Restoring the soul

Perry L. Glanzer, Nathan F. Alleman, and Todd C. Ream (2018) argued that Christian universities can recover their soul but to do so require reimagining excellence in a time of exile, placing the liberating arts before the liberal arts, and focusing on the worship, love, and knowledge of God as central to the university.

In terms of money, prestige, power, and freedom, American universities appear to have gained the academic world. But at what cost? We live in the age of the fragmented multiversity that has no unifying soul or mission.

This book was also suggested by Prof. Dr. Azlan Ab. Rahman

Excellence without a soul

Prof. Dr. Azlan Ab. Rahman has shared a book as shown in the figure about what others have said about the soul of academia or university.

Harry R. Lewis wrote his book in 2006 entitled “Excellence without a soul: How a great university forgot education”.

He was a former Dean of Harvard College who was working for more than thirty years, argued that a school’s mission cannot be compromised at the mercy of consumerism and competition, driven decision-making regarding course content and grading.

He insisted that science (general education) and philosophy (values) cannot be separated or each will surely lose the potential depth of meaning. The synergy between religious faith and academic matters must be done for cohesive identity development as well. When the concept of integration is woven in the institutions, the quality implementation is harder to assess.