Abstract

Higher education in the United States is in crisis. Though powerful, the financial maelstrom that has consumed many institutions may not be the vortex of most significance. We argue that colleges and universities have forsaken their fundamental mission and purposes, and particularly the role of religion in those purposes. We first examine three primary arguments about the relationship between religion and higher education: what may be loosely characterized as explicit separation; the inculcation of ‘academic virtues’; and authentic integration founded upon principles of piety, robust pluralism, and the Reformed tradition. The article concludes by advancing what the last of these relationships might look like, identifying ways teacher—scholars in the arts and humanities might invoke a more authentic integration and collaboratively engage in the necessary conversations about our mission and purposes