Multiversities & Christian Liberal Arts Colleges

In The Uses of the University, former University of California president Clark Kerr wrote that though the university started as a single community, the large American university had become instead (in 1963) a collection of communities. He also claimed that the liberal arts student-centered university Newman promoted (in The Idea of a University in 1873) had been replaced by the science-based research-oriented university described by Flexnor as “The Idea of a Modern University” (in 1930). Kerr believed all these models had been superseded in his day by what he called a “multiversity.” But there are still Christian liberal arts colleges.

Intellectual Exploration and Discovery

In “The Idea of a University,” Michael Oakeshott likens the “interval” a student experiences between school and post-graduate life to a “boundless sea” rather than to a “road.” He says it is a time when one can be free from the pressure to make up one’s mind and free to experience mystery without looking for an explanation. I agree that such an unhindered intellectual adventure ought to be an important part of every student’s liberal education. But a Christian liberal arts education requires that one also chart a course toward Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.