The Baptist University—Oxymoron or Real Possibility?
By William H. Brackney

With over two hundred fifty institutions in their history in North America alone, Baptist Christians have made quite an impressive contribution to higher education. That record is telling and the observer can learn much from the record. For a significant number of institutions across the United States that refer to themselves as Baptist universities of one kind or another, the wedding of the terms “university” and “Baptist” is posing real challenges. I worry very much when I hear arguments that seek to dismiss Baptist identity in favor of either a post-denominational Christianity (bad sociology) or a facile form of creedalism (naïve theology) that has no room for diversity or dissent. Baptist schools are targets for such discussions and potential “takeovers” because we have spent too little recent time nurturing and developing our ideals. As one who was recruited to strengthen a major Baptist faculty that has recently struggled with faith and learning issues, I share a deep passion for “getting it right.”

The question that many are asking is, “What should a Baptist university look like?”

This has both historical and contemporary dimensions to it. Our heritage of creating and sustaining denominational schools can help us with the Baptist side of the equation first. Being Baptist implies a relationship with historic Baptist Christian principles like the Lordship of Christ, authority of Scripture, individual freedom and response to the gospel, the value of religious experience, and the importance of congregations in defining the work and ministry of the church.

“Being Baptist” also implies that we should reflect our constituency socio-culturally to some degree: lower to middle class entrepreneurs with working class origins; those with elevated social aspirations,”Protestant, hard-working folk. Baptists are among those who continue to think education is a key to self-improvement and advancement. Our churches, associations, conventions, and unions have been proactive in starting Baptist colleges and universities, exhibiting a long fondness for an enlightened and educated clergy and membership. Philanthropic laypersons have been an important part of our story, but not as much as the gifts and support of everyday persons who believe in Christian higher education in the Baptist tradition. Baptists are egalitarians!

As I view it, a Baptist-related school is certain to place a high priority on several matters of character as well as curriculum. Because Baptists profess a strong democratic tendency, a Baptist school has to be a place that welcomes interaction, conversation among its parts, and with its constituencies and publics. It is a place of an engaging toleration and exchange of ideas, seeking to honor the fullness of the Body of Christ. A sense of religious vocation that Baptists refer to as “calling” should characterize service in a Baptist school. One also expects to find core community values of institutional transparency, shared governance, responsible debate upon important ideas and goals, and a genuine commitment to be a learning/serving community. Above all else, Baptist Christians applaud the value of every individual, regardless of social status, gender, race, or origin. Because Baptists themselves are a varied lot, Baptist student bodies and faculties should reflect great diversity as well. History proves that Baptists are diverse.

Baptists have certain interests and genetic tendencies that ought to be reflected in a university curriculum. For instance, I would expect to see research and development in church and community studies, emerging issues of human rights and social justice (hot topics, given our history!), commerce and entrepreneurship, the psychology of religious experience, artistic and aesthetic expression, oral and written communication, modern languages, and interna-tional studies. These match emphases in our heritage. The liberal arts have always been core to Baptist-related colleges, and we have some of the best in the United States. Paramount to Baptist identity in a curriculum should be biblical studies and church-state relations. It is a fact of American religious history that Baptists have dominated that field more than in the strictly theological disciplines, and in the present climate I would applaud an emphasis upon religious history, particularly in Baptist Studies. History helps to set the record straight, among other values. The classic religion disciplines—text, tradition, praxis—historically define who Baptists are on the intellectual landscape, and no amount of effort should be spared to obtain the highest caliber of scholarship and public exposure in these key areas. I would also expect a Baptist undergraduate program to promote ministry guidance and call clarification, and a Baptist university ought to have a superior department of religious studies and/or a theological school. Leadership development is as much a Baptist raison d’etre’as any other religious denomination’s efforts in higher education.

The natural and physical sciences have provided challenges to Baptist-related institutions. In some cases, the expense of maintaining up-to-date facilities and equipment is beyond the resources of most church-related schools. Often their programs have been little more than high school science classes, if that. In other cases, some Baptist schools have transformed questions of scientific discovery into religious issues, and this has no credibility among serious scientists. A research university in the Baptist tradition needs to include in its undergraduate program rigorous science instruction and encourage science faculty to be engaged in research to enhance their teaching. Beyond that, scientific research at an advanced level can be conducted in select areas to fulfill the expectations of contemporary research universities and “for the improvement of humankind.” This has been the rationale for several Baptist universities from the nineteenth century that have developed medical, pharmaceutical, nursing, and advanced technological degrees. Baptist related faculties can also join consortia with other state-related institutions to partner research agendas. I would argue that care must be taken not to squander resources in needless curricular competition with other institutions where Baptists can make unique contributions. Baptists understand how to interact with others of like interests.

