Nov. 8—Northwestern College is one of ten colleges and universities highlighted in the book, Seeing the Light: Religious Colleges in Twenty-First-Century America by Samuel Schuman. The book is about religious colleges and their place in American higher education. Specifically, Schuman’s book resists the messages from James Burtchaell’s work, The Dying of the Light, which states that religious colleges in American culture have lost their base in faith.

Schuman selected two Baptist universities, three denominational colleges and five nondenominational colleges—Northwestern was included in this group along with George Fox, Westmont, Oral Roberts and Wheaton.

In his observation of Northwestern, Schuman reiterates more than once that he saw the NWC community to be sincere and committed to “walking in the way of the Lord”—deeply and daily engaged in their faith.

Schuman discusses multiple facets of Northwestern, one of which is the fact that the college remains committed to its mission.

“And the longest section of the college’s ‘Declaration of Christian Community’ is the one entitled ‘Northwestern will be set apart.’ The vision of the committed Christian as deeply in the world, but not of it, remains viable here.” (Schuman, 2010)

Preview Seeing the Light on Google Books or it is available for purchase at a local retailer or online.

Schuman, S. (2010). Seeing the light: religious colleges in twenty-first century America. Baltimore, MA: The Johns Hopkins University Press.