Protestant Forfeiture in Education

Evangelical Protestants, once the leaders in American higher education, have forfeited that leadership by default. Look at the record. Each of the nine colleges founded during the colonial period was prompted by Christian motivations. According to Cubberly, the “prime purpose of each was to train up a learned and godly body of ministers.” The statement of purpose of the founding of King’s College (later Columbia) in 1754, as reported in New York newspapers, is typical:

The chief thing aimed at in this college is to teach and engage children to know God in Jesus Christ, and to love and serve Him with all sobriety, godliness, and richness of life, with a perfect heart and a willing mind: and train them in all virtuous habits, and all useful knowledge … useful to the public weal.

The nineteenth century saw the great development of Protestant colleges. In 1800 there were only two dozen colleges; it is estimated that at most there were 100 teachers and from one to two thousand students. Then, from 1820 to 1870, came the major period of denominational effort. By 1870 there were 300 colleges. Actually, almost twice that number were organized, but scarcely more than half survived. The vast majority were Protestant and evangelical. Even the few state institutions were often under Christian leadership and oriented toward Christian faith. Many of their first presidents were ministers and many graduates became ministers. Of the first 94 graduates of Illinois, 45 entered the ministry. Thus for the first 230 years of American higher education, Protestant leadership and motivation led the way. In fact, the religious revivals that advanced the growth of Protestant denominations also promoted many new colleges.

Tax-Supported Education

Two significant developments—one socioeconomic, the other religious—have now radically altered this pattern. The first is the development of secular, tax-supported higher education. Today approximately 60 per cent of all students in colleges and universities are enrolled in tax-supported institutions. Very few professional schools in fields such as engineering, law, medicine, and dentistry are controlled by Protestant churches. These studies are now largely yielded to state and independent universities.

Higher education in the twentieth century is simply repeating what happened to the privately-sponsored elementary schools and the church-supported academies in the nineteenth century. Both these major segments of education were superseded by the public schools which thereby relegated private education to a minor role. As education became mandatory, the state became obligated to provide it. Besides, it could meet the increasing demand for educational services by levying taxes. With college registrations expected to double in the next 15 years, some observers estimate that 80 per cent of all students will soon be in tax-supported institutions of higher learning.

Expansion Of Roman Catholicism

The other major development is the recent expansion of Roman Catholic education which reflects population changes and the dynamism of American Catholicism. Only one Catholic college was founded before 1800, 38 had been founded by 1870, while 212 have been founded since then—the majority of these in the twentieth century. While the peak of Protestant effort occurred a century ago, the major expansion of Catholic higher education is now taking place. The 1958 Official Catholic Directory reports 260 Catholic colleges and universities in the United States, with a total of 271,493 students. This compares with 221 institutions in 1948 with 220,226 students, an increase of 17 per cent in the number of schools and 23 per cent in students in only 10 years. Catholic colleges operate throughout the United States, but 112 institutions enrolling over half their students are located in the mid-Atlantic and East Central areas. The fewest are found in the South. Significantly, Roman Catholic higher education rests on a broad and expanding base of lower education. The Directory reports that 7,783,462 students were under Catholic instruction in 1958, compared to 4,162,396 in 1948, an increase of 87 per cent in 10 years.

When T. H. Hungate of Columbia appraised the prospects of higher education in America in Financing the Future of Higher Education, he predicted that the state would assume more and more responsibility for higher education. He also predicted that “contributions to Protestant controlled private colleges are expected to decline” while “Catholics are likely to strengthen their institutions.”

In some states history has already caught up with Hungate’s prophecy. There Protestantism, once in the forefront, has now been far surpassed by both public and Catholic education. Two examples may be found in New England. In Vermont, the first church-established college was Middlebury, founded by Congregationalists in 1800. Once it was devoted to the preparation of Christian leaders; nearly half of its first 800 graduates became ministers. But it has since passed out of church control and is independent. The only extant Protestant institution in Vermont, according to the Education Directory (Part 3) for 1958–59 (United States Office of Education), is Green Mountain Junior College (Methodist). Forty-four per cent of all students are in public institutions, 39 per cent in independent, while 12 per cent are in two Roman Catholic colleges, both established since 1900.

The situation in Rhode Island should provoke Protestants to sober reflection. The first college, Rhode Island College (later Brown University) was founded by Baptists for the “primary task of training clergymen.” The charter stipulated that 22 of its 29 trustees must be Baptists and its president “forever” a member of the Baptist church. But by 1942 all such controls had been removed by legislative acts and complete severance from church control effected. Today 41 per cent of Rhode Island’s students in institutions of higher learning are in independent schools, 38 per cent in public schools, and 18 per cent (2,821) in the three Roman Catholic institutions founded since 1900. The only Protestant institution, evangelical in perspective, is Providence-Barrington Bible College whose 480 students represent but three per cent of the total college population of Rhode Island.

