The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship

by George M. Marsden

Overview

First published in 1997, The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship is a landmark work that offered a bold call to re-establish Christian perspectives in academia. While other defining elements of a scholar's identity, such as race or gender, are routinely welcomed as providing valued points of view, the perspectives of believing Christians are sometimes dismissed as irrelevant--or, worse, antithetical--to the scholarly enterprise. George M. Marsden argues forcefully that academia is enriched by encouraging religious diversity. For this second edition, Marsden has added a new preface as well as an entirely new chapter reflecting on the changing landscape of academia in the quarter century since the book first appeared. In principle, the arguments for recognizing religious outlooks as legitimate expressions of diversity have been more widely accepted. In practice, the diverse academy is often a dangerously contentious place where constructive intellectual exchange is difficult. Marsden shows how Christians can contribute constructively to a variety of academic settings and exemplify the virtues that should be integral to a Christian's intellectual inquiry and exchange.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780197751138
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/23/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	540 KB

About the Author

George M. Marsden is Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. He has written numerous books, including The Soul of the American University, Fundamentalism and American Culture, and Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism.

Table of Contents

Preface to the First Edition Preface to the Second Edition Introduction 1. Why Christian Perspectives Are Not Welcomed 2. The Arguments for Silence 3. Christian Scholarship and the Rules of the Academic Game 4. What Difference Could It Possibly Make? 5. The Positive Contributions of Theological Context 6. Building Academic Communities 7. Christian Scholarship in the Twenty-First Century Notes Index

Editorial Reviews

Examines the relationship of religious faith and intellectual scholarship and demonstrates what that relationship might mean for the academy today, arguing that mainstream higher education needs to be more open to expressions of faith and to accept what faith means in an intellectual context. Examines why Christian perspectives are not welcome in the academy, rebuts arguments for excluding religious viewpoints, and argues that a religiously diverse culture will be an intellectually richer one. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

A frank assertion that religious faith does indeed have a place in academia.

Marsden (History/Notre Dame) is an influential, perceptive scholar of American religion. Fundamentalism and American Culture (1980), his landmark study, stands as the definitive intellectual history of conservative evangelicalism. He argues here that the academy has trivialized religious faith to the extent that scholars feel compelled to check their belief systems at the door. Marsden admits that he is entering new territory here: This book is not a work of history, but a plea for scholars of faith to take a bold initiative in connecting their beliefs to their disciplines. This clarifies and expands upon a similar suggestion made in his controversial 1994 book, The Soul of the American University. Scholars rejected many of that work's ideas, expressing the suspicion that, if ultraconservative Christians were permitted to do so, they would not merely incorporate faith into their disciplines but seize control of education, demand equal time for such dubious pursuits as "creation science," and stifle alternative religious viewpoints. Marsden insists that this is not what he had in mind and that his vision of "faith-informed scholarship" requires scholars to play by the rules of the academy, rules that include accepting diverse perspectives. If there is a flaw in this short volume, it is that Marsden spends more time answering his critics and defining what faith-informed scholarship is not than in delineating what it might have to offer. His vision is also specifically Christian. Marsden says that he hopes that scholars of other faiths will join his crusade and integrate their beliefs with their work, and he repeatedly asserts that his goal is not to return American education to an old-time Protestant hegemony.

This book will prompt more heated debate about the role of religion in the academy. And despite Marsden's eloquence, the jury is still out on this divisive question.

Kirkus Reviews

"A frank assertion that religious faith does indeed have a place in academia."—Kirkus Reviews

"A lucid, thoughtful book even his toughest critics will find compelling."—Publishers Weekly

"An exciting and thought-provoking work."—Commonweal

"Marsden's arguments need to be read both off and on the campus."—Fort Worth Star-Telegram

From the Publisher