The Resilience of Religion in American Higher Education
by John Schmalzbauer and Kathleen Mohoney
Baylor University Press, 2019
ISBN: 9781481308717

A well-worn, often-told tale of woe. American higher education has been secularized. Religion on campus has declined, died, or disappeared. Deemed irrelevant, there is no room for the sacred in American colleges and universities. While the idea that religion is unwelcome in higher education is often discussed, and uncritically affirmed, John Schmalzbauer and Kathleen Mahoney directly challenge this dominant narrative. The Resilience of Religion in American Higher Education documents a surprising openness to religion in collegiate communities. Schmalzbauer and Mahoney develop this claim in three areas: academic scholarship, church-related higher education, and student life. They highlight growing interest in the study of religion across the disciplines, as well as a willingness to acknowledge the intellectual relevance of religious commitments.  The Resilience of Religion in American Higher Education also reveals how church-related colleges are taking their founding traditions more seriously, even as they embrace religious pluralism. Finally, the volume chronicles the diversification of student religious life, revealing the longevity of campus spirituality. Far from irrelevant, religion matters in higher education. As Schmalzbauer and Mahoney show, religious initiatives lead institutions to engage with cultural diversity and connect spirituality with academic and student life, heightening attention to the sacred on both secular and church-related campuses.

2019 Finalists

Vocation Across the Academy: A New Vocabulary for Higher Education
Edited by David Cunningham
Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780190607104

The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis
By Alan Jacobs
Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780190864651

The State of the Evangelical Mind: Reflections on the Past, Prospects for the Future
Edited by Todd Ream, Jerry Pattengale, and Christopher Devers
InterVarsity Press Academic

The Wounded Angel: Fiction and the Religious Imagination
By Paul Lakeland
Liturgical Press
ISBN: 9780814646229

For past winners, click here.