The College "Y": Student Religion in the Era of Secularization

by D. Setran

Overview

In this groundbreaking history of the intercollegiate YMCA, David Setran details the critical role of this organization on American campuses in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By examining the YMCA's influence on student piety and campus life during the era of collegiate secularization, he explores the evolving place of Protestant Christianity in American higher education. This important study is essential reading for those interested in American history, education, and religious studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781403961259
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	07/02/2008
Edition description:	2007
Pages:	315
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.99(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

David P. Setran is Professor of Educational Ministries, Wheaton College, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction Origins: Creating 'Pious Scholars' in the Secular University, 1870-1914 'Go Ye Into All the World': The Development of a Student Service and Missionary Movement, 1870-1914 'The Winds of Change': Religious Liberalism, World War I, and the Changing University Climate, 1914-1930 'Making Radicals for Jesus': Re-Inventing the Intercollegiate YMCA, 1917-1935 'A Play in Three Acts': The Decline of the Intercollegiate YMCA, 1925-1940Conclusion: The YMCA and the Secularization of Higher Education

Editorial Reviews

'Anyone who wants to understand the history of religious commitment in the United States and the contexts that have shaped it will find Setran's penetrating study of the Christian youth movement timely and important.It helps explain current struggles, but more to the point, it delivers a complex narrative in a voice that speaks with uncommon insight and grace.Substantively and methodologically, this book will benefit students, more experienced scholars, and laypeople alike.It establishes Setran as a rising star in the history of American education and religion.' Donald Warren, Indiana University, editor of Civic and Moral Learning in America (Palgrave Macmillan)

'A century ago, the YMCA stood at the center of campus life for many male students, a visible reminder of religious presence in American higher education. Within a few decades, however, the 'Y' was relegated to the margins of academia. In this thoughtful, engaging history, Setran persuasively explains how the social gospel and progressive education helped reshape the religious and social aims of the YMCA, whose leaders unwittingly contributed to the ongoing secularization of modern higher education. A gifted writer with an incomparable command of the primary sources, Setran has established himself as a leading scholar of American educational and religious history.' - William J. Reese, Professor of Educational Policy Studies and History, University of Wisconsin-Madison

From the Publisher