Religion, for college students, is not necessarily the old-fashioned ‘organized’ religion handed down to them, but rather something that many of them would call spirituality rather than religion. Douglas and Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen, authors of No Longer Invisible: Religion in University Education, on how higher education found faith.

During the last four years, we crisscrossed the country visiting more than 50 colleges and universities as directors of the Religion in the Academy project. We spoke with hundreds of faculty, administrators, and students about all the ways they are now engaging religion, and we came away from those conversations with a new sense that adding religion to the mix—in the form of new student life programming, but also in the curriculum, in study centers and programs of research, and in community engagement—can be a net educational gain for everyone.

Today’s interest in religion comes from the bottom up—a significant change from the past. From the colonial days through the 19th century, religion was typically imposed on students from the top down. Now, students themselves are driving a re-engagement with religion….”

This highlights a major difference between the religion coming back to campus and the religion of yore. It is very difficult today to draw any neat line of separation between “religion” and the wide variety of “secular” life stances that are also present on campuses. Whether people refer to the values and commitments that shape their lives as religion, spirituality, humanism, secularism, or agnosticism, they are referring to values and commitments that function socially and psychologically in much the same way. On many campuses, the definition of religious life has expanded to encompass all the religious, spiritual, moral, and ethical concerns of students…..

Evangelical-Christian students are frequently perceived as both the blessing and the bane of religiously-engaged campuses. Evangelicals comprise the largest and most visible religious sub-group in American society, so it’s no surprise that they are often the most visible religious group on campuses as well. It’s also no surprise that they are evangelistic: they are convinced of the rightness of their ideas and ideals and are eager to “share” their faith with those around them, which can make them somewhat prickly interfaith partners….

Religion’s return to higher education is not without costs. Paying more attention to religion means acknowledging very real differences, and disagreements can be intense….

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