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Christian Higher Education at Secular Universities: A Multiple-Case Study of Christian Study Centers and Institutes for Catholic Thought

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Title: Christian Higher Education at Secular Universities: A Multiple-Case Study of Christian Study Centers and Institutes for Catholic Thought
Language: English
Authors: Theodore F. Cockle (ORCID 0000-0001-5335-8362), Karen K. Melton (ORCID 0000-0003-4044-8654), Andrew Z. Hansen (ORCID 0000-0003-2390-2587), Perry L. Glanzer (ORCID 0000-0002-3649-2516), Sarah S. Schnitker (ORCID 0000-0002-2403-9765)
Source: Christian Higher Education. 2024 23(4):397-419.
Availability: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 23
Publication Date: 2024
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Postsecondary Education
Descriptors: Christianity, Religious Education, Religious Factors, National Organizations, Study Centers, Catholics, Institutional Characteristics, Intellectual Development, Churches, Religious Colleges, College Faculty, Teacher Selection, State Universities, Private Colleges
DOI: 10.1080/15363759.2024.2341855
ISSN: 1536-3759
1539-4107
Abstract: For over 50 years, a group of Christians has cultivated a movement to revitalize Christian education at secular universities. These leaders formed centers for Christian thought (CCT) to reengage the Christian faith with the "intellectual" life (and vice-versa) and work with students, staff, and faculty within American universities. At present, there are at least 41 CCT in the USA, but little empirical work has been done to explore this type of Christian education. In this paper, we used a collective case study of five established CCT to answer the following research question: What are the distinctive features of Christian study centers and institutes for Catholic thought, and what is the nature of Christian education they offer? Each center we studied exhibited characteristics unique to its institutional context and yet shared some key educational elements with other centers. In sum, CCT used hospitality and intellectual fellowship to engage the riches of the Christian intellectual tradition to satiate the human appetite to live an integrated life. The center staff believed that living the integrated life would strengthen the global church and thereby benefit the university and society. Although CCT are distinct from Christian colleges and universities, opportunities exist for mutual learning between them that could help perpetuate the Christian intellectual tradition. For example, CCT could benefit from the faith integration conversations happening on Christian campuses, who could, in turn, learn from the holistic approaches of CCT and benefit from hiring faculty who were involved with a center as graduate students.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2024
Accession Number: EJ1432219
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0178530670;j2401jul.24;2024Jul23.05:09;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0178530670-1">Christian Higher Education at Secular Universities: A Multiple-Case Study of Christian Study Centers and Institutes for Catholic Thought </title> <p>For over 50 years, a group of Christians has cultivated a movement to revitalize Christian education at secular universities. These leaders formed centers for Christian thought (CCT) to reengage the Christian faith with the intellectual life (and vice-versa) and work with students, staff, and faculty within American universities. At present, there are at least 41 CCT in the USA, but little empirical work has been done to explore this type of Christian education. In this paper, we used a collective case study of five established CCT to answer the following research question: What are the distinctive features of Christian study centers and institutes for Catholic thought, and what is the nature of Christian education they offer? Each center we studied exhibited characteristics unique to its institutional context and yet shared some key educational elements with other centers. In sum, CCT used hospitality and intellectual fellowship to engage the riches of the Christian intellectual tradition to satiate the human appetite to live an integrated life. The center staff believed that living the integrated life would strengthen the global church and thereby benefit the university and society. Although CCT are distinct from Christian colleges and universities, opportunities exist for mutual learning between them that could help perpetuate the Christian intellectual tradition. For example, CCT could benefit from the faith integration conversations happening on Christian campuses, who could, in turn, learn from the holistic approaches of CCT and benefit from hiring faculty who were involved with a center as graduate students.</p> <p>Keywords: Christian Study Center; Institute for Catholic Thought; Christian education; case study; relational systems evaluation</p> <p>Two decades before George Marsden ([<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref1">27</reflink>]) penned the story of the secularization of America's elite educational institutions, a group of Christians had already begun a unique movement to revitalize Christian education at these institutions through the development of para-academic centers focused on Christian thought (Cotherman, [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref2">10</reflink>]). In the decades since, this movement has continued to grow in size and scope. Protestant and ecumenical versions of these centers often refer to themselves as Christian study centers, whereas Catholic versions of these centers may refer to themselves as institutes for Catholic thought. Therefore, we will refer to these centers collectively/ecumenically as "centers for Christian thought" (CCT).</p> <p>When we began our research, there were at least 41 CCT in the North America, 32 connected to the Consortium of Christian Study Centers ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref3">7</reflink>]) and nine additional centers not affiliated with the Consortium (Table 1). Interestingly, these centers have received little empirical attention with respect to their structure and programmatic elements. There currently exists a history of the movement (Cotherman, [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref4">10</reflink>]), an informal case study of a single center (Hansen, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref5">20</reflink>]), a chapter summary of the movement (Glanzer et al., [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref6">19</reflink>]), and a single paragraph in a 40-page chapter on parachurch organizations on university campuses (Mahan & Smedley, [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref7">26</reflink>]). Although these works provide helpful introductions to CCT, they do not systematically explore their distinctive features or the nature of the Christian education provided therein. Therefore, in this paper, we provide case studies of five centers (three Christian study centers and two institutes for Catholic thought) to describe what CCT are and how they contribute to Christian higher education, broadly defined.</p> <p>Table 1. A list of Christian Study Centers serving state and private secular universities.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead><tr><td>Member centers of the Consortium of Christian Study Centers</td></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td>Name</td><td>Affiliated university/Location</td></tr><tr><td>Alcuin Study Center</td><td>Ball State University (Muncie, IN)</td></tr><tr><td>Anselm House</td><td>University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN)</td></tr><tr><td>Arizona Center for Christian Studies</td><td>Arizona State University (Phoenix, AZ)</td></tr><tr><td>Augustine Center</td><td>Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.)</td></tr><tr><td>Biblical Studies Center</td><td>Boise State University (Boise, MT)</td></tr><tr><td>Bradley Study Center</td><td>Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA)</td></tr><tr><td>Center for Christian Study</td><td>University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA)</td></tr><tr><td>Center for Christianity and Scholarship</td><td>Duke University (Durham, NC)</td></tr><tr><td>Chesterton House</td><td>Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)</td></tr><tr><td>Christian Study Center of Champaign-Urbana</td><td>University of Illinois (Champaign, IL)</td></tr><tr><td>Christian Study Center of Chattanooga</td><td>University of Tennessee (Chattanooga, TN)</td></tr><tr><td>Christian Study Center of Gainesville</td><td>University of Florida (Gainesville, FL)</td></tr><tr><td>Cogito</td><td>Hampden-Sydney College (Hampden Sydney, VA)</td></tr><tr><td>Comenius Institute</td><td>Indiana University, Purdue University (IN)</td></tr><tr><td>C. S. Lewis Study Center</td><td>Five Colleges of Massachusetts</td></tr><tr><td>Eleazar Wheelock Society</td><td>Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH)</td></tr><tr><td>Hill House</td><td>University of Texas (Austin, TX)</td></tr><tr><td>Humanitas Forum on Christianity and Culture</td><td>Tennessee Tech University (Cookeville, TN)</td></tr><tr><td>Joseph & Alice McKeen Study Center</td><td>Bowdoin College (Brunswick, ME)</td></tr><tr><td>Mere Christianity Forum</td><td>Furman University (Greenville, SC)</td></tr><tr><td>New College Berkeley</td><td>University of California (Berkeley, CA)</td></tr><tr><td>North Carolina Study Center</td><td>University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC)</td></tr><tr><td>The Octet Collaborative</td><td>Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA)</td></tr><tr><td>Oread Center</td><td>University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS)</td></tr><tr><td>Richmond Center for Christian Study</td><td>University of Richmond (Richmond, VA)</td></tr><tr><td>Rivendell Institute</td><td>Yale University (New Haven, CT)</td></tr><tr><td>Saint Thomas Mission</td><td>University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC)</td></tr><tr><td>Scholé House</td><td>Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA)</td></tr><tr><td>Theological Horizons</td><td>University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA)</td></tr><tr><td>Trinity Fellowship</td><td>Indiana University (Bloomington, IN)</td></tr><tr><td>Upper House</td><td>University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI)</td></tr><tr><td>Via Christian Study Center</td><td>Christopher Newport University (Yorktown, VA)</td></tr><tr><td>Additional centers not affiliated with the Consortium of Christian Study Centers</td></tr><tr><td>Name</td><td>Affiliated university/Location</td></tr><tr><td>Aquinas Institute for Catholic Thought</td><td>University of Colorado (Boulder, CO)</td></tr><tr><td>Beatrice Institute</td><td>University of Pittsburgh/Carnegie Mellon University (PA)</td></tr><tr><td>Collegium Institute</td><td>University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)</td></tr><tr><td>IKON Institute</td><td>Tulane University (New Orleans, LA)</td></tr><tr><td>Institute for Faith and Culture</td><td>University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS)</td></tr><tr><td>Lumen Christi Institute</td><td>University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)</td></tr><tr><td>Newman Institute for Catholic Thought & Culture</td><td>University of Nebraska (Lincoln, NE)</td></tr><tr><td>Nova Forum for Catholic Thought</td><td>University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA)</td></tr><tr><td>St. Anselm Institute for Catholic Thought</td><td>University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA)</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <hd id="AN0178530670-2">A Brief History of the CCT Movement</hd> <p>The late nineteenth century saw the secularization of higher education in America, wherein many Protestant denominational colleges and universities—along with nonsectarian institutions (including public universities)—that had historically been united by a <emph>de jure</emph> or <emph>de facto</emph> Protestant religious and moral consensus decreased and eliminated formal religious and moral instruction within the curriculum (Marsden, [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref8">27</reflink>]; Reuben, [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref9">34</reflink>]; Roberts & Turner, [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref10">35</reflink>]). As a result, new institutions emerged on college campuses—perhaps most evident with the rise of YMCAs and campus ministries—to provide for spiritual and moral needs of students through extracurricular activities, services, and the like. Newman Clubs (later Newman Centers) were founded beginning in the late nineteenth century to support the religious lives of growing numbers of Catholic students attending Protestant and (increasingly) secular universities (Solberg, [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref11">39</reflink>]).