One Midwestern state should also be mentioned. Though not strictly typical, it attests the changing pattern of American higher education. According to the USOE Educational Directory (Part 3) for 1958–59, 58 institutions of higher learning in Michigan have sufficient academic standing to merit listing. An analysis indicates that 78 per cent of the 135,000 students are now in the 23 public, tax-supported institutions. Some 8,850, or 6.6 per cent, are in private schools, mostly professional. Only 7,415, or 5.5 per cent, are in the 14 Protestant schools, while 13,459, or 10 per cent, are in the 11 Catholic institutions, nine of which were founded since 1900.

But this pattern differs noticeably from that which prevailed in 1876. Protestants then had established two seminaries, one junior college, and eight liberal arts colleges. No Roman Catholic college had yet been established. There were four state institutions. Since that time two Protestant liberal arts colleges have drifted from denominational control, a loss offset by the subsequent establishment of two other colleges from 1870 to 1900. In the twentieth century, the only Protestant schools founded with sufficient academic standing to be listed in the current Directory are one liberal arts college and two Bible institutions. Fortunately for evangelicalism, Michigan has several institutions founded in the nineteenth century with a record of steady growth and theological stability. These are principally the colleges and universities of the Reformed churches in the western part of the state.

Facts are especially sobering for Protestant higher education in the 2 million populated area of Detroit. The automobile center of the world has renowned private professional and technical schools, public schools, and Roman Catholic institutions, but the only Protestant school of any classification—seminary, college, university, or Bible college—is Detroit Bible Institute, founded in 1945. Catholic schools have over 11,000 or 27 per cent of the population’s students.

Protestant Losses

An additional factor enters into the total history of many Protestant colleges, and that is their drift from evangelicalism to rationalism, and in some cases to secularism and to independence of religions influences.

This trend started early. Because Harvard was suspect of being Unitarian and rationalistic, Yale was founded “to be a truer school of the prophets.” When the Great Awakening shaped new churches desiring an evangelically trained ministry, both Harvard and Yale became suspect for denouncing the revival, and so Princeton was founded.

The step is not taken universally, but Guy E. Snavely in The Church and the Four-Year College expresses regret that so many church-established colleges have severed their church connections. In Congregationalism the score is 22 out of 25.

The Present Picture

The salient features of the picture today in American higher education may be summarized as follows:

1. Most higher education in America has passed out of the control of Protestant churches. In some states Catholic education has far outstripped Protestant.

2. Loss of Protestant leadership is due partly to socioeconomic factors, but must in some degree be charged to default. Too often Protestants have tolerated the displacement of the lordship of Christ in education. Just as the spiritual revivals of the past generated a demand for evangelical colleges, so the decline of evangelical faith and dynamic lessened concern for the integrity of Christian colleges.

3. While the influence of evangelical colleges cannot be measured simply in terms of number and size, yet evangelicals have virtually abandoned some areas of higher education, particularly the university and professional levels. Evangelicals are handicapped by a lack of universities and graduate schools committed unapologetically to Christ as the source and center of wisdom and knowledge. They may well learn from Catholic educators who top their educational structure by universities. The Jesuit University of Detroit has more students than all the Protestant colleges, institutes, and seminaries combined in the state of Michigan while Protestants lack a university.

4. The complacency of Protestants, including evangelicals, is distressing. They seem unaware of the profound change that is taking place in American higher education. They are forfeiting leadership to others with little awareness of the strategic importance of maintaining top level institutions of learning.

5. Fortunately, elements of strength do remain; the picture is not all somber. Besides some first-class independent colleges and seminaries, quite a number of sound institutions of higher learning are conducted by conservative denominations, large and small. They include liberal arts colleges, junior colleges, seminaries, and several universities operated by Baptist, Lutheran, Reformed, Presbyterian, and Mennonite bodies, as well as several with a Wesleyan heritage, such as Nazarene, Free Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist churches.

Bible institutes and Bible colleges have multiplied in recent years to add to evangelical education, although numbers of them are weak and substandard. However, quite a number are now being recognized by state departments of education, state universities, and the United States Office of Education as approved institutions of higher learning.

6. While certain trends hold little promise of present reversal, Christians, alert to recapture the glory and centrality of Christ in education, may yet again make a significant impact on contemporary thought and culture. The need for evangelical witness in the educational world has never been more urgent. In our day more than casual interest and dollars are needed to meet the crisis in education. Where is the vision, the imagination, the sense of urgency, the devotion and self-sacrifice that moved circuit riders and their kin a century ago to bring forth colleges out of poverty?

END

Safara A. Witmer was President of Fort Wayne Bible College from 1945–57 and is now Executive Director of the Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges, which has 43 affiliated institutions in various parts of the nation. He holds the A.B. from Taylor University, M.A. from Winona Lake School of Theology, and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

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