A Theology of Higher Education [Hardcover]

In this book, Mike Higton provides a constructive critique of Higher Education policy and practice in the UK, the US and beyond, from the standpoint of Christian theology. He focuses on the role universities can and should play in forming students and staff in intellectual virtue, in sustaining vibrant communities of inquiry, and in serving the public good. He argues both that modern secular universities can be a proper context for Christians to pursue their calling as disciples to learn and to teach, and that Christians can contribute to the flourishing of such universities as institutions devoted to learning for the common good. In the process he sets out a vision of the good university as secular and religiously plural, as socially inclusive, and as deeply and productively entangled with the surrounding society. Along the way, he engages with a range of historical examples (the medieval University of Paris, the University of Berlin in the nineteenth century, and John Henry Newman's work in Oxford and Dublin) and with a range of contemporary writers on Higher Education from George Marsden to Stanley Hauerwas and from David Ford to Rowan Williams.

Introduction
I
1. Paris
2. Berlin
3. Dublin and Oxford
4. Contemporary Theological Voices
II
5. An Anglican Theology of Learning
6. The Virtuous University
7. The Sociable University
8. The Good University
9. The Negotiable University
Conclusion

As a hopeful book, [A Theology of Higher Education] connects theology with education in a way that asks theologians to push higher education to account for what is good despite the secular nature of university and the crucible in which it finds itself. As universities face what some have suggested as the 'bursting of the academic bubble,' Higton challenges higher education to recommit itself to the common good. For him, it is a matter of not only paying attention to market voices, butlÓf