</p> <p>Centers for Christian thought emerged during the twentieth century from both Protestant and Catholic efforts to engage Christian theological and moral traditions with the "secular" learning of universities (Cotherman, [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref12">10</reflink>]; Hansen, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref13">20</reflink>]). When the first Christian study centers appeared on campuses in the 1970s, these institutions shared features with other campus ministries by operating within the extracurricular spaces of state and private secular universities. Yet, in a way different than other Christian ministries, the centers specifically sought to reengage Christian faith and traditions with the <emph>intellectual</emph> life and work with students and faculty within these universities in embodied ways that mirrored the secular university. Thus, although they offered Christian community like other groups, they also held "lectures and seminars that engage topics and themes directly relating Christianity to the academic work of the University" and sought "physical space on or near campus that serves as a place for hospitality" (Hansen, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref14">20</reflink>], p. 88). The two latter elements were not a key part of other parachurch ministries.</p> <p>The founding of the Consortium of Christian Study Centers (CCSC) in 2008 marked an important step toward the consolidation and coordination of these various efforts at different universities (Consortium of Christian Study Centers, [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref15">8</reflink>]). At the start of this project, the network convened and resourced 32 CCSC member institutions across the United States (Table 1). During the process of our research and writing, several new centers have opened, bringing the total at the time of publication to 35 (Consortium of Christian Study Centers, [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref16">8</reflink>]).</p> <p>Despite the diverse forms and programs of its study centers, the CCSC identifies a common mission among its membership as the "integration of faith and learning with life" and the "nurturing of Christian faith in the context of the contemporary university" (Consortium of Christian Study Centers, [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref17">7</reflink>]). No corresponding coalition exists for Catholic institutes, but during our research for this paper, we learned that several leaders from institutes for Catholic thought were in the early stages of forming the <emph>In Lumine Network</emph> to support the efforts of Catholic institutes across the country.</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-3">Research Question</hd> <p>Recognizing the lack of empirical analysis on the CCT phenomena, we undertook a multiple case study methodology to answer the following research question: What are the distinctive features of Christian study centers and institutes for Catholic thought, and what is the nature of Christian education they offer?</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-4">Method</hd> <p>We used a collective case study design (Creswell & Poth, [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref18">12</reflink>]; Yin, [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref19">42</reflink>]) to determine the defining features of CCT. Case studies provide "an intensive, holistic description and analysis of a single instance, phenomenon, or social unit" (Merriam, [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref20">29</reflink>], p. 21). Each center we studied represented a single case. Collective case study design combines data from each of these single cases to provide greater insight into the larger phenomenon that holds those cases together. Because we sought to make transferrable claims (Lincoln & Guba, [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref21">23</reflink>]) about the type of Christian education these centers/institutes offer college students, we selected five CCT for a holistic (Yin, [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref22">42</reflink>]) cross-case analysis (Creswell & Poth, [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref23">12</reflink>]). Our study explored what, if anything, held these institutions together despite their being independently managed (Hansen, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref24">20</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-5">Case Selection</hd> <p>Because of the intensive nature of our study, we limited the scope of our study to five CCT (Table 2). Therefore, we used multiple criteria to select these centers and institutes.</p> <p>Table 2. Institutions and study participants.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead><tr><td>CCT and adjacent institutions</td><td>Religious affiliation</td><td>School type</td><td>Carnegie classification</td><td>Undergrad students</td></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td>Anselm House (AB $950,000; 11 staff)</td><td>Ecumenical</td><td /><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>University of Minnesota</td><td>Secular</td><td>Public</td><td>Research 1</td><td char=".">35,100</td></tr><tr><td>Chesterton House (AB $620,000; 10 staff)</td><td>Ecumenical</td><td /><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>Cornell University</td><td>Secular</td><td>Private</td><td>Research 1</td><td char=".">15,000</td></tr><tr><td>Collegium Institute (AB $518,000; 6 staff)</td><td>Catholic</td><td /><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>University of Pennsylvania</td><td>Secular</td><td>Private</td><td>Research 1</td><td char=".">10,000</td></tr><tr><td>Lumen Christi Institute (AB $1.4 million; 10 staff)</td><td>Catholic</td><td /><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>University of Chicago</td><td>Secular</td><td>Private</td><td>Research 1</td><td char=".">6,700</td></tr><tr><td>North Carolina Study Center (AB $860,000; 8 staff)</td><td>Ecumenical</td><td /><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill</td><td>Secular</td><td>Public</td><td>Research 1</td><td char=".">19,400</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>First, we selected CCT that exhibited a minimum degree of organizational stability, defined as evidencing at least a few years of organizational history and established programs (e.g., they had lecture series, academic seminars, and/or reading groups that had been running for more than one year), as well as a sufficient staff to devote the staff hours needed to engage with our intensive research study (i.e., as noted below, CCT were required to have multiple staff members available to participate in bi-monthly meetings). Second, while selecting centers serving universities with R1 Carnegie classifications, we sought to include centers working within a diversity of university contexts. In addition to seeking diversity with respect to institutional type (public/private) and number of students, we also aimed for some amount of geographic diversity in the selection, including CCT from the Northeast, the Midwest, and the South. Given the diversity of CCT programming, we also sought variety among centers and institutes in terms of the types of programmatic offerings and audiences served (e.g., focus on residential living, academic seminars, use of physical space for hospitality programs, undergraduates vs. graduate/professional students, etc.). Finally, we included two institutes that define their mission in terms of an explicitly Catholic intellectual tradition and three centers with Protestant roots that locate themselves within the broader ecumenical Christian tradition.</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-6">Data Collection: The Center Modeling Process</hd> <p>In our case studies, we used a qualitative approach employing relational systems evaluation methods (Urban et al., [<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref25">41</reflink>]). Relational systems evaluation is an approach that values reciprocity between the research team and the organization being studied. Using this approach, the participants gain new capacities and insights related to planning and evaluation for their organization; at the same time, the researchers can collect detailed information about the organization's structure of program offerings.</p> <p>Data collection was structured for all five organizations to meet for ten weekly one-hour sessions via Zoom in Spring 2022. Before recording each Zoom session, the study team reminded participants that they were being recorded and that their participation in the study was entirely voluntary. One to three staff (at least one upper-level) from each center or institute attended the sessions. Each week, a researcher–facilitator instructed CCT leaders on concepts related to organizational and program structuring. Session topics were guided by the RSE's Systems Evaluation Protocol (Trochim et al., [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref26">40</reflink>]). One modification we made to the Systems Evaluation Protocol was the unit of analysis; instead of examining a specific program, in this study, we examined the organization as a whole (i.e., all the Center program offerings). Session topics included reflection on their respective organizational missions, visions, histories, stakeholders, goals and objectives, program components and boundaries, lifecycle stages, and pathway models, along with many other topics. Center and institute leaders worked with their staff teams between sessions to complete assignments related to these topics, which were compiled in a set of documents that were shared with the researchers. In the session that followed the completion of an assignment, center and institute leaders would share elements with other center leaders, creating a culture of sharing and learning and providing an opportunity for the researchers to conduct iterative member-checks of emerging themes.