To What We Aspire: Explorations of the Christian Academic Vocation

On August 31, 1837, Ralph Waldo Emerson greeted the newest members of Harvard University’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter with an address titled “The American Scholar.” Emerson had abandoned Christian orthodoxy and even Unitarianism for Transcendentalism. However, he had yet to emerge as the leading figure of the intellectual collective who eventually congregated out in Concord. Finding his way, Emerson published Nature the previous year, but the publication of Self-­Reliance was still four years in his future.¹

In 1837, America was burdened by tenuous finances, acrimonious politics, and a national identity in question. While British rule was more than a half century in the nation’s past, its collegiate life still reflected the norms, standards, and daily patterns of Oxford and Cambridge.² The few scholars who searched elsewhere for inspiration looked not to themselves or to what an American intellectual tradition might offer but to the rising prominence of Germany and its research universities.³

Oliver Wendell Holmes, however, would reference Emerson’s “The American Scholar” as the fragile nation’s “intellectual declaration of independence.”⁴ While the words Emerson offered on that day in 1837 may not sound revolutionary by today’s standards, they alienated him from his alma mater for the next three decades.

When explaining that alienation, some historians see Emerson’s desire to define the vocation of the scholar as distinct from the vocation of the minister as the chief problematic detail. Some historians focus on Emerson’s intention to carve out a uniquely American understanding of the vocation of the scholar. Still others focus on Emerson’s resolve to set forth a new definition of the scholar as one who “commend[s] independent minded thinking that makes knowledge subserve thought rather than vice versa.”⁵ Regardless, the impact of those thoughts proved such that few question Emerson’s eventual rank as one of America’s first public intellectuals.⁶

That esteem is also implicitly conferred by the fact that only a handful of individuals felt the need to offer an understanding of the vocation of the scholar in such comprehensive terms. Despite the volumes of descriptive studies of the activities in which scholars engage, surprisingly few titles grapple with the themes in Emerson’s address—Edward Shils’s The Academic Ethic, for example, being one of those few titles.⁷

Comparable to Emerson’s intention on that August day, a need exists to revisit familiar phrases such as the Christian scholar or the Christian academic vocation that often go unexamined. To what we aspire can no longer be the result of what is derived, however implicit and/or explicit, from the polarized and polluted culture in which we presently find ourselves. We must be clear about not only what end or purpose defines our calling but also what animates it.

Aiding in such a process are the riches of the Church and a theological heritage into which the Church invites members of each generation to find themselves. There is also Emerson’s admonition to consider “what new lights, new events, and more days have thrown upon [the scholar’s] character, his duties, and his hopes.”

In fall 2023, four distinguished academic leaders from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and institutions grappled with one question: To what end(s) or purpose(s) does the Christian academic vocation aspire? That group included Jay L. Brewster, professor of biology and provost at Pepperdine University; J. Michael Hardin, professor of quantitative analysis and biostatistics and provost (from 2015–2024) at Samford University; Karen An-­hwei Lee, professor of English and provost at Wheaton College; and Noah J. Toly, provost at Calvin University.

To provide a common starting point for their discussions and to think through what end, if any, orients the academic vocation, the contributors to this theme issue read and discussed Emerson’s “The American Scholar” along with other related essays in Kenneth S. Sacks’ Understanding Emerson: “The American Scholar” and His Struggle for Self-­Reliance over the course of the fall 2023 semester.⁸

In December 2023, they took part in a conversation with Sacks, professor of history at Brown University, about his understanding of Emerson’s commitments concerning the American scholar in the 1800s and in what ways those commitments are still woven into the fabric of today’s American scholar. Several of the insights Sacks offered made their way into the articles in this issue.

To come to terms with the question of to what end or purpose we aspire, Brewster, Hardin, Lee, and Toly considered how their callings may intersect with various threads of Emerson’s understanding of the American scholar and how their callings were shaped by various communities in which they participated over the course of their lives. Those included a mix of the educational communities in which they studied and served, the disciplinary communities in which they found membership, and the ecclesial communities in which they worshipped.

