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Book Review: Conflicting Allegiances: The Church-Based University in a Liberal Democratic Society edited by Michael L. Budde and John Wright

Reprinted with the permission of the editors of Christian Scholar's Review

Michael L. Budde and John Wright's (editors) Conflicting Allegiances: The Church-Based University in a Liberal Democratic Society is the result of a conference of Christian scholars held in March 2002 at Point Loma Nazarene University (CA).  At the request of Point Loma professor John Wright, Christian scholars from various traditions, academic institutions, and disciplines met on the Point Loma campus to discuss the relationship the Church shares with Christian institutions of higher education.  Several scholars who contributed essays to this volume are members of the Ekklesia Project-a group seeking to invite "all Christians and churches to reclaim their vocation to be a church shaped by the priorities and practices ofJ esus."¹   A closer inspection of the contributors to this volume also reveals a small cluster of people with connections to the Radical Orthodoxy movement in theology.  In the preface of the book, Michael L. Budde confesses that neither the topic nor the location of the meeting alone were enough to draw such a crowd of renowned scholars.  Rather, the conference's attractive quality lay in the unique question host John Wright posed to the assembled group.  Each scholar present was asked to "start first with a robust notion of the church-as a distinctive people called into being by the Holy Spirit to continue the priorities and practices of Jesus Christ in the world."²   After considering such a sense of ecclesiology, participants were asked to imagine scholarship, teaching and formation in relation to this"discipleship-based vision of the church."³ 

The book is comprised of fourteen individually-authored essays that are divided into five corresponding categories including an introduction and a conclusion.  A sample of key topics from this dialogue includes the following: a liberal democratic society's objections to a Church-based university, the curriculum in a Church-based university, formation within a Church-based based university, and the witness of a Church-based institution.  The main argument of the book is perhaps found in John Milbank's essay, "The Last of the Last: Theology in the Church."   Milbank writes that the Church's project is one of integration to which all theologians are obliged.  Taken within its proper context, Milbank's admonition is one appealing for the submission of various human traditions under the Christian logos and within a university defined by explicit ecclesiological convictions.

At least three main themes appear through the course of this volume, with the first theme being that of a defining telos.  Stephen Fowl's essay is an example of how the theme of a telos plays a significant role in Conflicting Allegiances.  Fowl urges his readers to look to the trajectory of the Church-based university in order to direct subsequent actions pertaining to everything from curricular efforts to student formation.  Fowl suggests the primary focusof Church-based universities is theological.  As a result, "one must primarily teach students how to order Scripture's diversity in the light of theological considerations."⁴   Michael Cartwright, in his essay discussing student formation, adds to this viewpoint regarding the issue of telos.  Cartwright encourages administrators as well as faculty members to consider the inclination of the academy to simply "'do education.'"⁵   Indeed, the essays by Therese Lysaught, Jonathan Wilson, and Scott Moore entertain proposed practicalitiesderived from a shift in teleology.  Such a shift for theChristian institution of higher learning is one from being simply aservant of liberal democracy to being an institution subjugated to the Church.  As a result, the ultimate function of a Church-based university is not to be a parody of the ecclesia but rather to complement, to assist, and to advance the Church's efforts to be faithful to the Gospel.

A second theme in the book is the role, and arguably even the identity, of the faculty within a Church-based university. This theme streams through almost every chapter highlighting the possibility that Conflicting Allegiances was edited with university faculty members in mind.  The essays by William Cavanaugh, Amy Laura Hall and Robert Brimlow deal directly with the role of the faculty within a Church-based university. Cavanaugh argues for a reassessment of academic freedom within the eyes of administrators but most specifically, faculty.  This reconsideration involves humbling oneself to embrace a collective orthodoxy held by the group in order to engage in further inquiry. Hall's essay echoes Cavanaugh'scall for humility within faculty formation by proposing thatcharity should exist within a university's walls.  Hall beckons faculty members (as well as administrators) to universalize the archetype of a servant within the Church-based university.  The goal of such an effort, writes Hall, results in a more service-minded faculty, staff and student body.  Robert Brimlow introduces a radical idea into the conversation concerning faculty formation as he advocates that faculty should become more involved in students' lives through intentional spiritual formation.  Brimlow goes so far as to write that "Christian educators should be focused on helping their students become better Christians rather than better professionals."⁶