</p> <p>The documents, models, and verbal discussions collected via the relational systems evaluation approach were the main sources of data from which we wrote the case studies for each of the centers. We triangulated our findings (Lincoln & Guba, [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref27">23</reflink>]) with additional data from public websites, center documents, follow-up conversations, attendance at the Annual Meeting of the Consortium of Christian Study Centers, and site visits to each CCT. Finally, we conducted robust member-checks, including inviting center and institute leaders to review and offer feedback on earlier versions of this paper. As part of their feedback, we asked participants to review and approve (or deny) the inclusion of any direct quotations.</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-7">Data Analysis</hd> <p>We analyzed the data in multiple stages, as outlined in Creswell and Poth ([<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref28">12</reflink>]). First, we gathered all of the information provided by each center and utilized thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref29">3</reflink>]) to identify themes present within each case. Once each case was coded, the first author organized the thematic codes under the categories that guided the center modeling process described above—namely, center contexts, history, mission and values, programs and their objectives, and stakeholders. The themes in each of these categories provided the basis for the case studies presented in the first part of the findings below. Once the single institution case studies were completed, the whole research team met to validate the case study compositions and to conduct a "cross-case theme analysis" (Creswell & Poth, [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref30">12</reflink>], p. 172). Before the meeting, each member of the team reviewed the case compositions and supplemental documents to arrive at their own cross-case themes. During the meeting, the team presented their individual cross-case themes. Following an evidence-based discussion, the team agreed upon the final themes shared in the second half of our findings section.</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-8">Findings</hd> <p>Our findings are broken into two sections corresponding with the two parts of our research question. In the first section, we will share single case studies to highlight the distinctive features of Christian study centers and institutes for Catholic thought. In the second section, we will explore the nature of the Christian education these organizations offer by sharing the results of our cross-case analysis.</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-9">Distinctive Features of CCT: Single Case Studies</hd> <p>In the following pages, we share a brief narrative case composition for each of the five CCTs we studied. We organized each composition into two sub-sections: "context, history, and mission" and "staff, programs, and audiences." Despite similarities between the CCT, each composition will feature more or less information on a given sub-section topic to more accurately reflect the emphasis of that particular CCT.</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-10">Case 1: Chesterton House</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0178530670-11">Context, History, & Mission</hd> <p>Chesterton House (CH) is an ecumenical center for Christian study at Cornell University. CH was officially founded in 2000 but has roots in several earlier efforts to connect faith and intellect on Cornell's campus. The founder of CH, Karl Johnson, attended Cornell for graduate studies during the "sudden burst of interest in 'Christian scholarship' and 'thinking Christianly'" in the 1990s (Chesterton House, [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref31">4</reflink>]). Johnson's involvement with several informal Christian intellectual groups led him to wonder if there might be a way to institutionalize and sustain such efforts. After corresponding with Drew Trotter, the then-executive director of the center for Christian study in Charlottesville, Johnson partnered with local pastors, professors, and campus ministry workers to establish Chesterton House. In the early days, CH was not a house at all but merely a "resource room" in the attic of a local cottage. Over the subsequent 20 years, CH grew to include three residences (which include several meeting rooms for programs) on a two-acre campus less than a mile from Cornell.</p> <p>Mirroring G. K. Chesterton's (after whom the CH was named) pursuit of holistic knowledge, the mission of CH was "to facilitate the discovery of the intellectual riches of the historic Christian faith, thereby empowering more faithful Christian living" (Chesterton House, [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref32">4</reflink>]). In the rationale for their mission, CH staff described their commitment to celebrate "the study of all things in grateful response to the God of all creation." They viewed their efforts as a response to the loss of "whole persons" and intended to restore the "harmony in all creation" by making the riches of the Christian intellectual tradition available to the Cornell community through intentional community and relationship. CH pursued this mission under the guidance of early Christian creeds, the authority of scripture, their prioritization of intellectual integrity, hospitality, long-term focus, and collaborative spirit.</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-12">Staff, Programs, and Audiences</hd> <p>At the time of our study, CH had six full-time staff who carried on the center's historic "partnership model of ministry." The center partnered with a variety of local and national stakeholders, including Veritas Forum, Gordon College, Praxis Labs, and the Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO). CH is not officially affiliated with Cornell, but nine people affiliated with Chesterton House were listed on Cornell's website (2022) as Christian "campus ministers" on the "Cornell United Religious Work" page (Cornell United Religious Work, [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref33">9</reflink>]). CH also partnered extensively with local churches and other campus ministries. At one point in our study, the current executive director referred to CH as a "Switzerland" for all these organizations—providing a neutral space to remember the joint goal of providing a sustained Christian presence at Cornell.</p> <p>The center's programs at the time of our study fell into one of three categories: public events, residence, and courses. According to written staff responses, the public events were intended to draw in the wider Cornell community by inviting "highly sought-after speakers ... to speak about their work and the role that their faith plays in it." Recent lectures included the following (which took place between March and May of the Spring 2022 semester): "Can Cosmological Theories Connect With a Creator?" by Jonathan Lunine, chair of Cornell's Astronomy department, "God, Sex, and the Training of Desire" by Sarah Coakley, a preeminent theologian and Anglican priest, "Faith and Reason, Pluralism, and Culture Wars" by Sherif Gergis, Associate Law professor at Notre Dame, and "Freud and the Rise of the Sexualized Self" by Carl Trueman, professor of biblical and religious studies at Grove City College. The website indicated that nearly 3,000 people attended live lectures like these in 2021. Although most of the public events were lectures, CH has also offered a weekly event called "Public Reading of scripture," where students were invited to the CH patio every Friday morning to read scripture and enjoy a complimentary breakfast.</p> <p>The second program area was the residential "living-learning community" offered to approximately 40 students each year (primarily undergraduate and some graduate students). The residential component started in response to student demand and greatly increased the pastoral role of CH staff. Students "live in intentional community" across two gender-specific houses (and a third cottage for a residential staff member), where staff wrote they "enter meaningful relationships, learn to integrate faith and life/study/work, and grow in maturity in all aspects of life." The CH staff mentored and advised students, but most of the logistics of life together were run by student leaders. Residents attended weekly shared meals and spiritual formation discussions and were expected to participate in a retreat with other residents once a semester. The executive director shared that the goal was to "create a residential college-like experience for Cornell students" aimed at promoting moral formation and character development.</p> <p>The third and final program area was noncredit courses intended to integrate with and complement Cornell's academic units. These courses—primarily designed for undergraduate students—engaged scripture and key texts like <emph>Your Mind Matters</emph> by John Stott or <emph>Orthodoxy</emph> by Chesterton to help students integrate their faith with their intellect. Each semester-long course met for an hour and a half each week and carried a workload equivalent to a 1-credit course per semester. The courses differed each semester, and students could combine multiple semesters to become a CH fellow. The goal was to expose students to the historic Christian tradition to gain a depth of understanding that would lead to faith growth, the ability to integrate faith with vocation, and, ultimately, the ability to pass along the faith to future generations.</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-13">Case 2: Lumen Christi Institute</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0178530670-14">Context, History, & Mission</hd> <p>The Lumen Christi Institute (LCI) is a Catholic CCT adjacent to the University of Chicago (UChicago). LCI was founded in 1997 when Fr. Willard Jaybusch—Catholic chaplain to UChicago at the time—invited Thomas Levergood "to help him do something intellectual" for the UChicago community (as told by one of the staff). Levergood invited Paul Griffiths, another recent convert to Catholicism and professor of religion, to help him found the institute. LCI found a permanent physical location when it purchased the "Gavin House" in 2011—an historic residence near the center of campus and across the street from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In 2022, LCI expanded its real-estate holdings and mission, securing a home near the UChicago campus to serve as an intentional Catholic residential community for graduate students. According to the acting executive director, LCI operated independently from, but as a guest at, the university and "independent from, but accountable to, the Archdiocese."