Toly opens by exploring the strengths and weaknesses of Emerson’s self-­reliance as applied to the Christian academic vocation. On the one hand, Toly argues the Christian academic vocation involves the development of independent insights, a willingness to challenge conventions, and a commitment to stretch students to consider diverse perspectives. On the other hand, Toly argues the Christian academic vocation involves the proper honoring of revelation, the honoring of the voices of previous and current generations of colleagues, and the nurturing of students as they refine their gifts and talents in service to God and God’s creation. The Christian academic vocation is not an either/or but a both/and—a tension that may never findperfect balance. Nonetheless, faithfulness to one’s calling is found in embracing such a tension.

Brewster grapples with how Christian scholars engage with the ways the sacred and the secular meet in the natural world and how undergraduate research offers students with opportunities to appreciate what such a world offers. Emerson’s pantheism led him to view the natural world as an arena in which the scholar encounters truth. To his credit, Emerson sought to defy the impoverished view of the natural world as being merely defined by that which is materialistically available. In a related yet historically orthodox manner, however, Brewster encourages Christian scholars in the natural sciences to see more than what a material appreciation of the world may offer. Brewster views the world as being imbued with God’s glory. A full appreciation for such a world allows one to encounter beauty that otherwise may prove unimaginable. One high impact practice that Brewster highlights and that makes such appreciation possible for students at Pepperdine is undergraduate research. Scientists called to the Christian academic vocation not only invest in discovery but also serve as guides for the next generation of scholars learning to appreciate the beauty that comes from a full appreciation of the created order.

Lee contends the Christian academic vocation is not only defined by expertise in a particular subject area but also by how such expertise is faithfully used to shape and advance Christian thought. When doing so, Lee proposes that the calling of the Christian scholar may parallel a poet’s role in society—prophetic seers and sages who embrace truth-­telling. Drawing upon Emerson’s understanding of the poet as a means of inspiration, Lee contends truth-­telling may challenge mainstream culture while, at other times, truth-­telling may reflect it. For Lee, the Christian academic vocation is not defined by culture, but by a willingness to discern truth rooted in God’s revelation and bring truth to bear in relation to culture. The truth the Christian scholar pursues is timeless. The engagement, however, is what proves timely. With that effort in mind, Lee offers examples of how she and her colleagues at Wheaton invest in such efforts.

Hardin argues the Christian academic vocation is not only defined by one’s ability to see what other scholars see now but also by what Christ’s redemptive love allows one to see now and on into eternity. Emerson called for a spirit of independence for the American scholar from British and even German influences. In a comparable manner, Hardin calls for a spirit of independence for the Christian scholar from secular and even post-­secular influences. Such an understanding of the academic vocation frees the Christian scholar to tell new stories—stories that engage even the darkest corners of the world with the light of Christ. Even the most challenging of circumstances—be they the result of disease or depravity—are circumstances in which the redemptive light of Christ proves more than sufficient. In order to inspire others to seek such independence, Hardin offers examples of how he and his colleagues at Samford seek to tell new and even audacious stories of what Christ’s love can offer.

As a means of extending the efforts made by the four article contributors and the questions they raise in this issue, they recorded conversations for Christian Scholar’s Review’s “Saturdays at Seven,” distributed over four consecutive weeks in November and December 2024 (season two, episodes ten through thirteen).

If American scholars possess a discernible set of common vocational characteristics, some of those characteristics undoubtedly find their origins in Emerson’s 1837 address. The challenge for Christian scholars is not to bypass grappling with those characteristics. In contrast, the challenge is discerning the ways those characteristics may be present, the ways they may serve orthodox Christian commitments, and the ways they may compromise such commitments. Perhaps from that space can grow clearer perceptions concerning to what end the Christian academic vocation is exercised. May the articles in this issue serve as guides to such efforts.