A third theme in Conflicting Allegiances is that of hospitality. Within the context of the book as a whole, hospitality denotes a sense of humility and charity played out in Christian institutions of higher learning.  If the ultimate telos of a Church-based university is theological in nature, the roles of those of us who serve in the academy may prove to be in need of reexamination.  Attempting to recover a hospitable nature between administrators, faculty members, and students appears to be mandated by our common confessional nature.  Elizabeth Newman's essay highlights the issue of hospitality by suggesting "table manners" to be adopted by the Church-based university.  Faculty should respect diversity, celebrate weakness alongside strengths, and look to the needs of others.  Newman asks, "Yet how can we be based in the ecclesia if the ecclesia is itself broken?"⁷   Amy Laura Hall and Michael Cartwright expound upon the theme of hospitality in their essays by paying special attention to the new found roles of faculty members and administrators.  Each writer arguably resonates with Elizabeth Newman's earlier concern that a Church-based university must promote and abide by the ecclesia's intrinsic values and practices.

Overall, the essays in Conflicting Allegiances prove to be thoughtful and provocative as they initiate a productive conversation concerning the Church's relationship to institutions of higher learning.  John Wright correctly diagnoses the battle over Christian higher education as pertaining to a tension within Christian colleges and universities to either produce elite civil servants or to form stewards of the Church.  The majority of pieces placate the need for continuity and connection necessary for an effective work composed of individual essays. Conflicting Allegiances offers stimulating discussion topics as well as innovative ideas to further define the identity of what the contributors to this volume often refer to as a Church-based university.     

Please see the Fall 2005 issue of Christian Scholar's Review in order to read the remaining portions of this review essay entitled "Ex Corde Patriae? Ex Corde Ecclesiae? Examining the Conflicted Allegiances of a University."  For more information on both subscribing and submitting to CSR, visit http://www.hope.edu/resources/csr/

Todd C. Ream is the Director of The Aldersgate Center at Indiana Wesleyan University.  Kevin K. Wright is a graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University and currently pursuing a Master of Divinity at the Duke University Divinity School. 

Footnotes: 

¹ Stanley Hauerwas and Michael L. Budde, The Ekklesia Project: A School for Subversive Friendships (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2000) 8.  Please also see www.ekklesiaproject.org for further information. 
 ² Michael L. Budde,"Preface," in Conflicting Allegiances: The Church-Based University in a Liberal Democratic Society, eds. Michael L. Budde and John Wright (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2004), 8.
 ³ Michael L. Budde, "Preface," in Conflicting Allegiances, 8.
 ⁴ Stephen Fowl, "The Role of Scripture in an Ecclesially Based University," in Conflicting Allegiances: The Church-Based University in a Liberal Democratic Society, eds. Michael L. Budde and John Wright (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2004), 173. 
 ⁵ Michael G. Cartwright, "Moving Beyond Muddled Missions and Misleading Metaphors: Formation and Vocation of Students within an Ecclesially Based University," in Conflicting Allegiances: The Church-Based University in a Liberal Democratic Society, eds. Michael L. Budde and John Wright (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2004) 185.
 ⁶ Robert W. Brimlow, "Who Invited Mammon? Professional Education in the Christian College and University," in Conflicting Allegiances: The Church-Based University in a Liberal Democratic Society, eds. Michael L. Budde and John Wright (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2004), 168.
 ⁷ Elizabeth Newman, "Hotel or Home? Hospitality and Higher Education," in Conflicting Allegiances: The Church-Based University in a Liberal Democratic Society, eds. Michael L. Budde and John Wright (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2004), 103.