Synopses & Reviews
Religious colleges and universities in America are growing at a breakneck pace. In this startling new book, journalist Naomi Schaefer Riley explores these schools-interviewing administrators, professors, and students-to produce the first popular, accessible, and comprehensive investigation of this phenomenon
Call them the Missionary Generation. By the tens and hundreds of thousands, some of America's brightest and most dedicated teenagers are opting for a different kind of college education. It promises all the rigor of traditional liberal arts schools, but mixed with religious instruction from the Good Book and a mandate from above.
Far removed from the medieval cloisters outsiders imagine, schools like Wheaton, Thomas Aquinas, and Brigham Young are churning out a new generation of smart, worldly, and ethical young professionals whose influence in business, medicine, law, journalism, academia, and government is only beginning to be felt.
In God On The Quad, Riley takes readers to the halls of Brigham Young, where surprisingly with-it young Mormons compete in a raucous marriage market and prepare for careers in public service. To the infamous Bob Jones, post interracial dating ban, where zealous fundamentalists are studying fine art and great literature to help them assimilate into the nation's cultural centers. To Thomas Aquinas College, where graduates homeschool large families and hope to return the American Catholic Church to its former glory. To Yeshiva, Wheaton, Notre Dame, and more than a dozen other schools, big and small, rich and poor, new and old, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Mormon, and even Buddhist, all training grounds for the new Missionary Generation.
With a critical yet sympathetic eye, Riley, a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Weekly Standard, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, studies these campuses and the debates that shape them. In a post-9/11 world where the division between secular and religious has never been sharper, what distinguishes these colleges from their secular counterparts? What does the missionary generation think about political activism, feminism, academic freedom, dating, race relations, homosexuality, and religious tolerance-and what effect will these young men and women have on the United States and the world?
Naomi Schaefer Riley is a contributing writer at The American Enterprise and a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, and National Review. Her articles have also appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and other publications. Riley has been the recipient of the Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellowship, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute Journalism Fellowship, the Claremont Institute Publius Fellowship, and the Charles G. Koch Fellowship. Religious colleges and universities in America are growing at a breakneck pace. In this startling new book, journalist Naomi Schaefer Riley fully explores these schoolsinterviewing administrators, professors, and studentsto produce the first accessible and comprehensive investigation of this phenomenon.
Call them the Missionary Generation. By the tens and hundreds of thousands, some of America's brightest and most dedicated teenagers are opting for a different kind of college education. It promises all the rigor of traditional liberal arts schools, but it also offers religious instruction from the Good Book and a mandate from above. Far different from the medieval cloisters outsiders imagine, schools like Wheaton, Thomas Aquinas, and Brigham Young are churning out a new generation of smart, worldly, and ethical young professionals whose influence in business, medicine, law, journalism, academia, and government is only beginning to be felt.
In God On The Quad, Riley takes readers to the halls of Brigham Young, where surprisingly with-it young Mormons compete in a raucous marriage market and prepare for careers in public service. To the infamous Bob Jones, post-interracial dating ban, where zealous fundamentalists are studying fine art and great literature to help them assimilate into the nation's cultural centers. To Thomas Aquinas College, where graduates home-school large families and hope to return the American Catholic Church to its former glory. To Yeshiva, Wheaton, Notre Dame, and more than a dozen other schools, big and small, rich and poor, new and old, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Mormon, and even Buddhist, all training grounds for this new generation.
