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For most Americans secularism is the air we breathe: it is invisible and sustaining and terribly limiting, all at the same time. This most powerful of modern ideologies derives its power from the claim to be above or below or to the side of ideology. That claim does not survive a reading of the essays in this book. -Stanley Fish, Distinguished University Professor of Humanities and Law at Florida International University, prolific public intellectual, and featured author in the New York Times, The Huffington Post, as well as academic journals in law, religion, and the humanities This volume advances an argument that absolutely must be made if higher education in America is to be reinvigorated. The argument is this: secularism is not an open, neutral framework for academic study; it is an aggressive exclusion of faith and divinity. As the contributors demonstrate, the secular premise is a jealous one. It rules out all immaterial realities and metaphysical beliefs. No wonder so many college students and people who work on campuses are so unhappy and unfulfilled. Christianity and the Secular Border Patrol provides them with an explanation for their dissatisfaction, and it charts a way beyond it as well-a way that makes room for the deepest wellsprings of human striving and conviction. Secularism has waged a war of ideas and seized control of the institutions for many decades, and it's time that believing academics fight back. This book supplies them with potent weapons. -Mark Bauerlein, Professor at Emory College, Senior Editor of First Things journal, and contributor to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, among others These intelligent essays document a variety of ways that the overwhelming dominance of secularist perspectives in the mainstream academy leads to biases toward those who hold to traditional Christian and other religious beliefs. They also provide valuable suggestions for constructive responses. -George Marsden, author of The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship The secularization of education has emerged as a result of an historical constellation of forces and relations that has split the material from the spiritual, preventing both students and teachers from becoming fully human actors on the stage of history, agents in their own liberation. It has ensepulchered education in a dead, reductionist formalism that prevents the kind of emancipatory political and spiritual praxis that has never been more necessary than at this juncture in time. In fact, secularization has itself become a theology with its own apostles and saints. But this has been nothing more than idolatry. Which is why this important text by Barry Kanpol and Mary Poplin is so urgent and so necessary. The editors are to be commended for bringing together a group of scholars whose ethical, political and spiritual commitment to social justice is not only pertinent but necessary in the current social, historical context. -Peter McLaren, Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Chapman University, and author of Pedagogy of Insurrection This is an important contribution to the modern academy. Contributors to this volume make a compelling case for the restoration of Judeo-Christian voices and literatures to university campuses. Far too many professors and students are educated in a vacuum that fails to inform them of the powerful and enduring impact Christianity has had on western nations. Ideas we take for granted about individual freedom, justice, equality, and compassion emanated from Christianity and was `smuggled' into secularism. -Carol M. Swain, Professor of Political Science and Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University The book's timeliness is sublime, positioning `the secular' as having become an exclusive faith, particularly within the academy. From different perspectives, the authors underscore the need to include religious faith as part of defining university dialogue. -Fred Yeo, Dean, College of Education and Human Services, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

For most Americans secularism is the air we breathe: it is invisible and sustaining and terribly limiting, all at the same time. This most powerful of modern ideologies derives its power from the claim to be above or below or to the side of ideology. That claim does not survive a reading of the essays in this book. --Stanley Fish, Distinguished University Professor of Humanities and Law at Florida International University, prolific public intellectual, and featured author in the New York Times, The Huffington Post, as well as academic journals in law, religion, and the humanities This volume advances an argument that absolutely must be made if higher education in America is to be reinvigorated. The argument is this: secularism is not an open, neutral framework for academic study; it is an aggressive exclusion of faith and divinity. As the contributors demonstrate, the secular premise is a jealous one. It rules out all immaterial realities and metaphysical beliefs. No wonder so many college students and people who work on campuses are so unhappy and unfulfilled. Christianity and the Secular Border Patrol provides them with an explanation for their dissatisfaction, and it charts a way beyond it as well--a way that makes room for the deepest wellsprings of human striving and conviction. Secularism has waged a war of ideas and seized control of the institutions for many decades, and it's time that believing academics fight back. This book supplies them with potent weapons. --Mark Bauerlein, Professor at Emory College, Senior Editor of First Things journal, and contributor to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, among others These intelligent essays document a variety of ways that the overwhelming dominance of secularist perspectives in the mainstream academy leads to biases toward those who hold to traditional Christian and other religious beliefs. They also provide valuable suggestions for constructive responses. --George Marsden, author of The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship The secularization of education has emerged as a result of an historical constellation of forces and relations that has split the material from the spiritual, preventing both students and teachers from becoming fully human actors on the stage of history, agents in their own liberation. It has ensepulchered education in a dead, reductionist formalism that prevents the kind of emancipatory political and spiritual praxis that has never been more necessary than at this juncture in time. In fact, secularization has itself become a theology with its own apostles and saints. But this has been nothing more than idolatry. Which is why this important text by Barry Kanpol and Mary Poplin is so urgent and so necessary. The editors are to be commended for bringing together a group of scholars whose ethical, political and spiritual commitment to social justice is not only pertinent but necessary in the current social, historical context. --Peter McLaren, Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Chapman University, and author of Pedagogy of Insurrection This is an important contribution to the modern academy. Contributors to this volume make a compelling case for the restoration of Judeo-Christian voices and literatures to university campuses. Far too many professors and students are educated in a vacuum that fails to inform them of the powerful and enduring impact Christianity has had on western nations. Ideas we take for granted about individual freedom, justice, equality, and compassion emanated from Christianity and was 'smuggled' into secularism. --Carol M. Swain, Professor of Political Science and Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University The book's timeliness is sublime, positioning 'the secular' as having become an exclusive faith, particularly within the academy. From different perspectives, the authors underscore the need to include religious faith as part of defining university dialogue. --Fred Yeo, Dean, College of Education and Human Services, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

National Review

Author Information

Barry Kanpol received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. He is Dean of the College of Education at Grand Valley State University. He is known for his extensive work in critical pedagogy and now works to link critical theory to non-secular views in higher education. Mary Poplin received her Ph.D. from The University of Texas and is currently Professor of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University. Her work includes theoretical understandings of a range of academic world views as well as extensive work with highly effective teachers in low income schools. She has been a dean of education and a director of teacher education.

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