I just finished reading another issue of Relevant Magazine.
A particular article stood out to me this month: "Time for Another Revolution," by John Fisher (pg. 66, Nov/Dec 2005 issue)
Fisher talks about his experience in the 60s going to Wheaten College, where he was in the "worst" class (so-dubbed by the school's president years later), a class of "rowdy, nonconforming troublemakers." Fisher says his class was full of questions, not wanting to accept "easy answers." Some, for sure, lost their faith in school. But Fisher writes, "I consider this an improvement on whatever faith they brought there that was unable to hold up to the scrutiny of deeper questioning and intellectual curiousity."
Fisher worries that in the last two decades, he finds "rote acceptance of whatever those in places of authority hand down" to be more the norm. "Faith equals blind acceptance," he argues. "For too long, good Christian students have politely reflected the worldview and politics of their parents and rarely asked questions of their teachers . . . These students seem content to fill their notebooks with what they came to college for - answers that will lead to a high grade and result in a secure position in society or the church."
Fisher concludes by calling for revolution, encouraging us to ask questions, hard questions, about our faith and beliefs. "Jesus said that new wine can't be contained in old wineskins."
I didn't go to a "Christian" college, just a United Methodist one ;). But my brother went to a Christian college (yes, it's true!). He certainly is probably on some administrator's list of "rowdy, nonconforming troublemakers." But I think his spirituality is far deeper today for his journey then.
Thoughts about your own college experiences?
A particular article stood out to me this month: "Time for Another Revolution," by John Fisher (pg. 66, Nov/Dec 2005 issue)
Fisher talks about his experience in the 60s going to Wheaten College, where he was in the "worst" class (so-dubbed by the school's president years later), a class of "rowdy, nonconforming troublemakers." Fisher says his class was full of questions, not wanting to accept "easy answers." Some, for sure, lost their faith in school. But Fisher writes, "I consider this an improvement on whatever faith they brought there that was unable to hold up to the scrutiny of deeper questioning and intellectual curiousity."
Fisher worries that in the last two decades, he finds "rote acceptance of whatever those in places of authority hand down" to be more the norm. "Faith equals blind acceptance," he argues. "For too long, good Christian students have politely reflected the worldview and politics of their parents and rarely asked questions of their teachers . . . These students seem content to fill their notebooks with what they came to college for - answers that will lead to a high grade and result in a secure position in society or the church."
Fisher concludes by calling for revolution, encouraging us to ask questions, hard questions, about our faith and beliefs. "Jesus said that new wine can't be contained in old wineskins."
I didn't go to a "Christian" college, just a United Methodist one ;). But my brother went to a Christian college (yes, it's true!). He certainly is probably on some administrator's list of "rowdy, nonconforming troublemakers." But I think his spirituality is far deeper today for his journey then.
Thoughts about your own college experiences?
Comments
I think he uses revolution in the other sense that we use the word: like technological revolution, industrial revolution - which doesn't mean necessarily against oppression, of course, but means a time of rapid change. That's what I think Fisher is calling for - a time of rapid change in the schools. I'd be interested to know exactly how many drops outs in the sixties became conservatives in the eighties. I would certainly think the climate in education in the 60s tied into other things going on - civil rights, women's rights - that have significant lasting impact for today.
Anyway, there was certainly never a pervasive Godly atmosphere. It was just another college.
The ideological rifts were more between student groups, the one with which I was most intimately connected being between Christians. I went to a UCC-affiliated liberal arts school, where those more sympathetic to evangelical conservatism thought of themselves as the revolution. Not all Christians agreed with their ideas and some nasty stuff came out of that.
The 60s counterculture where a lot of this rhetoric originated is very widely misinterpreted...it was more of a Madison Avenue marketing scheme than the authentic populist movement it is usually understood as. (see thomas frank's excellent book Conquest of Cool)