as distinctive experiences within Christian institutions. The authors assert that increased societal diversity and the rising cost of college have led prospective students to question the value of attending a four-year, residential liberal arts institution. They claim that “the future of Christian higher education will depend on the future of residential life and student affairs” to convince students of its value (p. 72). Sriram and McLevain reference noteworthy evidence that suggests residential experiences are significant in forming students. Thus, to reimagine Christian higher education, administrators will need to invest resources, time, and energy in championing residential programs.
A sixth issue is more curricular in nature and focuses on the challenges of building a general education curriculum in light of trends to forego a core model of education for novel forms. Wells highlights the importance of the traditional liberal arts in forming virtues and vocation, and calls for Christian higher education to maintain its integrity in centralizing this goal in its general education curriculum.
Hulme, Groom Jr, and Heltzel’s chapter is an overarching one that highlights three “global shifts” facing higher education: shifting demographics, technological development, and novel learning platforms. Rather than offer clear-cut solutions, the authors advance a set of values that might help administrators rethink what Christian higher education will be in the future. These values include faithfulness and a restructuring of the walls of the institution so that learning occurs everywhere, particularly beyond the classroom. Without adjustments, these authors argue, institutions will fail to respond to growing uncertainty in Christian higher education.
Reynolds and Wallace evaluate the nature of leadership, given major changes in accessibility, student demographics, and student learning expectations. They press readers to think critically about their institutional identities, encouraging an increased level of collaboration across institutions, rather than competition.
Finally, Dockery concludes the series by looking to the past rather than the impending changes in the future, arguing that the theological history of Christianity has all the resources Christian higher education needs to withstand the pressures of changing society. Specifically, Dockery focuses on the need to “think Christianly, to engage the academy and the culture, to serve society, and to renew the connection with the church and its mission” (p. 116).
In sum, Schreiner includes a variety of material from the forefront of the literature for higher education. Financial sustainability, gender equity, diversity, sexuality, co-curricular learning, curricular learning, technology, leadership, and theology are each pressing issues facing Christian colleges and universities. Thus, the foremost strength of this text is its initiation of conversations that need to be had, and the synthesis of conversations that have already been going on in what might be considered a watershed moment for Christian higher education. In the era of #MeToo, changing racial demographics, hyper-social media use, and challenges in the structure and purpose of higher education, this text comes at a significant time.
Re-imagining Christian Higher Education could be improved in two areas. First, with only a slight nod to the Supreme Court in Rockenbach and Crandall’s reflections on the challenge of sexuality, and Ash and Schreiner’s discussion of campus racial climate, most authors do not recognize the systems and structures that influence the surface-level issues facing Christian higher education. In reflections upon diversity, for example, Christian higher education must recognize its own complicity in persistent white supremacy in order to begin reimagining quotidian practices that influence student thriving. In reflections upon financial sustainability, Christian higher education must recognize how it is implicated in class-based economics that advantage some people and not others. In other words, more explicit articulations of the political nature of Christian higher education would help build a more robust wave of proactive creation of just postsecondary learning rather than merely reacting to societal changes.
Second, the text would benefit from broadening its scope to include a major challenge that faces Christian higher education, namely globalization. Not only is Christian higher education political, but it is also global in nature. Based on author representation, institutional representation, and statistics mentioned, Schreiner’s (2018) volume seems to assume that Christian higher education is unique to the United States. Yet throughout countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America, institutions such as Lumina in Hong Kong, the Christian Bilingual University of the Congo, the Center for Interdisciplinary Theological Studies in Costa Rica, and Uganda Christian University are growing quickly. Because Christianity as a religion is no longer centered in Europe and the United States, one might reasonably predict that Christian higher education will one day be centered in the Majority World. Thus, Christian higher education in the United States must reckon very practically with changes associated with globalization, such as the utilization of different language mediums, education abroad, and interconnections across cultures.
Despite its lack of systemic and global focus, Re-imagining Christian Higher Education is a timely product that pinpoints undoubtedly ongoing challenges leaders of Christian colleges and universities will face. It points a way forward—many ways forward, in fact. The challenge now is to put into practice the many ideas already being experimented with, and ones that have yet to be tried. The future of Christian higher education in the United States and elsewhere depends on it.