Once theology is one subject among many but not an over-arching framework for understanding the other subjects (art, chemistry, etc.) the basic purpose for a university will get supplied by an unspoken dogma of some other kind. Universities will exist for the purpose of job training and become strictly utilitarian from an economic standpoint. Or they will exist to transmit culture without the "cult" that is that the root of culture (as Neuhaus so often pointed out). Or they will exist with a sort of "art for art's sake, knowledge for knowledge's sake" purpose that ends up in the worship of creature rather than Creator. Or they will exist for the sake of "social progress" with nobody daring to ask what exactly is the goal whereby we determine whether something counts as progress or regression.
The anti-Christian pressure Dr. Becker talks about comes from the fields related to sociology (including most majors that end in "studies"), which do not see themselves as one subject among many but as the organizing principle of all the subjects, like theology used to be....
The modern situation calls for universities with their original mission, which in our context means universities willing to be counter-cultural and in some ways opposed to the sacred cows of mainstream academia. Lutheran universities could do and be that, but not if they're too ashamed of the Gospel. A recent Valpo mailing re-interpreted their entire motto "In Thy Light, We See Light" to assure the prospective student that the student's understanding of the truth, whatever that may be, is the light Valpo wants to go by. Crazy. Sad.
Valpo is a fine secular university. One can learn about Lutheranism there, and engineering, and music, just like a pretty decent public university. They have Lutheran campus pastors, just like many public universities. What Valpo lacks is Lutheranism as the organizing principle behind its raison d' etre, the thing that gives context, relevance, and order to all the subjects taught. Like at any public university, sociology has replaced theology at Valpo....
And Valpo is not much different, I would guess. Any random prof of this or that subject could easily deny this or that article of the Augsburg Confession under cover of academic freedom. But if they publicly and forcefully denied the validity of gay marriage or the benevolence of #blacklivesmatter, declared Islam a false and destructive religion, or promoted the idea of male/female as a binary per Genesis and not a spectrum, all of which would fall well within the bounds of Lutheran teaching, well, they might survive with their job but they would certainly stir up a hornet's nest. Because Valpo is more concerned about its secular academic reputation, which is good but which depends upon the approval of the priests of sociology, than it is about the Augsburg Confession being presented as true. Which is a bummer, because it wouldn't have to be that way.
I hope now that Peter's daughter will be a student on our campus he will spend more time here than he obviously has, given how misguided his perception of the institution is. I have no idea what mailing he received, but it doesn't match any I have seen from our marketing people. All of the materials I just now picked up from their office stress Valpo's church-relatedness. For example, one piece begins with the following quote from O. P. Kretzmann: "Essentially a University is a voluntary association of free men and women in a community which is dedicated to a twofold task: the search for truth and the transmission of truth, free and unbroken, to those who are born later in time" (1940 Inaugural Address). After an explicitly Lutheran faith-based introduction by our current president, the document quotes the Valpo motto in both English and Latin: In Thy Light, We See Light; In Luce Tua Videmus Lucem. The document immediately proceeds to state this: "Scholarship, freedom, faith, and service--the ideals of Valparaiso University's mission--are embodied in our motto. The University's Lutheran heritage and character are reflected in these ideals. As Valparaiso University plans thoughtfully, these ideals provide the foundation and guidance necessary to determine the path most appropriate for the future success of our students, our alumni, and our community as a whole. Valparaiso University will continue to look forward, but our hearts always will remain true to our Lutheran tradition. It is upon that tradition that we will build and strengthen to ensure the sustainability of a vibrant University community. This is our future in Thy light."
Notice: "Thy light," not "my light" nor "your light" nor "the world's light."
What Peter would hope for in a church-related university is at odds with a classic Lutheran model that goes back to Wittenberg. Unlike Peter's model, which is really a Christomonistic, theology-of-glory Reformed vision--one that fits with the ethos of Calvin College or Wheaton--Valpo's model is a paradoxical one, which takes seriously important distinctions and tensions, e.g., between law/creation and gospel, between Creator and creature, between the infinite and the finite, between the freedom of the gospel and free inquiry, between faith and service, between faith and learning, between Christ and culture (dialectically related but neither identified with one another nor separated from each other), between the kingdom of the left hand of God and the kingdom of the right hand of God, between confessional commitment and ecumenical openness. Whereas Peter's model would seek something like a "Christian mathematics," "Christian astronomy," "Christian chemistry," "Christian physics," and so on, a Lutheran model operates out of a paradoxical vision (ala Bob Benne's book) that is grounded in justification by grace through faith alone in Christ alone and that recognizes and explores the above distinctions and tensions. It seeks truth in God's creation on its own terms and doesn't try to "Christianize" any of the secular disciplines. To one who holds to a Reformed vision of higher education (or a Roman-Catholic one), similar to Peter's apparent model, a place like Valpo looks "secular," but it is really simul seculari et sacramenti, simultaneously "secular" and "incarnational/sacramental." Valpo's Lutheran model fits with the theology of the cross, not with Peter's Reformed model, which is a version of a theology of glory.
