Two Cheers for Secularization: Commentary on The Resilience of Religion in American Higher Education by John Schmalzbauer and Kathleen A. Mahoney. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2018

Abstract

The Resilience of Religion in Higher Education is, in my view, an excellent study especially in that it documents that the old twentieth-century secular-ization thesis fails regarding American higher education. Broadly speaking, the secularization thesis posited that as science and modernity advanced, older religious beliefs would be discredited and fade away, at least among the educated. Schmaltzbauer and Mahoney show that such has not been a consistent pattern. And in fact many religious beliefs and practices, including some traditional ones, continue to flourish or have made “ an unexpected comeback ” (1) in and around even America ’ s most highly regarded academic and scientific centers.