Now, for the ‘university’ side of the equation. Here is where Baptists frequently falter, yet I believe there is room for optimism. It is in the transition from a churchrelated college to a full university status that many Baptist institutions have jettisoned their church-relatedness. The obituary page is replete with Baptist schools that are no longer Baptist—or just no longer. Current Baptist educators can profit from our experimental past.

There is no reason why a Baptist institution cannot recruit an outstanding faculty that values both teaching and research. A faculty can be home grown (this takes time) or recruited from international resources (this takes money). The matters of teaching and research of course must be assessed by the leading research institutions in the country and must stand upon their own merits. The faculty of a Baptist-related university at its best must rise above a preoccupation with only classic religious questions, while not neglecting the interface of religious values and scientific discovery. It’s a tightrope that Baptists have long walked upon in their quest for an authentic Christianity. This is the essence of Clement of Alexandria’s dictum, “All truth belongs to God.” Serious budgetary support must be given to peer-reviewed research, sabbaticals, and publication of research in refereed journals, as well as qualifying with the best of schools for outside funding. All firstclass institutions live in these arenas and a university in the Baptist tradition cannot do otherwise.

The matter of percentages of Baptist faculty and participation in a denominational school ultimately surfaces in questions of identity. It is also a matter of style and character. Overall, a Baptist-related institution needs to have a majority of faculty and staff who are active participants in Baptist life. Beyond this, all faculty and staff need to respect the tradition and be supportive of the mission of a religiously defined and affiliated school. That’s a fundamental distinction of any denominational college or university. Baptist Christian identity should permeate the governing bodies and the chief executive officer should be a person with deep and broad Baptist convictions. One dimension is as important as the other. The religious studies program and divinity faculty should be predominantly Baptist, and drawn from a variety of Baptist groups. Here I would underscore the primary, though not exclusive, nature of denominational identity because there are areas that we should be able to engage such as the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, Jewish and Islamic studies, and world religions, at least through long term contracts and valued adjunctive relationships. Would a world-class university turn aside an occasional distinguished appointment in biblical studies or theology because the candidate worships in good conscience in another Christian family? That’s not historically baptistic!

A great university has to be a truly complex learning center. By definition, a university involves multiple faculties, advanced degree programs, and sophisticated community service. Baptists have long shown that they can be creative amidst diversity and their congregationalism suggests that Baptists understand how to build consensus and strong interactive associational bonds. Our changing demographics and cultural contexts have provided us with useful flexibility: urban schools, small colleges, institutions that served special constituencies like women and the ethnically and racially diverse sectors of society, and combination programs like the literary and theological schools that met a specific need in American social development. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Baptist colleges and universities were among the leaders of American higher education, church-affiliated and non-sectarian. Francis Wayland, Basil Manly Sr., William Rainey Harper, and William Simmons come to mind. Additionally, there has to be an adequate financial underpinning to maintain the enlarging qualities of a university; Baptist Christians have to “own” and nurture their schools far more generously than in the past. We need more of the likes of John D. Rockefeller, William McMaster, Grace Nuveen, Max Gardner, Helen Barrett Montgomery, and Frederick Gates. No other factor accounts for more devolution of Baptist identity than inadequate resources from the Baptist community.

For over a century, Baptists surely have learned that they cannot compete with state schools or as yet with largely endowed private research universities. Some of those schools in our family that have claimed the status of a university, frankly have not yet achieved it. So, where is the Baptist niche? I believe that Baptist universities, by their mandate, need to be selective in pursuing the scholarly and teaching goals associated with any other classic “university.” Widely recognized standards of performance and scholarship must not be sacrificed in the interests of being “church-affiliated.” In our stronger educational institutions, our denominational forbears have built universities upon foundations of faculties in the arts, law, medicine, and professional schools. Only a few have developed and sustained first-rate graduate studies and this is clearly what defines the modern university most vividly. It should not come as a surprise that there are as yet no Baptist universities in the top tier research institutions. At present, one or perhaps two Baptist universities in North America have the real potential to create a paradigm for the whole denomination and to help train a new generation of intellectuals with a broad and socially useful perspective. It is a goal worthy of a four hundred year old religious tradition.

To put the matter in theological terms, historically Baptists have a broad understanding of grace, truth, and community, and this needs to be reflected in their institutions. There should be no questions in pursuit of truth that are forbidden”a priori and varieties of gifts and philosophical orientations should be encouraged. Baptists are deeply Christological in their understanding of the Christian faith, and this plays out in incarnational terms in a university. The search for truth in the classroom or laboratory or field experience is a part of the revelation of the Divine Logos, the source of all knowledge and wisdom. The community of truth-seekers is as broad and tolerant as the atonement of Christ. As the motto of one great Baptist research university has put it, “In Christ all things consist” (Col. 1:17). That becomes a challenging, renewing and unsatisfied pursuit for any university worthy of its heritage.

April 2005