No Longer Invisible: Religion in University Education

• Publication year: 2013
• Pages: 77
• Citation: Vol. 42 No. 1 Pg. 77

42 Colo.Law. 77 No Longer Invisible: Religion in University Education Vol. 42 No. 1 [Page 77] Colorado Bar Journal January, 2013

By Frederic H. Marienthal

Departments Review of Legal Resources

Review of Legal Resources is published to apprise attorneys of books and other resources that may be of interest to them. Readers wishing to make review suggestions, provide review copies, or write reviews should contact Leona Martínez at leonamartinez@cobar.org. For a list of titles available for review at press time, see "Read a Book. Write a Review."

Readers who have questions about any reviewed material should contact the reviewer. Prices listed are based on information available at the time the reviews were published, and are subject to publisher discretion. Please contact the publisher to obtain a copy of the book.

No Longer Invisible:

Religion in University Education

by Douglas Jacobsen and Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen, 208 pp.; $29.95, Oxford University Press, 2012, 198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016, 212) 726-6000; www.oup.com

Reviewed by Frederic H. Marienthal

Frederic H. Marienthal is a partner of Kutak Rock LLP in Denver, where for more than twenty-nine years he has represented clients in public finance transactions—(303) 297-2400, frederic.marienthal@kutakrock.com.

No Longer Invisible: Religion in University Education is a svelte and elegant exposition about religion and undergraduate study in our nation’s universities and colleges. The Jacobsen authors define religion as "include[ing] traditional religion, spirituality in its many different forms, and life’s big questions of meaning, purpose, character, hope, and ethics, whether or not they are formulated in religious language." This is an incredibly broad and encompassing definition that blunts any ability to cleanly define secular and sectarian activities on a campus.

I enjoyed and derived a great deal of benefit from the first half of the book, where there is a description that traces the arc of the role of religion in the higher educational context. According to the Jacobsens, there have been three distinct but evolving eras of religion in American higher education—the Protestant Era, the Privatized Era, and the Pluriform Era. The second half of the book details in six somewhat disjointed essays the overlap between religion and higher education (that is, religious literacy, interfaith etiquette, framing knowledge, civic engagement, convictions, and character...