In May, Gordon College announced it would no longer have a history major as a result of its restructuring. Two months earlier, Wheeling Jesuit University reduced their programs down to eight, eliminating non-professional programs and even theology. These are just two recent responses to the economic challenges currently facing nearly all Christian institutions of higher learning. Across the country, as small religious schools are in a struggle for survival, they are cutting programs and closing their doors. The distress beacon for Christian higher education is currently blinking.
Christianity and higher education have a long, shared history. In the earliest European universities, most of the faculty were members of the clergy and many of the students were too. Some of the great Christian thinkers, like Thomas Aquinas, Peter Abelard, John Wycliffe, and Martin Luther, were also professors. Many of the premier institutions in our country also began with religious missions. The Puritans and their descendants in the northeast took education and religion very seriously, as did the Jesuits. Over time many of the oldest schools in America drifted away from intentional religious integration. Many of the current Christian universities, which arose to meet demand for religious education, were founded in the 20th century.
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