Christian Higher Ed for a New Era

On Meeting the Moment with Confidence

Evangelical higher education carries forward the spiritual legacy of the earliest American colleges, yet its position within the wider postsecondary landscape is more precarious than ever before. In order for campus leaders to wisely navigate current conditions, they must clearly understand the present moment and respond accordingly. Using resource dependency as a conceptual framework, this position paper traces the evolution of American higher education from its founding to the present and details strategies Christian colleges and universities have used to balance adaptation to changing contexts with fidelity to their founding missions. It explains why past approaches will no longer work in the emergent era and argues that this reality requires different strategies for engaging the external environment. The paper concludes by casting a new vision for academic faithfulness that can empower evangelical Christian higher education to flourish despite growing illiberal trends.

To download the full report, please click here.


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P. Jesse Rine

P. Jesse Rine is Executive Director of the Center for Academic Faithfulness & Flourishing (CAFF). An award-winning professor and nationally recognized expert on Christian higher education, Jesse has served in faculty and administrative roles on three faith-based campuses: Grove City College, Duquesne University, and North Greenville University. He previously directed the research programs of two national higher education associations, the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) and the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC). Jesse’s scholarship has been published in numerous edited volumes and academic journals, and he was recently appointed Editor-in-Chief of Christian Higher Education: An International Journal of Research, Theory, and Practice.