Perry L. Glanzer

Why We Should Discard “the Integration of Faith and Learning”: Rearticulating the Mission of the Christian Scholar

DISCUSSION ABOUT THE integration of faith and learning has become a common theme among Christian colleges and universities. Although it has fostered a robust academic dialogue, I contend the language of “integration of faith and learning” needs to be discarded. My conclusion, however, stems not from recent critiques of the integration model. Instead, I am more concerned with the habits of thinking that the language fosters than with the overall integration model (which I will largely defend). I will suggest and defend an alternative language that captures the important theological mission of Christian scholars and retains and expands a basic integration paradigm, while also directly addressing some recent critiques.

Legislating the Good: A Survey and Evaluation of Character Education Laws in the United States.

In this article, the authors trace the historical context of character education legislation in the United States, analyze and evaluate current legislative trends, and discuss the inherent dangers in legislating the good. The survey concludes that at no other time in history have Americans attempted to legislate such a specific vision of character education. The authors evaluate this legislation using the criteria of local choice, programmatic integration, comprehensiveness, community involvement, K-12 implementation, and allocation of staff development resources. Their evaluation reveals that few state laws meet these criteria and that some laws even contradict the spirit of comprehensive character education. They conclude that these inadequacies are fatal flaws in current attempts to legislate character.

Has Teacher Education Missed Out on the “Ethics Boom”? A Comparative Study of Ethics Requirements and Courses in Professional Majors of Christian Colleges and Universities

Scholars of higher education have noted an increased attention to ethics within professional disciplines such as business and journalism. This paper explores the hypothesis that the field of education has not followed that pattern. To test this hypothesis, we review our findings from a study of curricula for professional majors in 156 Christian colleges and universities associated with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and the Lilly Fellows Network. Overall, we found that a majority of business, nursing, and social work majors were either offered or required to take an ethics course in their respective fields. In addition, ethics courses were required for a significant number of communication, engineering, and computer science majors. Of all the professional majors surveyed, however, education majors were the least likely to have optional or required ethics courses.

Christianity and Moral Identity in Higher Education

PART I: MORAL EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY HIGHER EDUCATION Introduction: A Less than Human Education Moral Development and Moral Order Searching for Common, Tradition-Free Approaches to Moral Education: A Brief History Addressing the Moral Quandary Facing Contemporary Higher Education: Moral Education in Postmodern Universities PART II: A MORE HUMAN EDUCATION: MORAL FORMATION IN A SPECIFIC TRADITION The Levels of Constrained Identity Agreement Used To Advance Moral Education Case Study I: Moral Education in Secular Colleges and Universities Case Study II: Moral Education among Christian Colleges and Universities Moral Order and Moral Education within Comprehensive Moral Traditions * PART III: MORAL EDUCATION AND LIBERAL EDUCATION * Comparing Types and Levels of Constrained Identity Agreement Diversity and Autonomy and the Different Levels of Constrained Identity Agreement PART IV: STRENGTHENING MORAL EDUCATION IN A PARTICULAR TRADITION Christian Humanism and Christ-Centered Education: The Redemptive Development of Humans and Human Creations A More Human Christian Education: An Exercise in Moral Imagination

Assessing the Denominational Identity of American Evangelical Colleges and Universities, Part I: Denominational Patronage and Institutional Policy

In an effort to better understand the role of denominational identity among its member institutions, the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) commissioned a three phase study of its institutions, faculty, and students. This article provides an overview of the study as a whole, as well as an in depth examination into the responses from the institutional portion of the study. Seventy-nine of the CCCUs member institutions in the United States responded to the online survey, yielding a response rate of 72%. Results suggest that a number of policies and practices currently in place at many church-related colleges serve to maintain denominational identity. In particular, college governance practices, annual appropriations from ecclesiastical bodies, and employment policies were generally found to support the denominational character of the institutions sampled. However, longitudinal trends suggest potential challenges on the horizon, as denominations have provided smaller annual appropriations and fewer students who identify with the sponsoring denomination are enrolling in church-related colleges and universities. In short, study findings indicate that American evangelical Protestant denominations continue to provide a measure of oversight and funding to their affiliated postsecondary institutions, and the policies and practices of these institutions privilege their ecclesiastical patrons in varying degrees. Subsequent articles from this study will examine faculty perspectives and practices as well as the student experience at CCCU institutions.

SEARCHING FOR THE SOUL OF ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES: AN EXPLORATION AND ANALYSIS OF CHRISTIAN HIGHER EDUCATION IN ENGLAND

ABSTRACT:  Although church-related universities in England gradually became more secular throughout the twentieth century, a group of nine teacher education colleges with church foundations have recently developed into full fledged universities. This article draws upon documentary and site-based research to evaluate the relevance of the Christian identity for these institutions in light of recent scholarship on the subject.

Assessing the Denominational Identity of American Evangelical Colleges and Universities, Part III: The Student Experience

As the conclusion to a three-part series assessing the denominational identity of American evangelical colleges and universities, this article presents findings from Phase III of the CCCU Denominational Study. Data for this research were gathered via an online survey that was completed by 3,160 full-time undergraduate students attending 16 denominationally affiliated evangelical Christian colleges. Similar to national trends, the results indicate that more students identify as nondenominational than any other particular Christian denomination. In addition, most students view their denomination as having little importance to their faith lives, and are likely to base their college choice on an institutions Christian identity, not its denominational identity. Nevertheless, students do not have negative views of their denomination and typically hold similar beliefs to the denomination of their institution. These results are discussed in light of their implications for Christian higher education, followed by a concluding consideration of the wider implications of the results of this three-part series for the future of denominational identity in evangelical Christian higher education.

The Teaching of Ethics in Christian Higher Education: An Examination of General Education Requirements

Using an institutional-structural model of inquiry, this study identified the degree to which ethics education exists in 173 Christian colleges and universities. The results indicated almost all students receive some form of ethics education. However, only one-third of these institutions require an ethics course within their general education requirements.

Assessing the Denominational Identity of American Evangelical Colleges and Universities, Part II: Faculty Perspectives and Practices

This article presents results from Phase II of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) Denominational Study, a multi-institutional examination of the state of denominational identity at evangelical Christian colleges, their faculty, and the students they serve. This phase of the study involved the administration of an online survey that was completed by 1,557 full-time faculty serving in 37 denominationally-affiliated evangelical Christian colleges. On the whole, faculty expressed a strong sense of affinity toward the sponsoring denominations of their respective institutions, though less than half attended a local congregation in the same denominational tradition. In addition, personal theological traditions were reported to influence faculty classroom practice on a number of dimensions. Faculty also perceived that college leaders and administrators placed a significant amount of importance on the denominational identities of their respective institutions, reporting that denominational identity was emphasized across many facets of institutional life, including campus ethos, curriculum, corporate worship, institutional governance, and public rhetoric. Finally, though respondents valued denominational identity in the faculty search process, a large majority expressed openness toward hiring colleagues from differing denominational traditions.

Moral Education at Religious Research Universities: Exploring Faculty Attitudes

Abstract This article presents the results and an analysis of 1,728 survey responses from faculty at four top tier religious research universities regarding their support for moral and civic education. The results demonstrate that a majority of faculty members at these schools supported both the general goals of moral and civic education and specific suggestions for integrating moral and civic education into the curriculum. Nonetheless, three major concerns emerged about its actual implementation into the curriculum.