Y This volume is an excellent collection of papers delivered at a T national colloquium held at Baylor University that highlights he the superb diversity of thought that exists within the Baptist F higher education ranks. The book makes a contribution to uture of the question, “how shall Baptist colleges and universities preserve their heritage while providing leadership within the The Future academy?” —Bob R. Agee, Executive Director, Association of Southern Baptist Colleges and Schools B Y aptist of Baptist The Future of Baptist Higher Education investigates four key issues that inform Baptist efforts at higher education: H the denominational conflict that has afflicted Baptists since the 1980s, the secularization of higher education in igher America, the dominance of the market-driven tendencies Higher in American higher education today, and the meaning of Christian higher education. This volume clearly illustrates that Baptist higher education, as with the Christian life itself, E is far more complex than any one imperial interpretation. ducation Education Y Donald D. Schmeltekopf (Ph.D. Drew University) is Y Provost Emeritus and Hazel and Harry Chavanne Professor of Christian Ethics in Business at Baylor University. Dianna Y M. Vitanza (Ph.D. Northern Illinois University) is Associate Professor of English at Baylor University. and Vitanza Schmeltekopf EDITORS Donald D. Schmeltekopf and Dianna M. Vitanza FutureCover_D2.indd 1 8/4/06 5:02:49 PM Th e Future of Baptist Higher Education SSchmelVitachmelVita FFuture.indduture.indd i 44/11/2006/11/2006 11:09:56:09:56 PPMM SSchmelVitachmelVita FFuture.indduture.indd iiii 44/11/2006/11/2006 11:20:17:20:17 PPMM Th e Future of Baptist Higher Education Donald D. Schmeltekopf and Dianna M. Vitanza Editors Baylor University Press Waco, Texas USA SSchmelVitachmelVita FFuture.indduture.indd iiiiii 44/11/2006/11/2006 11:20:17:20:17 PPMM SSchmelVitachmelVita FFuture.indduture.indd iviv 44/11/2006/11/2006 11:20:17:20:17 PPMM In memory of the founders of Baptist colleges and universities across America SSchmelVitachmelVita Future.inddFuture.indd v 44/11/2006/11/2006 11:20:17:20:17 PPMM SSchmelVitachmelVita Future.inddFuture.indd vivi 44/11/2006/11/2006 11:20:17:20:17 PPMM Contents Preface ix Introduction 1 Baptist Identity and Christian Higher Education 3 Donald D. Schmeltekopf and Dianna M. Vitanza Part One: Four Models for Baptist Higher Education 2 Integrating Faith and Learning in an Ecumenical Context 25 David P. Gushee 3 Building on a Shared Identity within a Shared History 53 William E. Hull 4 Fostering Dissent in the Postmodern Academy 65 Bill J. Leonard 5 Blending Baptist with Orthodox in the Christian University 83 David S. Dockery Part Two: Faculty and Students and Baptist Higher Education 6 Who Will Our Students Be in a Postmodern, Postdenominational, and Materialistic Age? 101 Richard Franklin 7 Religious Identity, Academic Reputation, and Attracting the Best Faculty and Students 113 Larry Lyon vii SSchmelVitachmelVita Future.inddFuture.indd viivii 44/11/2006/11/2006 11:20:17:20:17 PPMM viii Contents Part Th ree: Baptist Higher Education and Its Constituencies 8 Is Higher Education a Justifi able Mission of Baptist Churches and Baptist Bodies? 129 James C. Denison 9 Can Baptist Institutions of Higher Education Meet the Needs of Increasingly Diverse Constituencies? 145 Albert Reyes 10 Can Baptist Institutions of Higher Education Meet the Needs of Youth in a Post-9/11 World? 159 Denton Lotz 11 To Whom Are Baptist Colleges and Universities Accountable? Response 1 171 Daniel Vestal Response 2 177 R. Kirby Godsey 12 Th e University, the Church, and the Culture 187 Th omas E. Corts Part Four: Conclusion 13 Th e Future of Baptist Higher Education: Secular or Religious? 203 Martin E. Marty 14 Can the Secular Be Sanctifi ed? 219 Curtis W. Freeman Notes 233 Contributors 263 SSchmelVitachmelVita Future.inddFuture.indd viiiviii 44/11/2006/11/2006 11:20:17:20:17 PPMM Preface In April 2003, the Council of Deans of Baylor University sponsored a col- loquy on the subject “Th e Baptist and Christian Character of Baylor,” the papers for which were made into a book by the same title. Both the colloquy and the book received favorable reviews, not only at Baylor but widely across the Christian higher education community. Th e colloquy prompted another question, however, which had to do with the denominational ties of Baptist colleges and universities in this country, but especially in the South. Baylor President—now Chancellor—Robert B. Sloan Jr. asked one of the coeditors of this book, Donald Schmeltekopf, to organize a conference on the scale of the earlier colloquy, only to make it a national meeting on the theme, “Th e Future of Baptist Higher Education.” Our fi rst act was to appoint a planning committee, of which the other coeditor, Dianna Vitanza, was a member. It was agreed from the start that the conference proceedings would be pub- lished, and that the two of us would be the coeditors, as we were for the book