The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship

In his 1994 book, The Soul of the American University, Marsden (History, Duke) declared the current university to be hollow and proposed a corrective step: that ""Christian scholarship"" and other ""explicitly faith-informed viewpoints"" find a voice in higher education alongside feminist, Marxist, gay and other perspectives. Critics objected that a scholar's faith is irrelevant to any field outside, perhaps, religion. Here, Marsden ably defends his ""outrageous idea,"" examining first the historical reasons ""why Christian perspectives are not welcomed"" in the academy. He challenges the common argument that religious beliefs are inherently unscientific, stating that this notion is a throwback to a pre-1960s confidence in objective scientific methodology as the sole standard for truth. If it is widely accepted, he asks, that scholars' pretheoretical influences shape their interpretations, why then the residual prejudice against religious belief? In a lucid, thoughtful book even his toughest critics will find compelling, Marsden outlines specific ways that a scholarship informed by faith can, within the accepted rules of academic discourse, contribute new insights to the most sharply debated issues of the day, such as how to assert moral claims and affirm pluralism without lapsing into relativism. (Feb.)