In Books

This issue includes Joe Creech’s retrospective review of Mark R. Schwehn’s Exiles from Eden: Religion and the Academic Vocation.⁹ Schwehn’s work, along with A. G. Sertillanges’s The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, and Methods and editors Shaun C. Hensen and Michael J. Lakey’s Academic Vocation in the Church and Academy Today: ‘And With All Of Your Mind,’ may be one of the few books to address the relationship shared by the Christian tradition and the academic vocation.¹⁰

Creech, the executive director of the Lilly Network of Church-­Related Colleges and Universities, argues Schwehn’s caution concerning the pressures of professionalization on the Christian academic vocation are still corrosive today, albeit in relatively different ways. As a result, Creech returns us to Schwehn’s question concerning what purpose animates the Christian academic vocation and, as a result, what virtues need to be cultivated to habituate scholars toward such an end. Like our four article contributors, Joe Creech recorded a conversation for “Saturdays at Seven” that was distributed earlier this year on February 24, 2024 (season one, episode twenty-­two).

This issue also includes several standard reviews of recently released titles, including:

A review and response between Thomas Albert Howard, professor of humanities and history and Duesenberg Chair in Christian Ethics, Valparaiso University, and senior fellow, Lilly Network of Church-­Related Colleges and Universities; and Tomáš Halík, professor of sociology, Charles University in Prague, regarding Tomáš Halík, The Afternoon of Christianity: the Courage of Change, trans. Gerald Turner (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2024).

• Susan P. Bratton, professor emeritus of environmental science, Baylor University, reviews Andrew J. Spencer, Hope for God’s Creation: Stewardship in an Age of Futility (Brentwood, TN: B & H Academic, 2023); and Steven Bouma-­Prediger, Creation Care Discipleship: Why Earthkeeping is an Essential Christian Practice (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2023).
• Katie Kresser, professor of art history, Seattle Pacific University, reviews Roger D. Henderson and Marleen Hengelaar-­Rookmaaker, eds., The Artistic Sphere: The Arts in Neo-­Calvinist Perspective (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2024).
• Jon Singleton, department of English, Harding University, reviews Rachel B. Griffis, Julie Ooms, and Rachel M. De Smith Roberts, Deep Reading: Practices to Subvert the Vices of our Distracted, Hostile, and Consumeristic Age (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2024). 

1. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature (James Munroe, 1849; Project Gutenberg, 2009), https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29433/29433-­h/29433-­h.htm; Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-­Reliance (Charles E. Merrill, 1907; Project Gutenberg, 2005), https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16643/16643-­h/16643-­h.htm#SELF-­RELIANCE.
2. For more details, please see Roger L. Geiger, The History of American Higher Education: Learning and Culture from the Founding to World War II (Princeton University Press, 2014).
3. For an in-­depth description of the different university models of the late 19th century, see Carl Diehl, Americans and German Scholarship, 1770–1870 (Yale University Press, 1978).
4. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson (Houghton Mifflin, 1885), 115.
5. Lawrence Buell, Emerson (Belknap, 2003), 8.
6. For more details, please see Peter S. Field, Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Making of a Democratic Intellectual (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003); and Annika Neklason, “Ralph Waldo Emerson’s American Idea,” The Atlantic, November 28, 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/the-­atlantic-­and-­ralph-­waldo-­emersons-­american-­idea/602689/.
7. Edward Shils, the Academic Ethic (University of Chicago Press, 1984).
8. Kenneth S. Sacks, Understanding Emerson: “The American Scholar” and His Struggle for Self-­Reliance, (Princeton University Press, 2003).
9. Mark Schwehn, Exiles from Eden: Religion and the Academic Vocation in America (Oxford University Press, 1992).
10. A. G. Sertillanges, The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, and Methods, trans. Mary Ryan (Catholic University of America Press, 1992); Shaun C. Hensen and Michael J. Lakey, eds., Academic Vocation in the Church and Academy Today: ‘And With All Of Your Mind’ (Routledge, 2018).