Discussion Guide for Marsden's Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship
Discussion questions for George M. Marsden, The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), introduction and chaps. 3-6.
Note: You may find the quotations that follow most questions to be relevant, but they are no substitute for following Marsden's argument in full. |
Introduction
Do you agree or disagree that the contemporary university
culture is hollow at its core?
Prominent academics "are unable to produce a compelling
basis for preferring one set of principles over another...
[O]thers... do not even try to deal with first principles....
Knowledge today is oriented increasingly toward the practical;
at the same time, in most fields the vast increases in information
render our expertise more fragmentary and detached from the
larger issues of life" (3).
How optimistic is the book's thesis? Do you agree or
disagree?
"The proposal is that mainstream American higher education
should be more open to explicit discussion of the relationship
of religious faith to learning. Scholars who have religious
faith should be reflecting on the intellectual implications
of that faith bringing those reflections into the mainstream
of intellectual life" (3).
Why do so few integrate?
"Unquestionably one of the main reasons so few reflect
on the implications of faith for learning is that they have
been formed by an academic culture in which such reflection
is discouraged" (4).
Do you agree that socialization is a central reason so few
integrate?
"The fact is that, no matter what the subject, our
dominant academic culture trains scholars to keep quiet about
their faith as the price of full acceptance in that community" (4-5,
7).
The author raises five arguments vs. integration. Do any of
them have any initial appeal?
- "It is very common, for instance, for academics to
dismiss religion as simply non-empirical and therefore worthy
of no serious consideration..." (5).
- "Even though there may be cases of discrimination,
such critics point out, many other groups have suffered much
more, often at the hands of Christians" (6).
- "It is said that the respect accorded to a number
of avowedly Christian scholars proves that there is no general
anti-religious discrimination in the academy" (6).
- "By and large, however, the process of acculturation
teaches those entering the profession that concerns about
faith are an intrusion that will meet with deep resentment
from at least a minority of their colleagues and superiors.
Added to this is the alleged dogma for "separation of
church and state" (7).
- "Outside of theology itself, do Christian perspectives
really make much difference is scholarship? After all, there
is no Christian mathematics or no distinctly Christian way
of measuring chemical reactions. So what are we talking about?" (9).
Do you meet this response? How should you handle this?
"These observations will immediately raise objections
from some who are deeply religious. Am I not saying in effect
that they will have to compromise their faith? As Christians
are likely to put it, are we not serving two masters....
Should Christian scholars expect or desire to be fully accepted
in mainstream academia, where their basic commitments will
often be regarded as foolishness? Does playing by the rules
of the dominant academic community inevitably compromise
one's faith?" (11).
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