</p> <p> <emph>Lumen Christi</emph> is Latin for "the light of Christ." The name served as a reminder of the institute's central purpose: to engage the university with the light of Christ as manifest in the Catholic intellectual tradition. More formally, the mission of LCI was "to make [the Catholic intellectual tradition] a vital part of the culture of today's university ... [to] engage our secular culture in dialogue and ultimately to renew our civilization by forming leaders for a global society in need of Christian wisdom" (Lumen Christi Institute, [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref34">24</reflink>]). This mission, according to written staff feedback, has led them to work toward "forming student and faculty leaders in the Catholic tradition, engaging our secular culture in dialogue, and sharing the fruits of this study with a world that has neglected Christian wisdom." In our conversations, the staff often referenced how the Catholic intellectual tradition placed immense value upon the "wholeness of knowledge," "fullness of truth," and the "integration of faith and reason." Reflecting on their shared value for the integration of the intellectual and spiritual, the acting executive director shared, "We're not doing 'professionalization' but 'vocationalization'—reviving the idea of vocation as a means to an integrated life."</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-15">Staff, Programs, and Audiences</hd> <p>The full scope of LCI's programmatic offerings was extensive, given the number of staff who ran them. The institute had six full-time staff, a scholar-in-residence, a writer-in-residence, and a senior fellow—all but one of whom had graduate training. The institute was lay-led but had several clerics on the board. Additional program leadership was provided by graduate students and Catholic faculty at UChicago.</p> <p>LCI staff viewed the institute as the intellectual branch of Catholic student ministry and offered programs accordingly. That said, the programs were not limited exclusively to students. Indeed, LCI hosted programs meant to serve undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and—more recently—high school students. The institute's early programs included three that remained central at the time of our study according to written staff responses to our inquiry: (a) the "University Program," intended to "complement the secular education" of undergraduate and graduate students at UChicago through the study and mastery of the Catholic intellectual tradition, (b) the "Catholic Scholars Program" that extended the work of the institute to the academy beyond UChicago, initially by convening "regional scholars around core topics: Science and religion, theology, biblical Exegesis, Philosophy, Law and Culture, Carmelite Studies, and Monastic Studies," but later by developing new modes of engaging students and faculty through conferences and summer seminars, and (c) the "Downtown Cultural Forum" to engage lay Catholics in the city and promote "the evangelization of culture called for by Pope John Paul II's new evangelization."</p> <p>The center added nearly ten additional programs and initiatives in subsequent years, enabling them to have nearly 2,000 interactions in a given year—some of which were with the same people. The newer programs provided additional opportunities for a variety of audiences to connect with, go deeper in, or apply the Catholic intellectual tradition. New programs included open public lectures; symposia for faculty; intensive summer seminar programs, quarterly noncredit courses, masterclasses, colloquia, or monastery visits for undergraduate and graduate students; a Newman Forum for high school students; national conferences in economics and Catholic social thought, science and religion, and criminal justice reform; a residential community; and now a network for supporting similar efforts at other non-Catholic universities. Topics for these programs varied according to the audience but included explorations of how Catholic social teaching ought to inform various disciplines.</p> <p>The goal of LCI programs was often to engage culture, but, according to the acting executive director, "not as culture warriors." One staff member stated, "Part of the mission is to show the breadth and depth of tradition not encountered elsewhere, which means (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref35">1</reflink>) we touch on all things (including cultural topics) but (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref36">2</reflink>) we approach topics from a different valence from culture war." That is, the goal was the "evangelization of culture" as a whole. Accordingly, programs were intended for Catholic and non-Catholic students alike with the hope that both would be more reflective on "the fundamental questions that are part and parcel of our being human, with a greater awareness to the rich responses from the Catholic and broader Christian tradition." Indeed, during our visit, several members from the UChicago Skeptics Society (student club) attended an LCI class on Nietzsche. Despite the emphasis on the intellect, the staff recognized that learning happened in the context of community. As one of the staff said, "It is in the context of friendship that you cultivate the interior life."</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-16">Case 3: Anselm House</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0178530670-17">Context, History, & Mission</hd> <p>Anselm House is an ecumenical Christian study center that has historic roots in two Christian ministries founded to serve the University of Minnesota community: Christian Student Fellowship (founded in 1974) and the MacLaurin Institute (founded in 1982). The two ministries merged in 2011 and officially became Anselm House in 2016. Anselm's mission was "to help University of Minnesota students, faculty, and staff—and the surrounding Twin Cities community—connect faith and knowledge with all of life." Other material expanded upon this purpose. "Life was never meant to be a collection of disconnected parts," the "About" page of their website explained (Anselm House, [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref37">2</reflink>]). In response to the problem of a fragmented and incoherent life, the staff regularly articulated their belief that all things hold together in Christ. This reality was the basis for the center's stated goal to help students "see the world and approach life as God created it to be: <emph>whole</emph>" (Anselm House, [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref38">1</reflink>], emphasis in the original). According to written staff feedback, they approached this goal "through inquiry, events, and community that equips people to integrate instead of compartmentalize while asking life's big questions, so that more students, faculty, and community members can be whole people, living a whole faith, building a whole university." The vision of wholeness was indeed the most prominent theme we saw in this case. Nearly everything the study center did was aimed at supplementing the University of Minnesota's offerings to create a holistic experience. By exploring knowledge of God in the context of relationship—the logic of the study center went—people can live a coherent life.</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-18">Staff, Programs, and Audiences</hd> <p>At the time of this study, the center was run by 12 paid staff, roughly half of whom had graduate training in the humanities or theology. An additional 6 adjunct instructors from the Twin Cities community—all but one of whom had advanced theological training—served as "fellows tutors," guiding cohorts of roughly 60 undergraduate and graduate students (numbers were split fairly evenly between these two groups, though the exact breakdown fluctuated annually) through the Fellows Program each year.</p> <p>The Fellows Program—offered annually since 2013—was the most sustained program the center provided. The program promoted the connection of faith and intellect by convening cohorts of up to 12 participants to share a meal and discuss texts from the Bible and Christian writers from the past (e.g., Newman & Svaglic, [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref39">30</reflink>]) and present (e.g., Hunter, [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref40">21</reflink>]; MacIntyre, [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref41">25</reflink>]; Smith, [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref42">38</reflink>]). It is important to note these texts because the programs offered by Anselm House were decidedly more academic in nature and thereby distinct from the more practical approach common in Bible studies or book clubs hosted by other ministries adjacent to college campuses. Indeed, Anselm's programs were intended to model and cultivate the life of a Christian intellectual for students, faculty, and graduate students. Despite the program's emphasis on the humanities, the center staff noted that the majority of participants in the Fellows Program were students completing STEM majors at the University of Minnesota.</p> <p>Anselm House staff also offered 19 additional programs, each targeting distinct populations. For example, in a given month, the center hosted a prayer meeting for leaders of other campus ministries (e.g., Cru, Intervarsity, RUF, and others), a lecture with a prominent Christian scholar open to the public, a film screening and discussion, a faith and academic vocation discussion with faculty, the bi-weekly fellows gatherings, and a "come and go" bonfire hangout called Fridays@Anselm. Each of the various programs had its own target audience and was organized to provide students, faculty, and community members with three progressive levels of involvement in center offerings. Program participants were not typically incentivized per se but were often treated to meals, books, and other resources as part of the programs at all three levels.</p> <p>In the first level of involvement, staff members indicated in written responses to our query that they hoped participants would encounter the work of the center through programs aimed to justify the counter-cultural pursuit of "the integration between Christian faith and academic work in the community context." These events were typically public events that discussed arts or the Christian intellectual tradition in a hospitable environment. Hospitality was central because the staff believed that providing spaces that attend to a person's humanness and, thereby, their need for beauty would be inherently appealing. In their study documents, staff said that level two programs were designed to form participants "in Christian faithfulness in ways particular to their university vocations." These programs were the backbone of the center's offerings and included activities like shared meals, "intensive discussions of intellectual and spiritual resources of the Christian faith," prayer gatherings, and intentional mentoring relationships. Finally, the staff said level three programs were "aimed at sending equipped Christians back out into the university and beyond." After students had been formed, they were encouraged to steward the formation they received for the benefit of others by leading programs and serving others.</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-19">Case 4: Collegium Institute for Catholic Thought & Culture</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0178530670-20">Context, History, & Mission</hd> <p>The Collegium Institute is an independent institute for Catholic thought and culture serving the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) community. Collegium was founded in 2013 to address the lack of theology and unity in the curriculum at UPenn. Staff members noted the fragmented nature of UPenn's curriculum was a remnant of Ben Franklin's (UPenn's founder) commitment to the production of "useful knowledge." Recognizing that the Catholic intellectual tradition "is a reservoir of profound thinking about the synthesis of knowledge," the mission of the institute from the beginning was to "draw mainstream learning into conversation with the Catholic intellectual tradition and cultivate reflection on the catholic (universal) questions that animate every human life" (Collegium Institute, [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref43">6</reflink>]).