Customer Reviews

The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship

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This is quite simply an excellent little book. Marsden is very clear in setting out the parameters of his study; he very precisely says that it is not a work of history. He directs the reader to another wonderful book he wrote several years ago called The Soul of the American University. The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship, he says, is intended as an appendix to that work. It must be read that way (which J.P. Parland who wrote The New York Times Book Review above didn't seem to do). The book is not intended to stand alone.

The fundamental assertion Marsden makes is that Christians should engage their subjects AS CHRISTIANS, which many Christian professors do not do. They are Christians on Sunday mornings, but they have no concept of how that may connect with their academic world. Marsden is clear that he thinks this needs to change; being a Christian should affect every aspect of our lives, and we need to be a force in higher education today.

This book is also for other Christians in the secular world. The basic argument of the book can be generalized to the culture. If you are a Christian, don't compartmentalize your life so that you put your faith into action only on Sundays or only at Bible Studies. It should encompass and pervade everything we do, especially the workplace, whether you are a professor, fireman or waitress.

Though best read after The Soul of the American University, this book makes excellent arguments on its own if you are already in the frame of mind that Christians maybe should be more active in the secular community. I say this because if you are looking to be won over by hard evidence and historical inquiry, you need to read The Soul first.

It is written in a very readable style, accessible to virtually everyone. I highly recommend this book to all who are looking to seriously defend the idea that we as Christians need to engage our culture in the secular world, not just draw them back into ours.

All too often the mainstream's push for social unity entails stripping citizens of their beliefs, backgrounds and traditions. American capitalism have brought us universalized fashion and half-done cuisine that may hearken to that of another culture, but lacks the quality of the genuine article. World music is played all over the air waves now, and it enters the music market through the soundtracks of films we have all seen. Through the Western market, we become what we are not by identifying ourselves with what we never were by consuming what we will. We are told we can remake ourselves on a whim, merely by accessorizing. We have become "a little bit of everything" and a whole lot of nothing specific, as individuals. Why? Partly because we are told that diversity is a virtue--and it is. But in order to sustain diversity, we must remain distinctly what we are. In order to be tolerant, we must be exposed to something with which we disagree, something we must tolerate.

Maintaining personal distinction in a world that fights to assimilate us is the sort of thing that Marsden has advocated in "The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship." This book is not merely for Christians, it is for everyone. Marsden has chosen to focus on Christian scholarship because he is a Christian, but he advocates an academic milieu in which Buddhists and Muslims and Jews--and anyone else who has a distinct perspective--are allowed to sit in on and contribute meaningfully to discussions that have bearing on how this society will be run. One thing is sure: Marsden is calling for an end to the secularist monopoly in academic circles. It is time for us to learn what true diversity looks like. It is time for us to act with true tolerance. It is time to stop being cast in a universal, one-size-fits-all mental mold, and become the people we are in private, in public.

ALong

For the most part, Professor Marsden's book has been significantly understood. Marsden is not answering the question of what is "Christian Scholarship" but rather, should there be Christian scholarship? To this latter question, Marsden answers with an unequivocable 'yes.' For the most part, his thesis, however, has been attacked as to not answering the former question. What exactly is Christian Scholarship? This book stands, not as an explanation for what it is, but a call for further scholarship. The merit of any book is what comes from it. We will only be able to judge Marsden's Outrageous Scholarship in what happens next. Can evangelical scholars define what Christian Scholarship is? If so, then Marsden's book will become a tour de force in all fields of scholarship.

Marsden addresses two audiences: mainstream university scholars and religious people who are uncertain what "Christian scholarship" might be. To both his aim is clear, to show how faith is relevant to scholarship apart from dogmatism. I am not entirely sure he has succeeded.

In chapter one he sketches the historical secularization of the university. In two he provides answers to three arguments against inclusion of Christian scholarship: lack of empirical support, offense to others in a pluralistic setting, and violation of church/state separation. Chapter three contends with liberal pragmatism and the academic prejudice against voices of faith. Marsden contends that faith-informed voices need not be absolutist, and that to deny them is to undermine pluralism. "What difference could it possibly make?" is answered in chapter four by identifying the paradigmatic perspectives faith-informed scholarship might provide, including faith challenges to naturalistic reductionism (causation without God), human exaltation, and moralistic relativism.

In chapter five Marsden's arguments attempts to illustrate faith-informed scholarship from four perspectives: Creation, Incarnation, Holy Spirit, and Human Condition. To me, his entire argument for the inclusion of Christian scholarship in academia rests on the persuasiveness of these examples. Moral progress is possible apart from belief in a Creator. Neither the incarnation nor doctrine of the Holy Spirit provide empirical, reproducible evidences. These faith convictions may provide a hermeneutic, but not one that is likely to be persuasive for the unconverted.

In chapter six Marsden presents academic strategies which may provide a greater hearing for faith-informed scholarship, and many examples of how these have worked. I was left with the impression that the "idea of Christian scholarship" was already well-seeded and producing fruit.

If all truth is God's truth, and if the pluralistic world of contemporary academia is the competitive arena in which truth claims contend, then "Christian" scholarship simply needs to get into the arena and fight. Christian scholars, no more than any other subgroup, should wait to be invited. I was not convinced that we need more reflection among Christian scholars. What we need is more courage.

