Evangelical Colleges Make Marks in a Secular World

The schools for years have been closer to mainstream academia than fundamentalist schools such as Bob Jones University or Christian Bible colleges. The better evangelical schools typically provide far broader curriculums, with offerings in the humanities as well as in the natural sciences. Yet they are more restrictive in faculty hiring and other campus policies than the nation's leading Catholic or mainline Protestant universities.

By various standards, these schools are rising in academic stature. More graduates of evangelical institutions are planning to attend, or are heading directly to, graduate schools, narrowing a gap between them and other private liberal arts schools.

According to figures from the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, the percentage of seniors at their member schools planning to attend graduate school jumped from 69.7% in 1994 to 79.6% last year. At other U.S. liberal arts colleges over the same period, the proportion rose by about two percentage points, to 82.8%.

Scholars associated with evangelical schools are making headway, even in the Ivy Leagues.

Yale University's divinity school in the last five years has recruited four faculty members with evangelical ties, including Miroslav Volf, a leading expert on Christian doctrine hired away from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena.

Evangelical philosophers have won notice in such areas as ethics, metaphysics and epistemology (the study of knowledge). Younger scholars have made inroads in the fields of psychology and sociology.

"Christian reflection is an accepted partner," in large part because of the work of evangelical scholars in philosophy, said John E. Hare, a leading evangelical philosopher who joined Yale's faculty this year.

Likewise, evangelical historians have become prominent for religion-related work. Leaders include Mark A. Noll, a historian at Wheaton College in Illinois. Noll is the author, most recently, of "America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln."

Another evangelical scholar, Notre Dame's George Marsden, drew praise for his new book, "Jonathan Edwards: A Life," about the Puritan preacher and theologian.

As the stature of scholars has grown, so have evangelical schools. For instance, enrollment at Azusa Pacific, with seven branch campuses in Southern California, has risen 60% in six years.