</p> <p>Staff shared that the vision of Collegium was a direct response to the fragmentation of the modern university. Their staff contended that specialized knowledge continued to drive the disciplines apart—and in response, they "reaffirm the collective human project to integrate knowledge." This quest was guided by the institute's motto, <emph>quaecumque sunt vera</emph>, "whatsoever things are true," a reference from Philippians 4:8 that implied the value of scripture and any wisdom that accords with it.</p> <p>The institute had no building of their own, but—through a unique donor-funded partnership with UPenn's Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society—was allocated several offices in the basement of Leadership Hall on UPenn's campus. These offices were available because the executive director and the theologian-in-residence had faculty and postdoctoral appointments (respectively) at the University. Similar to Lumen Christi, Collegium was also independent from the church, but, according to the executive director, was a Catholic intellectual apostolate, and thus "faithfully adhere[d] to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church."</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-21">Staff, Programs, and Audiences</hd> <p>All of the staff were practicing Christians who, according to the leader's written response, modeled "a healthy ecumenism while retaining a robust Catholic identity." The institute was run by five staff members—an executive director, the theologian-in-residence, a director of design, a programming and operations coordinator, and a managing director—and three additional faculty directors who oversaw the discipline-specific programming. Collegium had nearly 50 undergraduate fellows, 23 graduate fellows from a range of disciplines, and 19 faculty fellows from UPenn and other institutions nearby.</p> <p>Upon completing the relational systems evaluation process (discussed in data collection above), one Collegium staff member commented that "shared meals and reading groups are clearly our most popular activities." Indeed, most of Collegium's programs promoted a spirit of hospitality. Nearly every event included an opportunity to share food and dialogue, despite different target audiences and varied regularity of gatherings. Several programs invited undergraduate students to explore the riches of the Catholic intellectual tradition through weekly meetings over the course of a semester or multiple semesters. These programs drew heavily on scripture and non-scripture alike. Students involved in Collegium programs engaged books like <emph>The Idea of a University, The Intellectual Life</emph>, and <emph>Leisure: The Basis of Culture</emph> as well as classic texts from Aristotle, Plato, Aquinas, Augustine, Dorothy Day, Dante, Shakespeare, and Flannery O'Connor. Graduate students had a similar opportunity to meet regularly in the Graduate Fellows Colloquia—discussions which typically continued at a restaurant or pub across the street following the event. Rather than a set text, however, graduate students were invited to bring their disciplinary expertise into dialogue with the Christian intellectual tradition. A relatively new program offered by Collegium was the Young Catholic Leaders initiative, which was created to expose high school students to, and form them in, the Catholic intellectual tradition through a series of lectures and seminars.</p> <p>In addition to audience-specific groups, Collegium also initiated several programs intended to promote disciplinary engagement with the Catholic intellectual tradition across academic levels. The institute hosted post-classical language workshops open to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a series of discipline and topic specific groups led by faculty and open to graduate and undergraduate students (of all faith backgrounds) by application. Students were incentivized by the résumé line they could earn through the selective nature of the application process as well as with food. The programs were intended to explore the relationship between the given vocation (e.g., medicine, law) or topic (e.g., finance, medical humanities). The goal of these pre-professional or vocational groups was to show the possibility of avoiding pragmatism when engaging in disciplinary topics and instead remain oriented "toward the pursuit of the good life and the common good" (Collegium Institute, [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref44">6</reflink>]). When interviewing students at Collegium, it was common to hear phrases like, "This is what college was supposed to be about"—implying Collegium offered them a level of discourse not provided in their UPenn courses.</p> <p>Collegium also offered several programs outside the semester, including a faith and fiction summer reading group, a weekly undergraduate fellows summer seminar, and a "Socrates on College" course that was formally part of UPenn's orientation programming (and, according to the staff, a great way of letting students know about the institute). Finally, Collegium staff members oversaw the Anscombe papers at UPenn, published the <emph>Genealogies of Modernity</emph> journal, and hosted two programs for alums, graduates, and donors which mimicked their undergraduate programs and promoted strong donor relationships and continued learning in line with the institute's mission.</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-22">Case 5: North Carolina Study Center</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0178530670-23">Context, History, & Mission</hd> <p>The North Carolina Study Center (NCSC) is a center for Christian life and thought serving the community of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). The NCSC was founded in 2015 by the current executive director after he was inspired by the legacy and impact of the Center for Christian Study adjacent to the University of Virginia's campus. Working prayerfully with a group of prominent UNC alumni, the NCSC incorporated as a not-for-profit and purchased 203 Battle Lane—an historic two-acre Chapel Hill property located just off the northern edge of campus (within a 5-min walk from the center of campus).</p> <p>The center's stated mission was "to cultivate Christian life and thought at UNC" (North Carolina Study Center, [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref45">32</reflink>]), and the importance of embodied presence and physical space (whether it be 203 Battle Lane or any of the three other temporary spaces during COVID) in fulfilling the mission of the NCSC could not be overstated, attracting hundreds of guests per day. In a video on the center's website, the executive director shared some of his motivation for starting the center,</p> <p>I think what I really wanted [when I was an undergraduate student] was a front porch where I could sit down with someone who knew me to talk about what it would look like to thrive at UNC as a Christian. (North Carolina Study Center, [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref46">32</reflink>])</p> <p>As he talked in the video, viewers were shown a sequence of clips of the study center's sweeping porch full of students reading, studying, talking, eating, and smiling. The background music was upbeat, and it was clear that the video was meant to convey that the NCSC was a home away from home at UNC. Staff stated that the porch, and the rich hospitality associated with it, was one of the main ways center staff connected with students. Under the heading of hospitality, the priorities section of the website explained, "We welcome guests to experience a place to worship, study, rest, and flourish in friendship. We bring the UNC community together, especially among campus ministries and churches" (North Carolina Study Center, [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref47">32</reflink>]). NCSC leaders maintained that relationships formed during hospitality led directly into opportunities for theological education and spiritual formation. As one staff member put it, the NCSC is "a place to be loved and to learn."</p> <p>Although not formally a part of the UNC campus, the NCSC had significant connections on campus, including a formal student group, UNC faculty and administrators who served on the NCSC board, invitations to present to the UNC board of trustees, and a formal relationship with the UNC development office whereby UNC donors could give money to UNC earmarked for NCSC purposes. The NCSC also partnered with other Christian ministries and local churches—including allowing other ministries to office in their building. One student said the house had become "a visible symbol of the Christian community at UNC."</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-24">Staff, Programs, and Audiences</hd> <p>The center's programs were supported by a staff of nine, all but one of whom had a direct connection to UNC—six held a degree (or two) from UNC. Under the leadership of the executive director and the Chief Operations Officer/Director of Programs and Education, there was an operations side and a programs side. On the operations side were three staff members—a director of philanthropy, a hospitality & facilities coordinator, and a finance, operations, & HR coordinator. The other four staff members included the Assistant Director of Programs & Education, the Director of Women's Ministry & Spiritual Formation, and two women's ministry staff members responsible for programs and education. This group used their theological training to plan and run the Christian education branch of the center's offerings.</p> <p>The primary audience for the NCSC was undergraduate students at UNC and the programmatic offerings took a holistic view of personal growth, falling into one of four categories: (a) hospitality, hosting in their space, (b) spiritual formation through one-on-one discipleship, (c) Christian education through a fellows program and educational seminars, and (d) vocational formation through their "Wilberforce Leadership Program." The most popular program, according to the staff, was "Carolina Way Camp"—a four-day orientation program to help welcome roughly 125 incoming students and 60+ upperclassmen into the life of the university each year. The NCSC also had a fellows program in which nearly 60–90 undergraduate students began a 3-year curriculum rooted in the Christian intellectual tradition every year. Fellows commit to the program one year at a time with second year enrollments falling to 25–30 due to attrition for various reasons. Fellows met every other week for about 2 h for a shared meal and a time of theological teaching and group discussion. Other programs included a summer internship program that promoted vocational discernment and seminar reading groups that discussed, in the words of one staff member, "key Christian texts and theological topics."