James Fraser, author of a well-regarded history of religion in K-12 public education, shifts his attention to the university in this new book published by Johns Hopkins University Press. The book’s thesis is simple but capacious, summarized in the short phrase “secularization, but…” (ix). Fraser acknowledges that secularization accurately describes a portion of higher education’s historical trajectory, but secularization is not the whole story, and the ellipsis that follows the word “but” opens plenty of space to describe religion’s ongoing and ever-evolving place and role within university life. Fraser stresses that the narrative reflects his choice to “consciously cast a broader net” (p. xv), including numerous regional schools, smaller private colleges, and black colleges and universities, because they have often been given less attention than their due.
Skipping the colonial era, a story already told by many other historians, Fraser picks up the timeline in 1800 after the founding of the nation. The book is then organized chronologically around eight nonoverlapping developmental eras. The opening chapter on the “Old Time College” (1800–1870) is followed by chapters on the origins of the research university (1870–1905), the emergence of university chaplaincies (1905–1925), and the nationwide fracturing of religion that took place during the interwar years (1925–1945). The next four chapters describe the sequence of post-World War II developments as one of religious boom (1945–1960), radicalization (1960–1980), depression (1980–2000), and resurgence (2001–2021). All eight chapters are organized similarly, commencing with a reflection on the designated theme and then discussing several case studies that illustrate how various schools conjured different reflections of that theme on their campuses.
The four opening chapters provide excellent summaries of the shifting ideas, ideals, and practices that defined religion’s place and role in American higher education up to World War II. Fraser carefully describes the shifting terrains regarding curriculum and administrative attitudes on campuses, as well as the varying responses of churches and religious organizations. Fraser’s descriptions of the YMCA, YWCA, and the rise of the university chaplaincy are superb, and his deft inclusion of HBCUs and Jewish institutions aligns with his promise to cast a broader net.
The second half of the book is equally interesting but not as convincing, partly because it is sometimes oddly silent about important events and developments. For example, chapter five provides a well-crafted account of the post-war revival of traditional organized religion, but it largely ignores equally important developments in the realm of civil religion, even though these were the years when “in God we trust” was adopted as the new national motto and “under God” was added to the pledge of allegiance. This chapter also makes no mention of the founding of the National Association of College and University Chaplains (NACUC) in 1948 or the launching of the Association of College and University Religious Affairs (ACURA) in 1959, even though university chaplaincy is a major theme in earlier chapters.
Similar questions are raised by chapter six, which focuses on the radicalization of religion during the years 1960–1980. Nearly half the chapter is devoted to just two topics: William Sloan Coffin, the politically active chaplain of Yale University from 1958 to 1975, and the deadly incidents that took place at Kent State and Jackson State in 1970 in response to student demonstrations against the war in Vietnam. Unquestionably, political protests of various kinds were significant events on many campuses during the 1960s and 1970s, but they constitute only part of the story. Perhaps most notably, these were the years when both Catholic institutions and conservative Protestant colleges and universities laid the foundations of their still current self-identities. The Land O’Lakes Statement (1967) that reshaped Catholic higher education is never mentioned, and neither is the founding of the Christian College Consortium in 1971 or the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities in 1976, organizations that signaled a self-conscious move away from earlier fundamentalism.
Chapter seven addresses the 1980s and 1990s, and its stated theme is “religious depression on campus.” But depression is far too narrow a theme to serve as a fair descriptor of the era as a whole. Mainline Protestantism was indeed waning during these years, but conservative Protestantism was burgeoning on campuses and moving rapidly toward the political right. The chapter also ignores public intellectuals, like Robert Bellah at Berkeley, Peter Berger at Boston University, Marcus Borg at Oregon State, and Houston Smith, who taught variously at MIT, Syracuse, and Berkeley, who not only championed the teaching of religion on their campuses but also reshaped America’s national discourse about faith, religion, and education. Another notable missing element is the “Education as Transformation” conference that took place at Wellesley College in 1998 and helped to broaden conversations about religion and spirituality in higher education to include all the world’s religions and the full spectrum of spiritualities, even those with a nonreligious or atheistic orientation.
Despite some gaps in the text, Religion and the American University is an impressive publication. No other history of religion and higher education is as comprehensive and fair-handed, and the book rightly sets a new standard for the field. It also ends on a timely note. Fraser asks, as many others are wondering today, how colleges and universities can “ensure respect for deeply held religious beliefs without silencing the voices of people with other beliefs or none?” He then raises what he calls “the great existential question” of how American higher education can help students develop the kinds of affectivities and virtues they will need—he mentions kindness, forgiveness, and love—to constructively address the looming social, political, and ecological challenges facing the nation and the globe (p. 313). That kind of other-aware, world-saving education will require more than the mere acquisition of marketable knowledge and skills. It will also demand some kind of engagement with spirituality, even though that spirituality may differ from what religion looked like in the past.
