Sloan, D. 1994. Faith and Knowledge: Mainline Protestantism and Higher Education. Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox Press.
In this book, Sloan documents the Protestant efforts in the 1950s and 1960s to challenge the scientific ethos prevalent in American universities; in particular, the work of Protestant theologians to address epistemological concerns stemming from the secularization and “disestablishment of religion” on campus (see Marsden 1994 for more discussion of this secularization on campus). He first describes small victories for the Protestant Church: the growth of campus ministries, the establishment of Christian publications, new college courses on religion. He then turns to a discussion of the challenges and successes of a diverse range of theologians—including neoorthodox theologians, secular theologians associated with the death-of-God movement, and radical empiricist theologians—who sought to influence mainstream academia with their theologies. Throughout the author privileges Protestant efforts to resist the scientific rationality—and in particular, the notion that all knowledge can be perceived by the senses and derived from empirical data—that pervades the academy. He concludes by arguing that many of the Protestant efforts of the mid-twentieth century failed to leave a lasting impact on American universities, and sees the current era as ripe for another Protestant challenge to the scientific ethos.