</p> <p>Although most programs served undergraduate students, the NCSC also hosted graduate student reading groups and seminars as well as public events with guest speakers that drew up to 1,000 attendees. For example, on a given week the center might host a discussion between Robert George and Cornell West, a UNC basketball watch party, a lecture on the scientific case for Adam and Eve, a film screening and discussion, and "dinner with the dean," where a dean from UNC comes to the study center for dinner with students.</p> <p>Regardless of the audience, the programs were intended to promote active involvement in a local church body, a web of meaningful relationships, a deeper knowledge of and love for Jesus Christ, scripture, and the riches of the Christian tradition, a greater self-knowledge and vocational clarity, and the embodiment of the virtues of humility, gratitude, other-centeredness, and servant leadership. The center staff shared in written feedback that their hope was that these short-term goals would establish a trajectory for the rest of life, culminating in "stable" discipleship of Jesus Christ manifest in active involvement in the local church, healthy and committed relationships, faith-driven vocation, community engagement and service, lifelong learning, and—overall—a life "marked by hospitality and generosity."</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-25">Christian Education in CCT: Cross-Case Analysis</hd> <p>To describe the type of Christian education offered by CCT, we conducted a cross-case analysis of the five cases documented above. As evidenced in the detailed case compositions above, the facilities, programs, and services that CCT offered students, faculty, and staff varied considerably, but there were some common educational features amid the diversity. In the sections that follow, we explore the common themes that arose from our analysis. We organized these themes according to the questions that any educational philosophy must answer (Glanzer et al., [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref48">18</reflink>]): Who? (shared assumptions of humanity), Why? (shared vision), What? (shared content) and How? (shared methods).</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-26">Shared Assumptions about Humanity: Living an Integrated Life</hd> <p>We saw the most coherence amongst CCT in the language they used to describe a primary good of humanity, namely the value of an integrated life. Language about the "wholeness of knowledge," "integrating faith and knowledge," "integrating faith and reason," and "connecting all of life" was present in all five cases and revealed a shared motivation for their existence: "the pursuit of the integrated life." At a recent gathering of study center leaders, Karl Johnson, the current executive director of the Consortium of Christian Study Centers (CCSC), suggested that the founding of CCT was the very natural human response to the increasing fragmentation of knowledge and of the university. The human inclination to pursue "the integrated life" motivated the creation of avenues that could help overcome fragmentation—in this case, the separation of faith and intellect on college campuses. Thus, although an integrated life would address all aspects of life, the centers and institutes were a response to the separation of faith and intellect in particular. This shared assumption informed all the rest of the elements detailed below.</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-27">Shared Vision: For the Good of the University</hd> <p>If the shared motivation of the centers and institutes was the pursuit of the wholeness of knowledge and the integrated life, the long-term future they envisioned was an increasingly whole university as a result of developing a heathier church. That is, by remedying some of the church's deficiencies in Christian education of the laity and some of the ways the church has failed to help Christians live integrated lives—at least among Christians connected with secular universities—CCT promoted the good of the university through the "faithful presence" (a phrase shared by many CCT leaders in reference to Hunter, [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref49">21</reflink>]) of more integrated Christians.</p> <p>CCT used a variety of methods (documented below), but the posture was the same. In the words of a staff member at Anselm, they were "<emph>for</emph> the university," not working against it. This vision for a healthy university is what led leaders to describe themselves as "para-academic" organizations. The posture associated with this vision was part of what led LCI staff to share that they avoided approaching topics as "culture warriors." Their vision was to engage the university thoughtfully and collaboratively rather than antagonistically. The impetus for Collegium's founding speaks to this theme as well. Rather than attacking the weaknesses of UPenn's pragmatic roots, Collegium's founders and staff sought the good of the university by supplementing its offerings with more philosophical and theological content. Anselm House, Chesterton, and NCSC also embodied this posture, seeking to support a sustained Christian presence at University of Minnesota, Cornell, and UNC-Chapel Hill respectively. Chesterton and NCSC were able to collaborate with the universities directly, and all of these centers collaborated with other Christian groups to promote the development of students, staff, and faculty. The development of university people, CCT staff reasoned, would lead to increased flourishing of the universities in which they were embedded and thereby the world.</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-28">Shared Content: The Riches of the Christian Intellectual Tradition</hd> <p>What curriculum leads to an integrated life and furthers the good of the university? There was both unity and diversity in the content provided by the CCT we studied (Table 3). The CCT found unity in their effort to shore up what was lacking in the prevailing university curriculum with the riches of the Christian intellectual tradition. However, each CCT was sensitive to its institutional contexts and provided content to meet a particular set of needs. For example, the leaders of Collegium emphasized the unity of knowledge in direct response to the pragmatic emphasis of UPenn's curriculum. Thus, although the exact content was particular to each center—and the particular program within that center—in general, students, faculty, and staff engaged a range of texts intended to expose them to foundational questions (e.g., What does it mean to be human? How do you reconcile faith and science? Can we trust the Bible?) and explore how Christians have answered those questions throughout history.</p> <p>Table 3. Curricular approaches by CCT.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead><tr><td /><td>Chesterton House</td><td>Lumen Christi Institute</td><td>Anselm House</td><td>Collegium Institute</td><td>North Carolina Study Center</td></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td>Reading groups</td><td>X</td><td>X</td><td>X</td><td>X</td><td>X</td></tr><tr><td>Public lectures, symposia, and/or workshops</td><td>X</td><td>X</td><td>X</td><td>X</td><td>X</td></tr><tr><td>Graduate student programming</td><td>X</td><td>X</td><td>X</td><td>X</td><td>X</td></tr><tr><td>Noncredit courses or seminars</td><td>X</td><td>X</td><td>X</td><td>X</td><td>X</td></tr><tr><td>Fellows program</td><td>X</td><td>In development at time of study</td><td>X</td><td>X</td><td>X</td></tr><tr><td>"Coffee House" style hospitality</td><td>X</td><td /><td>X</td><td /><td>X</td></tr><tr><td>Social events</td><td>X</td><td /><td>X</td><td /><td>X</td></tr><tr><td>Residential community</td><td>X</td><td>In development at time of study</td><td>X</td><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>Discipline specific gatherings (across academic levels)</td><td /><td>X</td><td>X</td><td>X</td><td /></tr><tr><td>New student programming</td><td /><td /><td /><td>X</td><td>X</td></tr><tr><td>Bible study</td><td>X</td><td /><td /><td /><td>X</td></tr><tr><td>Faculty roundtables, fellowships, or seminars</td><td /><td /><td>X</td><td /><td>X</td></tr><tr><td>High school programs</td><td /><td>X</td><td /><td>X</td><td /></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>Some centers provided explicit theological education. For example, one center invited first-year students to study the story of redemptive history in the Bible over the course of an academic year—Old Testament in the fall and New Testament in the spring. In addition to scripture, others engaged—through reading groups, lectures, and seminars—the writings of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, and Calvin, as well as more modern writers who engage them (e.g., John Henry Newman, Alasdair MacIntyre, and James K. A. Smith). Still others explored how Christian theology (including Catholic social teaching for some) informed—or ought to inform—various disciplines like criminal justice, economics, or medicine. The curricula of CCT tended to emphasize the humanities as a helpful corrective to the increasingly pragmatic approaches of contemporary higher education. Philosophical inquiry and reflection, they argued, are what ought to motivate and guide the pursuit of practical knowledge in the first place.</p> <p>These riches of the Christian tradition, whether conveyed through multi-year fellows programs or a collection of one-off lectures, formed what amounted to a supplemental core curriculum that provided a model of the Christian intellectual life for faculty, staff, and students to follow. The programs helped students, staff, and faculty "think Christianly" and apply theological thinking to all of life (Cotherman, [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref50">10</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-29">Shared Methods: Hospitality and Intellectual Fellowship</hd> <p>A primary method shared by the CCT in our study was the use of hospitality as an on-ramp to intellectual fellowship. CCT leaders described how they opened their spaces to students for intellectual fellowship over food, coffee, and tea. The ecumenical Christian study centers tended to use their buildings as open study spaces with a "coffee-house vibe." They viewed hospitality as a significant and primary way of connecting with students and faculty/staff and inviting them into the riches of the Christian intellectual tradition. The institutes of Catholic thought also prioritized hospitality, but in a way that was paired more directly with the intellectual task—coffee or food was typically only provided in conjunction with a lecture or seminar. In a discussion about the differences between study centers and Catholic institutes, one of Catholic leaders noted that although almost all of their events included food, their hospitality was not "flow-through hospitality." That is, their spaces were not regularly open for students to come-and-go as they would at a coffee-house or group study space. As noted above, Collegium staff were housed in academic buildings, and the meeting rooms in LCI's building were set up for seminars and round-table discussions. Despite the nuances among them, centers and institutes all saw hospitality as central to their work because it was the means of inviting participants into and cultivating a particular kind of intellectual fellowship.