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BOOK REVIEWS The College Seeks Religion. By MERRIMON CUNINGGIM. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1947. Pp. 327, with index. $4.00. Religion in the Twentieth Century. Edited by VERGILIUS FERM. New York: The Philosophical Library, 1948. Pp. 489, with index. $5.00. One would be justified in saying that the books which are the subject of this review are akin to the horns of a dilemma, because oneĀ·sets forth the need for religion in contemporary collegiate life and concludes that only a non-sectarian religion can fill that need, while the other volume is a practical demonstration of the fact that it is impossible to arrive at any satisfactory and effective non-sectarian religion. Dr. Cuninggim's book shows that he is a man of ideas as well as of ideals. The purpose of his book is ". . . to analyze the association of religion and higher education since 1900" (p. 1). His analysis leads him to express a thesis which may be stated briefly: The roots of American higher education are struck deep in the soil which is religion. Around the turn of the century, the religious complexion of higher education began to fade and changed to the pallor of secularization which reached its peak at the time of World War I. Since that time there has been a change in the attitude of administrators, which change has been reflected in a renewal of respect for religion and marked by a widespread and serious effort to restore religion to collegiate life. Whereas the religion from which the colleges apostatized at the turn of the century was a sectarianism . that to which they are returning is interdenominational and non-sectarian. Both this return and the non-sectarian goal thereof are very desirable, and should be fostered. In the analysis that leads to the construction of fLpis thesis as well as in th~ application of its principles to the contemporary collegiate milieu, Dr. Cuninggim gives evidence of painstaking scholarship combined with a sincere desire to improve the spiritual lot of a generation which another author described as " gutted of inspiration, rinsed of morality and robbed of belief." The development of the thesis leads the author into many areas of inquiry which range from a carefully documented historical investigation of the status of religion on the American campus and the varying attitudes which religion meets on the part of college administrators, to detailed studies of present religion programs on the campuses of a select group of schools. The volume concludes with the author's plan for a revival of religion in the colleges and three highly informative surveys of religious programs and provisions obtaining in a large group of colleges. These surveys are included as appendices. ' 95 96 BOOK REVIEWS It must be noted that Dr. Cuninggim makes no attempt to discuss religion in the Catholic colleges whose "religious attitudes and practices are fixed and certain" (viii). Nor does this volume express a majority opinion, as can be learned by reading Religion in Public Education by V. T. Thayer (New York: The Viking Press, 1947), which represents a contradictory attitude. Also, the author's views on the separation of church and state (Chapt. VIII) which are opposed to those of John Dewey and the naturalists , have been set at nought, at least in their application to state-supported colleges, by the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court ein the Champaign School Case. With these few limitations noted, it is possible to examine certain fundamental truths which are concerned in any discussion of religious education . There is a certain lack of precision in the term " religious education," and this is true whether ethe term be used by Catholics or others. For Dr. Cuninggim, religious education includes "a discipline of the mind which gives meaning to matter (and) can furnish a basis of unity for the curriculum ... an appreciation of high values, including the supreme value, God ... a motivation for ethical living, personal and social ... an atmosphere (which) can suffuse the whole life of the college with love of truth, of beauty, and of good will" (p. 268). This concept is manifestly very extensive, and includes a variety of goals which are distinct...

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