This was my experience while teaching at Wheaton College and is very different from the environment at Hillsdale College. At Wheaton, the piety encouraged assumptions that all students and faculty were in agreement about Christianity. Yes, we might worship in different communions and congregations, but we were all essentially one in Christ.

Call me grumpy, call me a naysayer, or call me a Reformed Protestant (read Calvinist). But I need to offer a bit of dissent from the recent expressions of praise for the Conference on Faith and History which convened last weekend at Calvin (soon to be University) College. John Turner has not been the only one to weigh in. So too have Chris Gehrz and John Fea. Almost all of the estimates have been positive and Turner’s is particularly worth quoting since his other posts about the Puritans have been measured, critical, and discerning. He loses that outlook a bit when he writes:

While the CFH’s roots are evangelical and Reformed, and while evangelicalism remains an important part of the organization’s identity, the CFH “welcome[s] members from a variety of Christian traditions around the world.” In recent years, Catholics, Latter-day Saints, and Orthodox Christians have attended and presented at the CFH, as have many Protestants who do not think of themselves as “evangelical.” I hope we make them feel welcome.

Most CFH members teach at colleges and universities, or are preparing to do so, but that’s not exclusively the case. In recent years, the CFH has made a particular effort to encourage teachers to join and attend, and at this year’s conference, I met several longtime and new members who teach at secondary schools. I hope we make them feel welcome. . . .

Many academic organizations are attempting to broaden their memberships, paying close attention to the fact that women and non-white scholars have often felt marginalized or simply out of place at their conferences. In the case of the CFH, we want to more fully resemble the Body of Christ.

That body of Christ business is what agitates. When I went to graduate school, the academy was appealing precisely because it represented a space to ask hard questions, to hear opposing perspectives, to be challenged intellectually. The church or the academy as the body of Christ may also do that but the space of Christianity is generally one of acceptance, comfort, and reassurance. I personally do not see faith, in the form of being inclusive and showing Christian virtues, as one that raises hard questions. Instead, faith-based intellectual life invariably produces a sense of unity that breeds conformity.

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