Higher Education and Theological Liberalism: Revisiting the Old Issue
It has long been assumed that higher education has a corrosive effect on religious belief and practice. Contrary to research from the 1970s and 80s, however, recent studies show that the college experience has little effect on the religiosity of college students. In this paper, I reconcile these opp...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Oxford Univ. Press
2010
|
In: |
Sociology of religion
Year: 2010, Volume: 71, Issue: 4, Pages: 393-408 |
Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
Parallel Edition: | Electronic
|
Summary: | It has long been assumed that higher education has a corrosive effect on religious belief and practice. Contrary to research from the 1970s and 80s, however, recent studies show that the college experience has little effect on the religiosity of college students. In this paper, I reconcile these opposing viewpoints by showing that higher education has a liberalizing effect, but only for a minority of students. A sample of church-going Protestants demonstrates that those with higher education are more theologically liberal, but the type of education matters more than the amount of higher education. Exposure to secular theories and whether one attends secular or religious schools have robust effects on theological liberalism. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 1759-8818 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Sociology of religion
|
Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/socrel/srq049 |