Religion on Campus [Paperback]

Conrad Cherry (Author), Amanda Porterfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 26, 2006

The first intensive, close-up investigation of the practice and teaching of religion at American colleges and universities, Religion on Campus is an indispensable resource for all who want to understand what religion really means to today's undergraduates.

To explore firsthand how college students understand, practice, and learn about religion, the authors visited four very different U.S. campuses: a Roman Catholic university in the East, a state university in the West, a historically black university in the South, and a Lutheran liberal arts college in the North. They interviewed students, faculty members, and administrators; attended classes; participated in worship services; observed prayer and Bible study groups; and surveyed the general ethos of each campus. The resulting study makes fascinating and important reading for anyone--including students, parents, teachers, administrators, clergy, and scholars--concerned with the future of young Americans.

Challenging theories of the secularization of higher education and the decline of religion on campus, this book reveals that both the practice and the study of religion are thriving, nourished by a campus culture of diversity, tolerance, and choice.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Recently, numerous observers of American religion have decried the decline of religion on campus. George Marsden, for example, has argued that America's colleges and universities, once so heavily tied to their (usually Christian) roots, have embraced secularity wholesale. But who has thought to actually test these secularization theories? Working with a generous Lilly grant, religion professors Cherry, DeBerg and Porterfield went to the trenches to measure the vitality of religion on America's college campuses. At four anonymous institutions an elite Roman Catholic university in the East; a large state university in California; a small, historically African-American university in the South; and a Lutheran liberal arts college in the North they conducted in-depth, on-site investigations. Among their various conclusions, one theme emerges clearly: religion is alive and well on campus. The phenomenon that others have mistaken for secularization, the authors say, actually reveals other trends. For example, students are more private about their spirituality and less apt to associate it with organized religion, making it more difficult to track. Porterfield and Cherry emerge here as the better writers; DeBerg's chapter (which unfortunately occurs first) is a bit clunky by comparison. But all three are observant ethnographers, looking beyond the obvious places such as classroom and chapel to find religion at work in the locker room before the big game, in acts of community volunteerism or in the highly ritualized coronation of a homecoming queen. This important study confirms the vitality of religion on campus while ably challenging widely held theories of secularization.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

This important study confirms the vitality of religion on campus while ably challenging widely held theories of secularization. (Publishers Weekly)

A good introduction to American understanding of faith. (Alan Wolfe, Chronicle of Higher Education)

Any church leader who questions the validity of a religious presence on college campuses should read this book. (Christian Century)

A study of religious practice on American campuses that should give pause to anyone proposing that the secularization theory is airtight. (Common Review)

A believable and compelling picture of religious life on campus. . . . A pleasure to read and a helpful introduction to people who care about student spirituality. (Congregations)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (September 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807855006
• ISBN-13: 978-0807855003
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #944,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars How do American Students Feel about Religion?, December 27, 2003

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Bryan Carey "Bryan Carey" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Religion on Campus (Paperback)

How do American students feel about the subject of religion?

Do they feel it still has significance in their lives? Do they actively participate in religious activities? Are they becoming less and less active in religion and more and more secular as each year passes?

Conrad Cherry, Amamda Porterfield, and Betty Deberg selected four colleges to conduct a study about religious attitudes in America today. They chose a Roman Catholic school, a Lutheran school, a Presbyterian school, and a state school for their study. They spent many weeks at each school, going to the events, attending religious services, and conducting interviews with students and religious leaders. The results of their studies were edited and combined together to form this book, "Religion on Campus".

What these three scholars found is that that most students, in spite of the negative news to the contrary, are still active in religion and they still consider it an important part of their lives. They still believe in a higher power and actively debate the role of religion in society. Students also still belive in going to church (although more of them consider themselves spiritual in the broader sense and don't belong to any church)and in the active support of church- related activities.

The authors base these findings on what they saw and heard firsthand during their travels to the different univerisities. However, the fact that they included only four schools makes me a little skeptical. Statistically speaking, one cannot draw any definite conclusions with such a small sample. When you consider the thousands of universities that exist in America, it would be foolish to think that a study of just four of them would be sufficient to declare that American students are more religious than everyone thinks. A larger sample would need to be studied.

Another thing I didn't like about this book is the fact that the authors do not disclose the names of the four colleges in the study. They don't disclose the real names of any of the faculty, students, or administrators either. I can fully understand why individuals might not want to be mentioned by name. But I cannot understand the decision to withhold the names of the schools. As I read, I found myself putting the book down every now and then and trying to figure out what colleges they were talking about. This distracted a little from the book itself. I think disclosing the names would have made for a better read and it would have given a study like this one a little more credibility.

Authors Conrad Cherry, Amanda Porterfield, and Betty DeBerg are three academic scholars who have studied the topic of religion extensively. They have published many articles and presented their own analysis on the topic of religion and its importance to the members of the public. "Religion on Campus" is a respectable effort to study and present the real story behind American students and how they feel about the subject of religion, but it doesn't include enough colleges to represent a viable cross- section of the different types of colleges and the different types of students that attend them. For this reason, I can only give it a two- star rating. It doesn't go in- depth enough to take seriously.