Spirituality in College Students’ Lives: Translating Research into Practice, released July 26 by Routledge and edited by Alyssa Bryant Rockenbach and Matthew J. Mayhew, includes chapters written by authors affiliated with the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities. Among these authors is P. Jesse Rine, the CCCU’s director of research and grants initiatives.
An important resource for higher education and student affairs faculty, administrators, and practitioners interested in nurturing the inner lives of college students, the book draws on data from a large-scale national survey examining the spiritual development of undergraduates and how colleges and universities can be more effective in facilitating students’ spiritual growth. Contributors from a range of fields, including education, psychology, sociology, social work, and religion, present research-based studies that explore the importance of students’ spirituality and the impact of the college experience on their spiritual development.
Offering a wide range of theoretical perspectives and worldviews, Spirituality in College Students’ Lives also includes reflections from distinguished researchers and practitioners that highlight implications for practice. This original, edited collection explores emerging theoretical frames and analytical approaches; differences in spiritual expressions and experiences among sub-populations; the impact of campus contexts; and how college experiences shape spiritual outcomes. The forward is written by Helen Astin and Alexander Astin.
As Rine summarizes, in his chapter entitled “Christian College Persistence in the Postmodern Turn,” he proposes “an empirically-based theory of institutional fallibilism that can empower Christian colleges to adapt in the postmodern turn without veering toward the absolutist or relativist extremes and, in so doing, prepare their graduates for a life of Christian faith in a postmodern world.”
The other CCCU contributors are Peter C. Hill, professor of psychology at Biola University in La Mirada, Calif.; Keith J. Edwards, also professor of psychology at Biola; and Jonathan P. Hill, assistant professor of sociology at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. Their chapter is entitled “Religious Pluralism and Higher Education Institutional Contexts: Implications for Research, Researcher Reflection.”
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About the CCCU: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 170 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. The 116 member campuses in North America are all fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 54 affiliate campuses from 18 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help our institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth. Visit www.cccu.org.