Research On Religion » Notre Dame

Hunter Baker on the Future of Higher Education

tonygill — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 08:00:41 +0000

With tuition costs skyrocketing, and information technology rapidly changing the educational landscape, what does the future of higher education look like? And what role will Christian colleges and universities in this brave, new world? We pose those questions to Dr. Hunter Baker, Dean of Instruction at Union University (Jackson, TN), and author of two provocative articles that answer these questions.

After establishing his bona fides as someone who is watching and shaping the changes occuring in higher ed, we ask Dr, Baker whether the future is so bright that we gotta wear shades. This prompts Hunter to references Joseph Schumpeter’s concept of “creative destruction” and launch into a discussion of how information technology is reshaping the way we teach students. He talks about the growing popularity of MOOCs (massive open online courses) that allow students in Jackson, Tennessee to take courses from famous professors in Cambridge, Massachussets. This technology, as well as other innovations in online education and “courses-in-a-box,” have pushed some university administrators to rethink the way professors are hired. While the situation is still in flux, the future of higher education may involve a number of well-known scholars accrediting themselves and selling their courses to a wide number of colleges across the country and world. Universities, in turn, may adopt a model where lower-cost adjunct faculty serve to moderate discussion and administer exams in these courses. We discuss some of the pros and cons of these technological changes including how it affects the scholarly labor market, whether courses are really “more dynamic” in an online framework, and whether these changes will erode support for a well-rounded “liberal education.”

The latter portion of our discussion focuses on the role of private religious institutions in this changing educational landscape. Tony notes that with tuition prices rising and state subsidies to public universities decreasing, the tuition gap between state schools and private colleges is shrinking. This generates an extended conversation on how some Christian schools are positioning themselves in this new environment, and some of the impediments for other schools to take advantage of the new environment. Hunter, a graduate of Baylor University, uses his alma mater as an example of how a private institution is “doing things right.” Hunter, though, notes that many other Christian colleges face some difficult uphill battles in securing large endowments to help them through difficult financial times. Some of these hurdles include issues with alumni giving. With higher private tuition prices, many Christian school alumni feel they have “already given” their contribution when they were active undergraduates. Additionally, many graduates of Christian universities often prioritize their charitable donations to their churches. Hunter also details what Baylor has recently done that may provide a future model for other religiously-based schools. Sic ’em Bears! Recorded: August 29, 2013.

Rod Stark on the Triumph of Christianity, Part III

tonygill — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 08:00:20 +0000

Prof. Rodney Stark, co-founder and co-director of Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion, joins us once again to talk about the final portion of his monumental book, The Triumph of Christianity. We pick up the story of Christianity’s growth and change with the Protestant Reformation. Prof. Stark notes that the Reformation wasn’t so much of a reform of the Church as it was a breakaway schismatic sect. Whereas there were numerous attempts at schism throughout Christian history, Rod points out that Martin Luther — who did not set out to break from the Vatican — just happened to be at the right place at the right time, which allowed his challenge to various Church doctrines to spread initially as a grassroots movement among the upper classes and then became a tool wherein nobility who were under the tutelage of Rome could gain more financial and political autonomy. We cover the various reasons for the spread of Protestantism including the role of the printing press, college students, and the incentive structure of the northern European nobility. Prof. Stark also notes that Protestantism was not a movement among the lower classes of society given that the poor typically did not attend church in this era. The “myth of medieval piety” is important for understanding why our contemporary era is not witnessing a decline in religiosity, but instead is greater than it ever has been. Our attention then turns to how Luther and Calvin’s schismatic movements challenged the Roman Catholic Church, allowing the “Church of Piety” to finally get the upper hand on the “Church of Power” (a tension we noted in the second of this three-part podcastd series). This discussion also examines what occured (and did not occur) during the Spanish Inquisition and the various witchcraft trials it supposedly spawned. Another interesting consequence of the Protestant Reformation for the Catholic Church was the creation, for the first time, of seminary training as a means of educating priests in theology. Prior to this most priests were trained as “apprentices” and often did not even know the content of the Latin texts they were reciting. This provides clear evidence of how religious pluralism (or competition) helps to keep churches honest to their spiritual mission. Indeed, Prof. Stark notes that the Reformation helped to create, in the Catholic Church, the institution he had always wanted. Tony also adds to the discussion by talking about his own research on the Latin American Catholic Church and how the “reformation” was delayed by several hundred years in that region of the world. It was when Protestants started making gains in the middle part of the 20th century that helped to reform Catholicism there. Rod also lists a number of downsides of the Catholic Counter-Reformation including some problems for intellectual freedom and the Catholic view of commerce and entrepreneurial activity. We then look at the so-called “secularization” of northern Europe and Rod makes a fascinating claim that rather than there being a large drop in the level of Christian practice over the past 500 years, there really was very little Christian practice to begin with, therefore it is hard to argue that Europe is becoming increasingly secularized when it never was really all that religious to begin with, particularly among the popular classes. This discussion opens the door to our conversation of Christianity in the United States and why it has been particularly vibrant relative to the European scene. The main point that Rod makes here is that in the U.S. there is no established church, and hence each religious denomination has to “make it on its own” if it wants to succeed and this prompts a wide range of creativity amongst the clergy. We finish our conversation with Rod’s reflection on the future of faith in the US and he also provides some interesting tidbits from his forthcoming book, America’s Blessing: How Religion Benefits Everyone … Including Atheists. Recorded: September 21, 2012.

