By tracing and connecting significant shifts in Baptist political and theological rhetoric to trends within the larger culture, this rhetorical transformation can be seen as establishing and maintaining these groups as significant forces in American culture. Before 1800, Baptists were against infant baptism, regarding baptism as a matter of…

This essay argues that the history of the international system has revolved around a moving frontier of cultural exclusivity. It is one of a series of working papers commissioned by the World Models Project in its effort to stimulate research, education, dialogue, and political action aimed at contributing to a movement for a just world order.…

On May 3-4, 2003, the Foreign Policy Research Institute held its tenth History Institute for Teachers. Forty-two teachers from fourteen states participated in a weekend of lectures and seminars, featuring seven outstanding scholars. Although Muslims define themselves and the Christian West in terms of religion, Western countries view relations…

In order to create the ethos of a social "movement," a collective must show that it is moving (1) against something (an enemy); (2) towards something (a vision of possibility); (3) from something (situation of origin); and (4) with something (an ever-expanding collection of people). When applied to protestant Christian feminism (as…

When the Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law that required public schools to give "equal time" to "creation science," an apparent contradiction was created because groups that traditionally supported the defense of civil liberties in general and freedom of expression in particular seemed to support a position designed to…

This paper presents the results of a study conducted in a Christian teacher education program which describes students' perceptions of the integration of faith, learning, and practice in education contexts. The study answers the following questions: (1) How do students define the integration of faith and learning (IFL)?; (2) is there consensus…

This paper discusses the evolution of missionaries' role in U.S. settlement and education, focusing on the impact on American Indian languages. Missionaries did not know the respective cultures of the American Indian tribes they worked with, and they viewed cultures different from their own as inferior. They could not conceive of any difference…

Modern compulsory schooling ignores the spiritual component of human existence, to the detriment of individual and society. In American Protestant spirituality, everyone counts; a good life's requisites are spelled out: work as salvation, pain as path to self-knowledge, duty, compassion, acceptance of loss, preparation for death. But no teacher…

This paper examines the rhetoric and consequences of extreme religious right-wing groups' attack on American public schools. The first section identifies two competing world perspectives, the modern and postmodern perspectives. The second section identifies the fundamental principle that enables the two competing perspectives to coexist: the First…

Formal structures of higher education that evolved in Islamic culture are discussed, along with parallels to the rise of universities in Medieval Europe. Both Islamic communities and Western Christianity founded colleges through endowments. The structural form of higher education in Islamic education in Islamic regions developed from the efforts…

Many liberal arts colleges have moved away from the central aim of liberal arts learning--person formation for a qualitatively rich life--while still maintaining the liberal arts title. Of America's 3,400 colleges and universities, there are only 212 (6%) genuine liberal arts colleges today who do not award over 60% of their total number of annual…

This paper explores how feelings of self-hatred in African Americans are perpetuated through media and the standard physical and ideological manifestations of Christianity. The notion that skin that is closer to white and hair that is closer to white are both more desirable attributes is a dominant theme underlying the African American experience.…

Efforts by Christian colleges to integrate faith and learning in communication courses through conscious and direct planning are based on several questionable assumptions: that faith must be learned through the intellect, that all evangelical Christians share the same theological roots, and that interpersonal communication can be taught like any…

This paper describes an ethnographic study of how fundamentalist Christian parents new to home schooling are socialized to norms, beliefs, and values of the Christian home schooling organizations with which they are affiliated. Research involved participant observation and interviews with "home schoolers" and educators over an 18-month…

As one of a series of five dialogues initiated by the Association of American Colleges, this workshop was concerned with the special mission of church-related colleges and universities. Representatives of 27 colleges met for a discussion based on five questions: (1) Has Christian higher education been compromised by the exigencies of a secular…