Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T18:11:03.769Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - The Legacy of Higher Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2023

Get access

Summary

Higher education in England and in America also arose from Judeo-Christian religion and its speech. Here, the focus turns from Protestants to Catholics, because the establishment of higher education in continental Europe and in England was by Roman Catholics. Because universities are largely secular today, it is easy to forget that the oldest universities were founded by a Judeo-Christian faith with a heavy focus on educating Roman Catholic ministers and canon lawyers, and that their curricula and activities were pervasively religious. The same is true of the oldest universities in Europe – the Universities of Bologna, Salamanca, Paris, and others. Only after dozens of European universities had been established by Catholics did the Reformation bring Protestant colleges to England and to America. What was religious about early higher education was its message and perspective – its religious speech in the forms of teaching, reading, questioning, defending – adding a religious message and perspective to Greco-Roman classical studies. Early universities were founded by church officials, designed primarily to train prelates or ministers, taught with specified church-approved texts from a religious perspective, and presided over by bishops’ appointees or other ministers. Colonial American colleges followed the religious path of the early English universities.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • The Legacy of Higher Education
  • Wendell Bird
  • Book: Religious Speech and the Quest for Freedoms in the Anglo-American World
  • Online publication: 13 April 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009090766.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • The Legacy of Higher Education
  • Wendell Bird
  • Book: Religious Speech and the Quest for Freedoms in the Anglo-American World
  • Online publication: 13 April 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009090766.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Legacy of Higher Education
  • Wendell Bird
  • Book: Religious Speech and the Quest for Freedoms in the Anglo-American World
  • Online publication: 13 April 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009090766.005
Available formats
×