Phillip Muñoz on Catholic Bishops, Religious Liberty, and Health Care Mandates

tonygill — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:00:11 +0000

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently released a document on religious liberty that criticized a new regulatory provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a., Obamacare) requiring employers to provide insurance coverage for contraceptions, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs. Prof. Phillip Muñoz, the Tocqueville Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame and an associate professor in the Notre Dame Law School, helps us wade through this controversy by explaining the bishops’ argument and how it relates to religious liberty. After briefly outlining the controversy, we take up the initial issue of religious liberty with Phillip discussing what it means to have a right to religious liberty and then outlining the Catholic position on religious freedom. We use the realm of educational policy to help frame the general theoretical and political issue, specifically pointing to the Wisconsin v Yoder Supreme Court case that challenged whether Amish citizens could exempt their children from mandatory schooling laws based on religious grounds. Cases of parents refusing to have their children vaccinated for theological reasons is also discussed, and we note the tension between trying to balance the public interest with the right to individual conscience. Following this general discussion, we return to the recent health care mandate, discussing the politics behind the new regulations and the Catholic bishops’ reaction. Prof. Muñoz notes how the Catholic Church’s response was not to ask for particular exemptions from these regulations for their institutions (including dioceses, hospitals, and universities), but rather to oppose the mandate on a more general ground. It is noted that it is not just Church-owned institutions that are affected, but these regulations can have an impact on secular business owners who may be Catholic and/or simply opposed to paying for the contraception and abortions of their employees. The reaction of the Obama administration, including the testimony of HHS Director Kathleen Sebelius, is considered. Phillip notes how the issue of religious freedom, or the desire to opt out of these policies on grounds of moral conscience, never really occured to the people drafting and implementing the regulations. Tony then asks Phillip about a tension he has noticed within Catholic social thought, between a tendency among bishops and other Church leaders to prefer a larger government-run welfare system and the Catholic principle of subsidiarity. That latter principle states that social problems should be handled at the lowest level possible, a philosophy akin to notions of federalism and a more laissez-faire political philosophy. We speculate about how this issue may affect the upcoming presidential election, and Tony asks Phillip how much sway the opinion and pronouncement of bishops has over Catholic voters. We finish our discussion by noting that the letter drafted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also contained concerns over violations of religious freedom in other areas of public policy, including the immigration issue. Here, the bishops appear to stand with the Obama administration in opposing recent laws in Alabama and elsewhere that make it difficult for the Catholic Church to minister to undocumented immigrants. We end the podcast with Phillip reading the prayer that the bishops used to close their pastoral letter, a salient reminder of how the secular and the sacred cross paths in the public square and the importance that freedom represents to a religious society. Recorded: May 2, 2012.