</p> <p>The type of intellectual fellowship the CCT leaders described is best embodied in the fellows programs that are now (as of publication) present at every CCT in our study. At most of the CCT, the fellows programs were the longest running and most formalized of the CCT's formal offerings. Over the course of a semester or year, students would regularly engage (typically weekly or bi-weekly) the riches of the Christian intellectual tradition over a shared meal with a cohort of students and a staff leader. In addition to cohort meetings, most fellows programs also included some form of one-on-one mentoring. In this way, these programs effectively combined all the elements of a center's intellectual fellowship model—hospitality, intellectual engagement, fellowship, and personal development—into a single program. Although most robustly exemplified in the fellows programs, elements of intellectual fellowship were on display throughout the entirety of the centers. As one of the study center leaders said, "I think there's an assumption baked into our organization that the kind of education and spiritual transformation we're seeking happens primarily through relationship—with God and others." This sentiment was echoed in the very name of Collegium. One of their staff—quoting their website—shared, "The institute's name, <emph>collegium</emph>, serves as a reminder that the pursuit of knowledge ... is a communal enterprise." Whether cultivated through one-off public lectures, faculty roundtables, or through regular reading groups, the value of pursuing truth in community was ubiquitous.</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-30">Shared Tensions: Small Not-For-Profit Operations</hd> <p>In addition to sharing educational elements, the centers and institutes we studied also shared a set of struggles characteristic of many grassroots and smaller-scale nonprofit efforts. Some of these centers were still relatively young and only beginning to mature and necessitate more systematic approaches to organizational management. The staff we talked to at all five centers and institutes conveyed—in both word and tone—the strain they experienced keeping all their programs running smoothly with a relatively small number of professional staff. The variety of program types and their related target audiences would draw thousands of people to each of the centers and institutes in a given year. As a result, the small teams of staff felt a constant sense of tension between a desire to expand their programmatic offerings and to stay within the realm of what is possible given the size of their organizations. Leaders at the CCT commented on the need "to develop a more stable program," "to formalize or codify protocol," and were regularly struck by "how young" their programs were. Because of the unique blend of entrepreneurial spirit and sense of vocation felt by the staff, there was a tendency for organic program expansion with few structural supports. This led many of the staff on our program evaluation calls to express gratitude for the opportunity to put all their programs on paper to evaluate how they aligned with their stated goals (a first-time experience for some).</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-31">Discussion</hd> <p>In this multiple case study and cross-case analysis, we sought to answer the research question: What are the distinctive features of Christian study centers and institutes for Catholic thought, and what is the nature of Christian education they offer? First, it is worth noting that our findings affirmed the three core features of CCT programming outlined by Hansen ([<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref51">20</reflink>]), which included lectures and seminars, physical space and hospitality on or near campus, and an emphasis on community. In addition to affirming that these particular methods were frequently employed by CCT, our findings helped to build upon Hansen's work by codifying how that programming fit within the larger philosophy of Christian education espoused by these organizations (their answers to who, why, what, and how described in the cross-case analysis above).</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-32">Describing the CCT Movement</hd> <p>As noted above, a limited number of scholars have analyzed and described the type of education provided by CCT. Cotherman's ([<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref52">10</reflink>]) history argued that the central desire of the movement was to educate people to "think Christianly" and apply theological thinking to all of life. Building on Cotherman's description, Hansen ([<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref53">20</reflink>]) suggested that Christian study centers (in particular) operated like a "Christian college in a food truck" because of the similarities between the type of Christian education provided by CCT and Christian colleges. The food truck metaphor implied that study centers shared the same mission as Christian colleges but with limited or re-imagined offerings. In many ways, this analogy was apt—the CCT in our study used hospitality and intellectual fellowship to foster Christian education in a manner that was similar to the way residential communities and programming form students on Christian college campuses. Students were mentored and trained by CCT staff in ways that resembled the ways students at Christian colleges receive mentorship from student development staff (Glanzer et al., [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref54">18</reflink>]) or intellectual fellowship through core curricula. And yet, despite the similarities, our findings help expand earlier descriptions of the work of CCT.</p> <p>Although the size of a food truck helps to metaphorically reinforce the relatively modest efforts of CCT, the CCT in our study were more interested in cultivating wholeness at the universities they sought to serve rather than trying to merely replicate the efforts of Christian colleges on pluralistic campuses. This can be seen in two main ways. First, whereas most Christian colleges are focused on undergraduates, CCT had programs for undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and the community alike. Second, each CCT was intentionally founded to complement the unique context of the universities to which they were adjacent. That is, center leaders were not trying to convert their pluralistic campuses into Christian colleges or universities, but instead, they sought to transform those <emph>within</emph> the university in order to support that university. In short, the CCTs in our study were providing a Christian education that was distinct from Christian colleges and should, therefore, be defined irrespective of them—even if there are some similarities that present opportunities for mutual learning and encouragement.</p> <p>What metaphor best captures the CCT phenomenon? Lewis ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref55">22</reflink>]) famously argued that "the task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts" (pp. 13–14). Rather than merely cutting down opposing views, irrigative education, as Lewis understood it, involved "awakening students from the slumber of cold vulgarity ... [by] inculcating just sentiments" (Lewis, [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref56">22</reflink>], p. 14). Although CCT existed as a "supplement" to the educational purposes of the universities they served and their offerings were generally fairly modest (interacting with a small percentage of students relative to total university enrollment), CCT offered important opportunities for students, staff, and faculty to discover "just sentiments"—the rightly ordered affections that provided coherence to and right motivation for the cultivation of knowledge. Thus, we would describe CCT as irrigative streams where students, staff, and faculty could be refreshed amidst the "ghostly ... criterionless" (MacIntyre, [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref57">25</reflink>], p. 33) landscape of pluralistic campuses. It was not that these campuses had nothing of merit to offer but that their intellectual efforts too often remained disconnected from a water source that could bind their efforts together. Without proper irrigation, one cannot expect a full yield. In summary, the type of Christian education CCT sought to provide was an irrigation of the intellect that could help students, staff, and faculty rightly order the ongoing pursuit of knowledge in the context of an integrated life.</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-33">Implications for Practice</hd> <p>Despite the distinctions we have made between Christian colleges and CCT, the two could benefit from increased dialogue and resource sharing. Both seek to cultivate the Christian life of the mind and have relied upon wisdom from decades (and centuries) of attempting to do so. For example, the Christian college commitment to "integrate biblical truth ... throughout the academic enterprise" (Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref58">11</reflink>]) has led to significant developments in the faith and learning conversation, including what it means for research (e.g., Marsden, [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref59">28</reflink>]; Noll, [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref60">31</reflink>]; Ream & Glanzer, [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref61">33</reflink>]), teaching (e.g.,Glanzer & Alleman, [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref62">17</reflink>]; Smith, [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref63">37</reflink>]), graduate education (e.g., Glanzer et al., [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref64">16</reflink>]; Scales & Howell, [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref65">36</reflink>]), and specific disciplinary applications (e.g., Crisp et al., [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref66">13</reflink>]). New learning in these areas is communicated nearly daily on the "Faith Animating Learning" blog (https://christianscholars.com/blog) hosted by <emph>Christian Scholar's Review</emph>. CCT leaders responsible for engaging faculty on their pluralistic campuses are likely to benefit from these resources.</p> <p>CCT leaders could also learn from Christian college student affairs staff who have learned to accomplish increasingly more with less (Dahlvig & Beers, [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref67">14</reflink>]). Christian colleges—and student affairs programs within those colleges, in particular—have found ways to systematize and formalize developmental programs with relatively small staff teams (Glanzer et al., [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref68">18</reflink>]). Opportunities to meet with these professionals could prove helpful for the CCT staff still working to formalize and stabilize their programming.</p> <p>Likewise, faculty and staff from Christian colleges and universities could benefit from hearing about the Christian education happening at CCT on pluralistic campuses. The flexibility and entrepreneurial spirit of the CCT could help expose areas in which Christian higher education has—perhaps unwittingly—continued to rely on standards and structures merely because "that's the way it has always been done." For example, the use of hospitality to promote intellectual fellowship in CCT serves as a helpful reminder of the value of organic and smaller scale offerings.