With a critical yet sympathetic eye, Riley looks into these campuses and the debates that shape them. In a post-9/11 world, where the division between secular and religious has never been sharper, what is it that distinguishes these colleges from their
af1 secular counterparts? What does the missionary generation think about political activism, feminism, academic freedom, dating, race relations, homosexuality, and religious toleranceand what effect will these young men and women have on the United States and the world? Such are the questions explored in this timely and far-reaching new study. "If higher education is to take its own ideals of diversity and pluralism seriously, these [colleges] deserve a sympathetic rendering, and Ms. Riley has supplied it."Peter Steinfels, The New York Times
"The excellence of Naomi Schaefer Riley's narrative of her research findings [makes for] an informative and even entertaining read. Her descriptions of the inhabitants and dynamics of religiously oriented institutions of higher education are more interesting than the institutions' avowed goals . . . Among Riley's valuable insights is the observation that in America today we are tolerant as never beforeexcept toward those who hold strong religious beliefs, such as people at religious colleges."Roger K. Miller, The Denver Post
"[A] balanced treatment of a socially potent movement in higher education."Booklist
"It's not news in academia, although it may come as a surprise to the rest of us: America's 700-plus religiously affiliated colleges and universities are enjoying an unprecedented surge of growth and a revival of interest. And enrollments are soaring . . . Riley, a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal's 'Houses of Worship' column, has picked an exciting topic, and her book attempts to explore what life is like at religious colleges and why so many young people these days scramble to attend them . . . She devoted most of her interviews to the students themselves, although she also visited classrooms, where professors, unlike most of their secular-school counterparts, actually encourage the discussion of religious matters . . . Riley suggests that the 'missionary generation' of religious-college graduates is changing America. To be sure, their moral seriousness and their alma maters' new intellectual rigor benefit society . . . [Riley has more] than proved her case that 'the widely held notion that the members of strongly religious communities in America are somehow intellectually backward is a myth.'"Charlotte Allen, The Wall Street Journal
"[This book shows how] it is not only religion but an educational philosophy that draws these students together and separates them from the rest of the world."Deseret Morning News (Utah)
"America's religious colleges and universities are terra incognita to many liberal and secular readers. Naomi Schaefer Riley off
Review
"America's religious colleges and universities are terra incognita to many liberal and secular readers. Naomi Schaefer Riley offers an insightful, balanced, and respectful guide to this world, one that its own members will find provocative and from which strangers to it will learn a great deal."
- Alan Wolfe, author, One Nation After All and The Transformation of American Religion
"Naomi Schaefer Riley spent a year touring the parallel universe of religious colleges, pen in hand, and brought back a book full of open-minded, sharply observed portraits of a fast-growing corner of America that most of the mass media prefer to caricature or ignore. The results are illuminating--and important."
- Terry Teachout, author, The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken
"It is no small feat to provide the in-depth, interesting, and absolutely objective overview that Naomi Schaefer Riley does in her book, God on the Quad. Riley manages to skate the zig-zag line of truth on the thin ice that exists for those trying to explore this topic."
- Coleen Rowley, FBI whistleblower, Time Magazine's 2002 Person of the Year, graduate of the evangelical Wartburg College (speaking in her personal capacity and furnishing her personal endorsement only)
"Naomi Schaefer Riley's God the Quad is an important and refreshing new look at the vitality of a younger generation of well-educated religious people who want to make a difference in the deeply divided and conflicted America they are inheriting."
- Alphonse Vinh, National Public Radio
"A pioneer explorer into the unknown territory of America's religious colleges, Naomi Schaefer Riley reports her findings from twenty campuses with verve and insight. Her writing is as light as conversation, but her thinking goes as deep as the dispute in American education today between reason and revelation. "
- Harvey Mansfield, professor of Government, Harvard University, author, America's Constitutional Soul and The Spirit of Liberalism
"A joy to read, this book is also an arresting picture of a new generation that is poised to change the face of our culture and public life."
- Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, professor of history at Emory University
"Inspiring! A sympathetic, moving, insightful, thoroughly and clearly reported account of a phenomenon that, for all its importance, has until now been hardly noticed. Only a rare and gifted journalist can bring to life such diverse places, with their very different cultures."
- David Klinghoffer, author, The Discovery of God: Abraham and the Birth of Monotheism and The Lord Will Gather Me In: My Journey to Jewish Orthodoxy
Insightful and challenging, Riley's book shows how religious colleges are transforming America, and vice versa. This work is invaluable for anyone interested in the future of higher education in America-and the future of religion. Riley is a wonderful chronicler of a little-known academic world where faith and reason still intersect, a world that is having a profound impact on our national life.
- David Gibson, author, The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful Are Shaping a New American Catholicism
Review
"America's religious colleges and universities are terra incognita to many liberal and secular readers. Naomi Schaefer Riley offers an insightful, balanced, and respectful guide to this world, one that its own members will find provocative and from which strangers to it will learn a great deal."
- Alan Wolfe, author, One Nation After All and The Transformation of American Religion
"Naomi Schaefer Riley spent a year touring the parallel universe of religious colleges, pen in hand, and brought back a book full of open-minded, sharply observed portraits of a fast-growing corner of America that most of the mass media prefer to caricature or ignore. The results are illuminating--and important."
- Terry Teachout, author, The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken
"It is no small feat to provide the in-depth, interesting, and absolutely objective overview that Naomi Schaefer Riley does in her book, God on the Quad. Riley manages to skate the zig-zag line of truth on the thin ice that exists for those trying to explore this topic."
