Stephen J. Nelson is professor of education and educational Leadership at Bridgewater State University, and senior scholar in the Leadership Alliance at Brown University.

Professor Nelson has produced an engaging and provocative exploration of how religious influences have shaped the core values of American higher education. He traces an arc from the founding of Harvard College to the realities of the modern university, arguing that the fundamentals have long endured. For presidents, trustees, and other higher education leaders navigating today’s cross-cutting political pressures, the book is a worthy read that offers a powerful case for importance of remaining faithful to those fundamentals.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter One: Religion in the American College: The Landscape and SagaChapter Two: The Religion of the Republic and the American Enlightenment: Foundations of the Nation and the AcademyChapter Three: John Witherspoon and Princeton: Political Theology and Theological PoliticsChapter Four: Four Score and Seven: The March from the Founding of the Republic to Civil War and BeyondChapter Five: The Watershed of the Civil War and What it Wrought: Gazing Backward and ForwardChapter Six: Religious Underpinnings of Liberal and Social Democracy: The Bridge to the Twentieth CenturyChapter Seven: The Curses and Blessings of Religious and Democratic Pluralism: Twentieth Century Quandaries and ControversiesChapter Eight: The Puzzle of Pluralism and An “Almost Chosen People”: Religion and Democracy in the Academy and Nation in the Twentieth and Twenty-first CenturiesChapter Nine: The Contemporary Religion of the Republic: Religious and Ideological Conscience and the Quest for E Pluribus UnumEpilogue: The Soul of the College and University: Is the Past Prologue?BibliographyAbout the Author

Stephen J. Nelson is professor of education and educational Leadership at Bridgewater State University, and senior scholar in the Leadership Alliance at Brown University.

Professor Nelson has produced an engaging and provocative exploration of how religious influences have shaped the core values of American higher education. He traces an arc from the founding of Harvard College to the realities of the modern university, arguing that the fundamentals have long endured. For presidents, trustees, and other higher education leaders navigating today’s cross-cutting political pressures, the book is a worthy read that offers a powerful case for importance of remaining faithful to those fundamentals.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter One: Religion in the American College: The Landscape and SagaChapter Two: The Religion of the Republic and the American Enlightenment: Foundations of the Nation and the AcademyChapter Three: John Witherspoon and Princeton: Political Theology and Theological PoliticsChapter Four: Four Score and Seven: The March from the Founding of the Republic to Civil War and BeyondChapter Five: The Watershed of the Civil War and What it Wrought: Gazing Backward and ForwardChapter Six: Religious Underpinnings of Liberal and Social Democracy: The Bridge to the Twentieth CenturyChapter Seven: The Curses and Blessings of Religious and Democratic Pluralism: Twentieth Century Quandaries and ControversiesChapter Eight: The Puzzle of Pluralism and An “Almost Chosen People”: Religion and Democracy in the Academy and Nation in the Twentieth and Twenty-first CenturiesChapter Nine: The Contemporary Religion of the Republic: Religious and Ideological Conscience and the Quest for E Pluribus UnumEpilogue: The Soul of the College and University: Is the Past Prologue?BibliographyAbout the Author

Stephen J. Nelson is professor of education and educational Leadership at Bridgewater State University, and senior scholar in the Leadership Alliance at Brown University.

Professor Nelson has produced an engaging and provocative exploration of how religious influences have shaped the core values of American higher education. He traces an arc from the founding of Harvard College to the realities of the modern university, arguing that the fundamentals have long endured. For presidents, trustees, and other higher education leaders navigating today’s cross-cutting political pressures, the book is a worthy read that offers a powerful case for importance of remaining faithful to those fundamentals.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter One: Religion in the American College: The Landscape and SagaChapter Two: The Religion of the Republic and the American Enlightenment: Foundations of the Nation and the AcademyChapter Three: John Witherspoon and Princeton: Political Theology and Theological PoliticsChapter Four: Four Score and Seven: The March from the Founding of the Republic to Civil War and BeyondChapter Five: The Watershed of the Civil War and What it Wrought: Gazing Backward and ForwardChapter Six: Religious Underpinnings of Liberal and Social Democracy: The Bridge to the Twentieth CenturyChapter Seven: The Curses and Blessings of Religious and Democratic Pluralism: Twentieth Century Quandaries and ControversiesChapter Eight: The Puzzle of Pluralism and An “Almost Chosen People”: Religion and Democracy in the Academy and Nation in the Twentieth and Twenty-first CenturiesChapter Nine: The Contemporary Religion of the Republic: Religious and Ideological Conscience and the Quest for E Pluribus UnumEpilogue: The Soul of the College and University: Is the Past Prologue?BibliographyAbout the Author