Higher Education, Secularization, and Faith: The Importance of the Study Center Movement.
The stunning picture above, May Morning on Magdalen Tower (Oxford), by William Holman Hunt, memorializes the annual event when the college church choir would sing hymns and other songs from the top of the college tower at sunrise. At one time, it was common for such religious ceremonies to be incorporated into the life of a college. Religious observances and thought formed the warp and woof of almost all colleges and universities until fairly recently.
In fact, the Christian faith was an integral part of the founding of William & Mary College as well. In 1693, William and Mary granted the General Assembly of Virginia the right:
To erect, found and establish a certain place of universal study,…for Divinity, Philosophy, Languages and other good Arts and Sciences. [So that] the Church of Virginia [might] be furnished with a seminary of ministers of the gospel, and that the youth [might] be piously educated in good letters and manners, and that the Christian faith [might] be propagated amongst the Western Indians, to the glory of Almighty God; promoting the studies of true philosophy…propagating the pure gospel of Christ, our only Mediator, to the praise and honor of Almighty God.
In being founded as an explicitly Christian institution, William & Mary was not unlike its predecessor Harvard University, whose original motto was, “Truth for Christ and Church.”
Over the years, however, increasingly faith began to be seen as irrelevant to the academic enterprise, and Christianity as something to be kept out of civic life. This has not been without its effect on the broader culture. According to recent research from the American Enterprise Institute, one of the chief factors driving the decline in religiosity in the West has been the educational system. Lyman Stone explains:
Expansions in government service provision and especially increasingly secularized government control of education, significantly drive secularization and can account for virtually the entire increase in secularization around the developed world.[1]
As Christians, we agree with Augustine that “all truth is God’s truth,” and would concur with C.S. Lewis when he asserts, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see all things.”[2] Faith helps us to frame, understand, and give meaning to all of life, including academics.
And yet, in an American culture that is increasingly characterized by competing worldviews and religions, an explicitly Christian framework increasingly feels neither feasible, nor desirable in a public educational system that seeks to serve both Christians, and non-Christians alike.
How then are we to square this circle? One answer is the Christian study center movement. By providing co-curricular programming that leans into questions of meaning and understanding, questions increasingly overlooked by the secular academy, study centers complement their host-institution’s work and enrich the college experience for both students, and faculty alike. That’s why here at Cambridge House, our vision is to, “set a table with the riches of the historic Christian tradition, for the moral, spiritual, and intellectual flourishing of the William & Mary community.”
There are encouraging signs that the broader Church is beginning to recognize the important role study centers have to play in supporting the work of universities. One such example is to be found in the most recent issue of Christianity Today. Marvin Olasky addresses some of the challenges facing higher education, pointing out that, “The problem is what to do about it.” His solution? “Support the privately funded Christian study centers that now exist at or adjacent to 37 major universities.”[3] Quoting the Consortium for Christian Study Center’s website he asserts that study centers, “Take up the historic mission of the college as an educational institution pursuing the moral and intellectual formation of persons.”[4]
One sign that people are beginning to heed Olasky’s advice is that the Consortium is currently working to help 20 new study centers get up and running at various colleges and universities around the country; right now, God seems to be rapidly expanding the study center movement. If you’re interested in being part of what God's doing on campuses, why not consider supporting a study center today?
[1] Stone, Lyman. “Promise and Peril: The History of American Religiosity and Its Recent Decline,” American Enterprise Institute, Apr 30, 2020.
[2] Lewis, C.S. The Weight of Glory. “Is Theology Poetry?” (1949).
[3] Christianity Today, May 1, 2026.