In George Mardsen's new book, The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship, he admonishes religious universities not to impede the progress of the young generation of scholars: "Younger scholars who are Christian quickly learn that influential professors hold negative attitudes toward open religious expression and that to be accepted they schould keep quiet about their faith" (52). Marsden has singlehandedly changed the paradigm of what it means to be a Christian scholar. Many professors and instructors today have divided their professional life from their spiritual life. Marsden successfully explains how the two kingdoms can cohabitate through the Biblical relationship between human nature and God's nature. First of all, a proper perspective on human nature will help the Christian scholar maintain a self-critical attitude toward his own work. Second, that self-critical attitude will be balanced by the realization that his work has a higher purpose, that scholarship can be part of our worship to God. Marsden writes that "anyone who is familiar with the Christian networks among graduate students and younger faculty will recognize that many committed young people, especially from evangelical Protestant heritages, are embarking on academic careers" (107). Marsden's challenge comes just in time, when many scholars are at an impasse, deciding just how important their faith should shape the scholarship of the future.

This book reminds me of a bit of Allan Bloom's The Closing of The American Mind. Both books suggest that large parts of the current university system are fiascos. Judging from what are almost certainly knee-jerk reactions found in critical reviews, one can be fairly sure that something somewhere somehow is wrong and that probably few wish to face up to the hollow nature of contemporary education.

Anyway, It's a good book--a mainstream one too--written by someone who obviously knows a lot more than me about religion and the American Academy. Still I wonder what the author would say about this article in the journal Science:
Date: August 15 1997
Volume: 277. Issue no. 5328
pages: 890 - 893
title: "SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY: Science and God: A Warming Trend?"
author: Gregg Easterbrook

Marsden makes the claim that there has been an ongoing prejudice against Catholic and other religiously affiliated schools. Parents having to pay taxes for public eduation as well as their religious institution tuition fees. I fully agree that this sort of prejudice should be removed from government. It's really sad the current republican administration were unable to do much about it (or was it that at their income levels they were unable to see that there is a problem?). That would have been something George Bush could have really said "I did this" and truly left a lasting legacy, which the religious folks who put him in office could have pointed to.

Marsden, an historian, calls for re-establishing a voice for Christian scholarship in a pluralistic academic world. Without the threat of dominance the Christian perspective should be considered beside the Marxist, feminist, gay, liberal, conservative political perspectives. This is also a call to Christians to accept the academic world as pluralistic, and to respect the other perspectives and address their issues.

The outrageous idea of Christian scholarship has faced criticism from academics, usually based on political inferences. Evangelicals have criticized it as compromising the faith. Both groups have shown "imperialistic" potential - proselytizing in the classroom. Marsden would avoid this as it is against the rules of scholarship, which emphasizes technical expertise.

The expectation that educators should keep any religious beliefs private, however essential they are to their world view, or to excellence in scholarship itself, is a sort of selective repression, as other philosophies are freely debated in fields other than philosophy. The Enlightenment ideal of objectivity is shown to be impracticable as even the ideal requires certain presuppositions. This being the case the Christian scholar should be allowed to present a perspective that addresses many important questions in various fields.

Marsden includes a list of Christian scholars in various fields so the reader may further research their works (from the early 90's). This edition is only 137 pages, but small print and substantial writing.

Marsden addresses two audiences: mainstream university scholars and religious people who are uncertain what "Christian scholarship" might be. To both his aim is clear, to show how faith is relevant to scholarship apart from dogmatism. I am not entirely sure he has succeeded.

In chapter one he sketches the historical secularization of the university. In two he provides answers to three arguments against inclusion of Christian scholarship: lack of empirical support, offense to others in a pluralistic setting, and violation of church/state separation. Chapter three contends with liberal pragmatism and the academic prejudice against voices of faith. Marsden contends that faith-informed voices need not be absolutist, and that to deny them is to undermine pluralism. "What difference could it possibly make?" is answered in chapter four by identifying the paradigmatic perspectives faith-informed scholarship might provide, including faith challenges to naturalistic reductionism (causation without God), human exaltation, and moralistic relativism.

In chapter five Marsden's arguments attempts to illustrate faith-informed scholarship from four perspectives: Creation, Incarnation, Holy Spirit, and Human Condition. To me, his entire argument for the inclusion of Christian scholarship in academia rests on the persuasiveness of these examples. Moral progress is possible apart from belief in a Creator. Neither the incarnation nor doctrine of the Holy Spirit provide empirical, reproducible evidences. These faith convictions may provide a hermeneutic, but not one that is likely to be persuasive for the unconverted.

In chapter six Marsden presents academic strategies which may provide a greater hearing for faith-informed scholarship, and many examples of how these have worked. I was left with the impression that the "idea of Christian scholarship" was already well-seeded and producing fruit.

If all truth is God's truth, and if the pluralistic world of contemporary academia is the competitive arena in which truth claims contend, then "Christian" scholarship simply needs to get into the arena and fight. Christian scholars, no more than any other subgroup, should wait to be invited. I was not convinced that we need more reflection among Christian scholars. What we need is more courage.

Outrageous Idea is a helpful concise book that exposes liberal academia's philosophical predispositions while arguing for the validity of Christians' own expression of belief through rigorous scholarship. Why should, say the secular humanistic approach to studies be considered a more plausible point of reference than a thoroughgoing Christian perspective on the same? He argues that if we are to have a plurality of approaches, then we cannot rule out diversity, whether that involves silencing fideists or pure naturalists. A bit more empirical evidence would have won a 5 star review (e.g. statistics across multiple studies of preconceptions in academia).

This book was excellent; very on point from my experience in college and subsequent. Motivated me to buy 4 further books by author (had one from early 1970s) and nave greatly appreciate his scholarly research of the historical perspective of American Fundamentalism.