that came out of the earlier colloquy in 2003. Th ere are at least four subtexts driving the content of this book and the conference that preceded it on April 18–19, 2005. Perhaps the most vis- ible is the denominational confl ict that has affl icted Baptists, especially those connected with the Southern Baptist Convention, over the past twenty-fi ve years or so. Another is the widespread secularization of higher education in America—the ideological roots of which go back to the Enlightenment— which has radically altered the intellectual and moral culture of our nation’s campuses especially since the 1960s, including our church-related colleges and universities. A third is the dominance of the market-driven tendencies in American higher education today, including in our religious schools. Th e idea is to give students what they want “now”—preparation for jobs and careers— ix SSchmelVitachmelVita FFuture.indduture.indd ixix 44/11/2006/11/2006 11:20:17:20:17 PPMM x Preface which often means an abandonment of the long-term benefi ts of a liberal arts curriculum or of the more mission-driven aspects of a Christian institution. A fourth subtext of this book, and the one most vigorously and most often argued, has to do with the meaning of Christian higher education, but more specifi cally, the meaning of Baptist higher education. Virtually every chapter addresses this issue in one fashion or another, beginning with the coeditors’ introduction. Because the question of meaning—purpose—is so important in this context, the conference planning committee determined from the very start of its deliberations to recruit as speakers, and later writers, individuals not only with proven insight and credibility, but also of varying points of view. Th is variety is not in the service of some secular principle of diversity, but is an attempt to display how certain promising views might be complementary to each other rather than necessarily antagonistic. In the end, the coeditors believe that the meaning of Baptist and Christian higher education, as with the Christian life itself, is far more complex than any one imperial interpretation. Th e audience for this book includes all those who are interested in and care about Christian higher education in its various denominational expressions, in particular the Baptist one. At the same time, we believe it is helpful to see this book as a case study of denominationally connected higher education. Because of Baptist history and ecclesiology there are issues addressed in this book that are distinct to a congregational form of church polity, but most of the chapters are relevant to any denomination today struggling to defi ne its relationship to its educational institutions, from Roman Catholic to Lutheran to Methodist. Th e editors wish to thank all who contributed to this volume. We also wish to thank Robert Sloan for the idea that led to the conference and the members of the planning committee who made it and this book possible. And we wish to thank Baylor University Press and, in particular, its editor, Carey Newman, for their willingness to undertake this project. Donald D. Schmeltekopf Provost Emeritus and Th e Hazel and Harry Chavanne Professor of Christian Ethics in Business Dianna M. Vitanza Associate Professor of English July 2005 Baylor University Waco, Texas SSchmelVitachmelVita Future.inddFuture.indd x 44/11/2006/11/2006 11:20:17:20:17 PPMM Introduction SSchmelVitachmelVita FFuture.indduture.indd 1 44/11/2006/11/2006 1:20:181:20:18 PMPM SSchmelVitachmelVita FFuture.indduture.indd 2 44/11/2006/11/2006 1:20:181:20:18 PMPM Chapter One Baptist Identity and Christian Higher Education Donald D. Schmeltekopf Dianna M. Vitanza I Th e fi rst Baptist institution of higher education established in America was Rhode Island College, founded in 1764. Rhode Island was a logical place to locate the institution, for in the mid-eighteenth century this American colony had more Baptists than any other, largely because the tradition of religious liberty advanced by Roger Williams was attractive to Baptists and because they were not particularly welcomed in the other New England colonies. At this early date Baptists were also not yet that numerous in the middle and southern colonies. While Baptists in general were ambivalent about the need for education, even for their clergy, they nevertheless wanted their own insti- tution rather than relying on Harvard. Experience had taught them that “you could send a Baptist to Harvard but you could not get one out.”1 In 1804, Rhode Island College became known as Brown University, named after a prominent family in Providence. Even though the number of Baptists in Rhode Island was diminishing and the number of Baptists in the middle colonies was growing rapidly, Brown remained the only Baptist institution of higher education in America until 1819, when the increase of Baptists in the middle colonies led to an ambi- tious eff ort to create a Baptist school in Washington, D.C., called Colum- bian College.