History Commons^™

Independent Christian Colleges And Universities, William Vance Trollinger

William Vance Trollinger Jr.

The category independent Christian colleges and universities is not a very large one. The reason for this is rather simple: as William Ringenberg has noted in the introduction to his helpful 1988 bibliography on such schools, "there are not many contemporary colleges and universities that are both continuing Christian in philosophical orientation and independent of denominational ties in governance." While this may change in the future, given the weakening of denominational loyalties among American Protestants, the fact remains that there are not too many independent Christian colleges.

For purposes of this essay I will I be looking at fourteen institutions. …

A Response To John Sommerville’S 'The Decline Of The Secular University', William Vance Trollinger

William Vance Trollinger Jr.

Introduction to William Vance Trollinger's plenary presentation: I agree with Prof. Sommerville that in too many places the secular university has trivialized religion and religious commitment, and that it is high time for religion to be welcomed into our academic debates. I say this even while I take issue with some of the particulars in Prof. Sommerville’s book. I will give two examples related to our discipline of history. First, Prof. Sommerville decries that “secularist humanities have declared war on metanarratives because of their hegemonic power.” But I confess that I am very pleased to see the demise of metanarratives …