</p> <p>Finding ways for mutual learning and dialogue between CCT and Christian higher education could also help further the joint purpose of perpetuating the Christian intellectual tradition. Because many CCT serve research universities, the Christian faculty, staff, and graduate students connected to CCT often have experience bringing their Christian faith to bear upon current research questions in ways that may be helpful to their colleagues working in colleges that focus more on teaching than research. Additionally, Glanzer ([<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref69">15</reflink>]) noted how the faith and learning conversation in Christian higher education can sometimes become insular and overly critical—the perspective provided by CCT staff on pluralistic campuses could help maintain a more balanced approach to critique and creativity. Finally, although we hope many Christian graduate students associated with CCT will continue to seek employment in pluralistic settings, establishing connections with Christian colleges during graduate school could also help identify and train future Christian college faculty. If future faculty engaged in CCT training during graduate school, it could alleviate some of the strain felt by Christian institutions trying to train faculty to integrate faith and learning after being hired (Cockle et al., [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref70">5</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-34">Limitations and Opportunities for Further Study</hd> <p>The limits of the case study approach are the result of a methodological balancing act between depth and breadth. We believe that what we gained through a holistic engagement with a limited number of CCT (depth) outweighed the limits of a smaller "sample"—particularly given the paucity of empirical investigation. That said, this limitation (which is actually more of a <emph>de</emph>limitation) means that our research paves the way for additional research into a broader sample of centers and institutes. How do students involved with centers compare to students not involved at the centers? How do center differences contribute to differences in outcomes? Are certain programs more effective at accomplishing stated goals than others? How do the outcomes compare between Christian college programs and those of CCT? Additionally, this study focused on well-established CCT to capture the vision and goals of the movement. Future studies could explore the motives of emerging centers and institutes—how do they converge and diverge from what already exists?</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-35">Conclusion</hd> <p>In this paper, we used a cross-case analysis methodology to explore the distinctive features of Christian study centers and institutes for Catholic thought, as well as the nature of Christian education they offer. In sum, CCT used hospitality and intellectual fellowship to satiate what they believed to be the human appetite to live an integrated life. The practitioners leading these centers firmly believed that living an integrated life would also have societal-level effects—equipping the global church and thereby benefiting the university and society. By equipping students and faculty to engage their callings to the intellectual life in the context of the Christian narrative, CCT aspired to help the university be what it was meant to be: a place of pursuing truth for the good of all society. Accordingly, the rise and growth of CCT means that even at pluralistic institutions, students and faculty can find "irrigation" for the Christian intellectual life. Inasmuch as they find such irrigation on pluralistic campuses, they will have also found—as stated by one CCT director—"a great place for a Christian education."</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-36">Acknowledgment</hd> <p>The ideas expressed in the study do not necessarily reflect the views of the Templeton Foundation. We have no financial interest or benefit that arises from the direct applications of this research. This manuscript has not been published elsewhere and has not been submitted simultaneously for publication elsewhere.</p> <hd id="AN0178530670-37">Disclosure Statement</hd> <p>Dr. Hansen serves as the Program Director at Anselm House, one of the centers analyzed in this research. His participation in this research was as the liaison between the team of researchers and center practitioners. Accordingly, although his center is one of the cases analyzed herein, his authorship is reflective of his work to help translate between the research team and the practitioners—ensuring case-write ups that accurately reflect the terminology and ethos of the centers represented here.</p> <ref id="AN0178530670-38"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref35" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Anselm House. (2023a). 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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Theodore+F%2E+Cockle%22">Theodore F. Cockle</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5335-8362">0000-0001-5335-8362</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Karen+K%2E+Melton%22">Karen K. Melton</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4044-8654">0000-0003-4044-8654</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Andrew+Z%2E+Hansen%22">Andrew Z. Hansen</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2390-2587">0000-0003-2390-2587</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Perry+L%2E+Glanzer%22">Perry L. Glanzer</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3649-2516">0000-0002-3649-2516</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Sarah+S%2E+Schnitker%22">Sarah S. Schnitker</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2403-9765">0000-0002-2403-9765</externalLink>)
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Christianity%22">Christianity</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Religious+Education%22">Religious Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Religious+Factors%22">Religious Factors</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22National+Organizations%22">National Organizations</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Study+Centers%22">Study Centers</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Catholics%22">Catholics</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Institutional+Characteristics%22">Institutional Characteristics</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Intellectual+Development%22">Intellectual Development</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Churches%22">Churches</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Religious+Colleges%22">Religious Colleges</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22College+Faculty%22">College Faculty</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Teacher+Selection%22">Teacher Selection</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22State+Universities%22">State Universities</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Private+Colleges%22">Private Colleges</searchLink>
– Name: DOI
  Label: DOI
  Group: ID
  Data: 10.1080/15363759.2024.2341855
– Name: ISSN
  Label: ISSN
  Group: ISSN
  Data: 1536-3759<br />1539-4107
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: For over 50 years, a group of Christians has cultivated a movement to revitalize Christian education at secular universities. These leaders formed centers for Christian thought (CCT) to reengage the Christian faith with the "intellectual" life (and vice-versa) and work with students, staff, and faculty within American universities. At present, there are at least 41 CCT in the USA, but little empirical work has been done to explore this type of Christian education. In this paper, we used a collective case study of five established CCT to answer the following research question: What are the distinctive features of Christian study centers and institutes for Catholic thought, and what is the nature of Christian education they offer? Each center we studied exhibited characteristics unique to its institutional context and yet shared some key educational elements with other centers. In sum, CCT used hospitality and intellectual fellowship to engage the riches of the Christian intellectual tradition to satiate the human appetite to live an integrated life. The center staff believed that living the integrated life would strengthen the global church and thereby benefit the university and society. Although CCT are distinct from Christian colleges and universities, opportunities exist for mutual learning between them that could help perpetuate the Christian intellectual tradition. For example, CCT could benefit from the faith integration conversations happening on Christian campuses, who could, in turn, learn from the holistic approaches of CCT and benefit from hiring faculty who were involved with a center as graduate students.
– Name: AbstractInfo
  Label: Abstractor
  Group: Ab
  Data: As Provided
– Name: DateEntry
  Label: Entry Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2024
– Name: AN
  Label: Accession Number
  Group: ID
  Data: EJ1432219
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=eric&AN=EJ1432219
RecordInfo BibRecord:
  BibEntity:
    Identifiers:
      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1080/15363759.2024.2341855
    Languages:
      – Text: English
    PhysicalDescription:
      Pagination:
        PageCount: 23
        StartPage: 397
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Christianity
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Religious Education
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Religious Factors
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: National Organizations
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Study Centers
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Catholics
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Institutional Characteristics
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Intellectual Development
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Churches
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Religious Colleges
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: College Faculty
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Teacher Selection
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: State Universities
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Private Colleges
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: Christian Higher Education at Secular Universities: A Multiple-Case Study of Christian Study Centers and Institutes for Catholic Thought
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Theodore F. Cockle
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          Name:
            NameFull: Karen K. Melton
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          Name:
            NameFull: Andrew Z. Hansen
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          Name:
            NameFull: Perry L. Glanzer
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            NameFull: Sarah S. Schnitker
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          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 01
              Type: published
              Y: 2024
          Identifiers:
            – Type: issn-print
              Value: 1536-3759
            – Type: issn-electronic
              Value: 1539-4107
          Numbering:
            – Type: volume
              Value: 23
            – Type: issue
              Value: 4
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: Christian Higher Education
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