It is clear to me that Peter hasn't spent much time on our campus. I doubt he's been in a theology class here since his student days. As far as I know, he's never met with our theology department or had any extensive discussions with either of our campus pastors or with the director of church relations or with anyone else in the large church-relations staff. I don't recall ever meeting Peter at one of our bi-annual Stole and Scroll events. I wonder if he even reads Valpo's "The Cresset," which regularly publishes articles that clearly demonstrate concern for relating the academy and the Christian church/faith and that often provide a Lutheran perspective on culture. The Easter 2017 issue prints my own professorial lecture on Schlink's vision of "Christ in the University," a vision that is clearly at odds with Peter's. He might benefit from a year-long participation in our Lilly Fellow colloquium, which meets nearly every Mon during the academic year and is led by Mark Schwehn and Dorothy Bass. (I participated in it this past year, since I served as a mentor to one of our fellows, a post-doc systematic theologian from Notre Dame. The other post-docs come from Baylor, University of Virginia, and Notre Dame.) Come spend a full week with us, Peter, or a couple of weeks. If you can't do that, then read Bob Benne's chapter on Valpo in his book, "Quality with Soul: How Six Premier Colleges and Universities Keep Faith with Their Religious Traditions" (Eerdmans, 2001). Or read Schwehn's "Exiles from Eden: Religion and the Academic Vocation in America" (Oxford, 1993). If anything, Valpo's ties to the Lutheran churches have deepened since the appearance of Benne's and Schwehn's books. Worth noting also is the fact that for the past decade all new tenure-track faculty must participate in a week-long theological seminar at our Cambridge University study center in Cambridge, England. This retreat has been led by Schwehn himself. (I participated in it with him in 2005; my cohort continues to get together for food and fellowship and Christian reflection, as we did last week). More recently, George Heider and Fred Niedner have led it. George is in my cohort. Fred recently wrote a marvelous essay for all new faculty that sets forth the Valpo vision of faith and culture in paradox. That essay centers on the lowly incarnation of Christ and the theology of the cross (and what that means for the limitations of human knowledge and the need for reverent humility across all university disciplines).
Peter, have you visited with any of Valpo's church-relations staff in their new offices (paid for by a multi-million-dollar gift from an ELCA pastor and his wife, both alumni)? Have you attended Stole and Scroll? The Liturgical Institute? How about any of the recent symposia in Christ College, our honors college? Have you recently attended any one of the eleven weekly chapel services in the Chapel of the Resurrection? What secular university has a chapel the size of ours, right smack in the center of campus? Or one that offers as much Christian programming as ours? Or that places important Christian symbols in prominent places across the campus? Or one that requires all undergraduates to take a course on the Christian tradition? Or that requires all students majoring in the arts and sciences to take an additional upper-division theology course? One that has the level and quality of Christian art housed in its on-campus art museum (as that which appears in our Brauer Museum)? Or that favors the music of Bach and other Christian composers in its many musical offerings? BTW, who do you think has largely funded the new buildings on campus over the past 20 years? Lutherans! With names such as "Christopher" and "Duesenberg" and "Helge."
Peter's vision is too narrow, too Reformed, and too blind to the myriad ways in which Christ and culture impact each other paradoxically, dialectically, creatively on Valpo's campus. Instead of projecting his own prejudices and speculative feelings and hunches onto Valpo and thereby creating a Valpo of his own imagination, he should spend more time on the actual campus, interacting with faculty and staff and administrators. I hope that during his daughter's time here, he'll at least stop by my office for a face-to-face chat now and then. I'd love to show him around the place. (Yes, I know he graduated from VU, but he clearly doesn't know what's really presently happening.)
Matt Becker
P.S. Peter's observations about sociology also do not capture the reality on the ground here. When he comes to visit me, I hope he'll also go down the hall to have a chat with the head of our sociology dept. She's a practicing member of our ELCA congregation. Her husband teaches Hebrew and OT in the theo dept. The other full-time sociology prof here is very active in our Roman-Catholic campus ministry at St. T's. Just the other day she recommended that one of her criminal-justice majors minor in theology. These faculty members stress the deep connection between Christian faith and vocation/service that Valpo rightly highlights.
