A new book by Samuel Schuman entitled Seeing the Light: Religious Colleges in Twenty-First Century America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010) devotes a chapter to New Saint Andrews College.

According to the Johns Hopkins University Press publisher’s blurb,

“Schuman concludes that these schools — Baylor University, Anderson University, New Saint Andrews College, Calvin College, North Park University, George Fox University, Westmont College, Oral Roberts University, Northwestern College, and Wheaton College — and others like them offer important and timely lessons for the broader higher education community.”

Schuman argues that this “small cluster of schools . . .  seem[s] to be both intrinsically interesting and broadly representative.” While state and secular institutions and their faculties often disparage religiously based institutions, Dr. Schuman argues that they have a good deal to learn from colleges like ours. Dr. Schuman clearly understands the value of Christian colleges and boldly criticizes the arrogance of the exclusionary secularism dominant on so many campuses.

Dr. Schuman, an experienced university professor and administrator, visited New Saint Andrews a couple of years ago and interviewed a good number of our administrators, faculty members, and students.  His overview of the College in his new book is quite thorough and generally accurate (it has a few minor errors and typos–like misspelling Traditio [not Tradition] and my name [Atwell!!] several times).  But Schuman’s overall effort captures our spirit and vision quite nicely. He understands what makes us tick and why.

Here are a couple of quotes from the book’s opening and concluding pages about New Saint Andrews:

“In many respects, New Saint Andrews College (NSA) is so different from any conventional paradigm that it is daunting to describe it. Not only are its courses given unusual names, but its academic terms, its grades, its classrooms, and its faculty ranks sound equally unfamiliar. Its history is unique, its funding counter intuitive, its governance idiosyncratic, and its student life program startingly different. Not everyone is attracted to New Saint Andrews, but for those who are, the attraction is powerful.” (page 105)

“New Saint Andrews people have fun, they enjoy life, and they are amiable, but they see themselves as wholehearted fighters in the culture war, using “culture” in the largest, anthropological sense: the contest between Augustine’s City of Man and City of God. The college’s 2006-8 catalog, which is subtitled A Better Paradigm, a Higher Education, begins on exactly this martial note: ‘In the spiritual battle for the hearts and minds of the next generation raging in higher education today, New Saint Andrews College stands firmly committed to the classical Christian tradition.’” (page 118)