VIEWSrnAfter the AvalanchernThe Reemergence of Colleges in Christrnby James PatrickrnWhen C.S. Lewis wrote that there was more distance betweenrnus and Jane Austen than between Jane Austenrnand Plato, he was remarking on a cataelysm that colleges andrnuniversities had not escaped. The cliarters of colleges foundedrnbefore the Age of Jackson reiterated the claim that the purposernof an educational inshtution was always, as the founders of Columbiarn(then King’s College) wrote, to teach Jesus Christ. Asrnlate as 18^8, the statutes of the Universit’of North Carolina forbadernany derogation of the Christian religion in the universit}-.rnThe marriage behveen Christ and classical literature was thenrn16 centuries old. Beginning with St. Justin Martr’s principlernthat whatever has been said rightiy belongs to Christians, thernChurch espoused the teaching of a Christian classicism intendedrnoriginally to provide an effective apolog}’ and, after Constantine,rnto make schoolbovs not only intcllectiiallv wcU-furnishedrncitizens but Christians.rnBefore the micbl9th century, most entrance examinations assumedrnan abilih to read the New Testament, Vergil, and Cicerornin the original languages, as well as a mastery of Euclid. Today,rnthis standard is not even attained by most who teach in collegesrnand imiersities.rnBefore 1860, colleges were not marketplaces of ideas. Thatrnstudents were to be taught not what to think but how to thinkrnwas considered absurd. Colleges were microcosmic cities calculatedrnto make their citizens members of a culture, of a moralrnand intellectual order rooted in Athens, Rome, Sinai, andrnJerusalem. (And in America, where most 18th- and 19th-centur-rncolleges were founded bv Congregationalists and Presbyterians,rnrooted also in Ceneva.) The transcendent collegiate purposernwas the forming of souls pleasing to Cod; the temporalrnJames Patrick is the founder and provost of the College ofrnSt. Thomas More hi Ft. Worth. Texas.rnpurpose vvas the furnishing of bar, bench, and pulpit, and, morernbroadly, the ec[uipping of the gentlemen who would hold commissionsrnand sit on the count}’ court, each of whom was expectedrnto bring into the villages of a new country something of thernwisdom and polities of ancient Creece and Rome. LighthorsernHarr Lee advised his son at Harvard to “Dwell on the virtues,rnand to adhere to History and Ethical Authors of universal character.”rnJohn Adams advised John Quinev to stiidy Sallust, Cicero,rnLiv}’, and Tacitus in order to learn wisdom and virtue, notingrnthat his son would see in them “all the Charms whichrnLanguage and hnagination can exhibit, and Vice and Follyrnpainted in all their Deformit}’ and Horror. The end of study isrnto make you a good man and a useful citizen.” The curriculumrnwas designed to transfer Christian classicism from one generationrnto the next. Neither Adams nor Lee would have been happyrnto learn tiiat Harvard and other colleges todav do not care tornteach their students what to admire and whom to obey.rnA study completed this past spring titled Great Expectations:rnHow the Public and Parents—White, African American, and Hispanicrn—View Higher Education contains a survey asking thernquestion, “Wliat Should a Student Gain from College?” Thernmost popidar goal, understandably dear to the heart of everyrnparent, is “A sense of maturity and how to manage on theirrnown’—a fine purpose, but one accomplished most successfullyrnand at least expense by a stint in the Armv or a job in anotherrncit}’. Next in popularit)’ was the diversit}’ goal: “An ability to getrnalong with people different from themselves.” The third goal isrnsomething a college might conceivably do —namely, thernDeweyan goal to “I’each an improved ability to solve problemsrnand think analvticalK.” Following this are the career-related expertiserngoal, the high-tech goal, writing and speaking, and therncitizenship goal of voting and volunteering. Eighth and last isrn”Exposure to great writers and thinkers in subjects like literaturernSEPTEMBER 2000/13rnrnrn