- Coleen Rowley, FBI whistleblower, Time Magazine's 2002 Person of the Year, graduate of the evangelical Wartburg College (speaking in her personal capacity and furnishing her personal endorsement only)
"Naomi Schaefer Riley's God the Quad is an important and refreshing new look at the vitality of a younger generation of well-educated religious people who want to make a difference in the deeply divided and conflicted America they are inheriting."
- Alphonse Vinh, National Public Radio
"A pioneer explorer into the unknown territory of America's religious colleges, Naomi Schaefer Riley reports her findings from twenty campuses with verve and insight. Her writing is as light as conversation, but her thinking goes as deep as the dispute in American education today between reason and revelation. "
- Harvey Mansfield, professor of Government, Harvard University, author, America's Constitutional Soul and The Spirit of Liberalism
"A joy to read, this book is also an arresting picture of a new generation that is poised to change the face of our culture and public life."
- Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, professor of history at Emory University
"Inspiring! A sympathetic, moving, insightful, thoroughly and clearly reported account of a phenomenon that, for all its importance, has until now been hardly noticed. Only a rare and gifted journalist can bring to life such diverse places, with their very different cultures."
- David Klinghoffer, author, The Discovery of God: Abraham and the Birth of Monotheism and The Lord Will Gather Me In: My Journey to Jewish Orthodoxy
Insightful and challenging, Riley's book shows how religious colleges are transforming America, and vice versa. This work is invaluable for anyone interested in the future of higher education in America-and the future of religion. Riley is a wonderful chronicler of a little-known academic world where faith and reason still intersect, a world that is having a profound impact on our national life.
- David Gibson, author, The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful Are Shaping a New American Catholicism
Synopsis
Religious colleges and universities in America are growing at a breakneck pace. In this startling new book, journalist Naomi Schaefer Riley explores these schools-interviewing administrators, professors, and students-to produce the first popular, accessible, and comprehensive investigation of this phenomenon
Call them the Missionary Generation. By the tens and hundreds of thousands, some of America's brightest and most dedicated teenagers are opting for a different kind of college education. It promises all the rigor of traditional liberal arts schools, but mixed with religious instruction from the Good Book and a mandate from above.
Far removed from the medieval cloisters outsiders imagine, schools like Wheaton, Thomas Aquinas, and Brigham Young are churning out a new generation of smart, worldly, and ethical young professionals whose influence in business, medicine, law, journalism, academia, and government is only beginning to be felt.
In God On The Quad, Riley takes readers to the halls of Brigham Young, where surprisingly with-it young Mormons compete in a raucous marriage market and prepare for careers in public service. To the infamous Bob Jones, post interracial dating ban, where zealous fundamentalists are studying fine art and great literature to help them assimilate into the nation's cultural centers. To Thomas Aquinas College, where graduates homeschool large families and hope to return the American Catholic Church to its former glory. To Yeshiva, Wheaton, Notre Dame, and more than a dozen other schools, big and small, rich and poor, new and old, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Mormon, and even Buddhist, all training grounds for the new Missionary Generation.
With a critical yet sympathetic eye, Riley, a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Weekly Standard, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, studies these campuses and the debates that shape them. In a post-9/11 world where the division between secular and religious has never been sharper, what distinguishes these colleges from their secular counterparts? What does the missionary generation think about political activism, feminism, academic freedom, dating, race relations, homosexuality, and religious tolerance-and what effect will these young men and women have on the United States and the world?
About the Author
Naomi Schaefer Riley is a contributing writer at
The American Enterprise and a frequent contributor to the
Wall Street Journal, the
Boston Globe, and
National Review. Her articles have also appeared in
The New York Times,
The Los Angeles Times, the
Chronicle of Higher Education,
Weekly Standard, the
New York Post, the
New York Sun, the
New Republic,
Commentary,
Crisis, the
Public Interest, the
New Atlantis, and
First Things. Ms. Riley is also the editor of
In Character, a journal of the John Templeton Foundation, and an adjunct fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
Since graduating from Harvard magna cum laude in 1998, she has worked as assistant editor of Commentary, as well as an editorial intern at the Wall Street Journal editorial page and National Review. She has been the recipient of the Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellowship, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute Journalism Fellowship, the Claremont Institute Publius Fellowship, and the Charles G. Koch Fellowship.