The Secularization of Western Universities in International Perspective: Toward a Historicist Account

Abstract

How did the Western university, originally a Christian institution, become a predominantly secular one? This article briefly surveys the main scholarly approaches to secularization, identifying a historicist approach as the most useful for understanding the secularization of universities. The article then sketches an account of the secularization of Western universities spanning four countries—Germany, France, England, and the United States—highlighting events in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, the role of states and academic guilds, and differences between national contexts. It concludes with some implications of this historicist explanation for understanding the relationship between universities and the secular order today.

Keywords:

• secularization
• history of universities
• higher education

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Leshia Knopf, Jonathan Van Santen, and Johanna Wolfert for their assistance with the research for this article, to participants in the 2019 Henry Symposium on Religion and Public Life for their comments, and to Redeemer University for a research grant.

ORCID

Kevin N. Flatt http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2145-2287

Notes

1 While the authors comment on the religious character of mottos containing words like Deus and religio, their responses to mottos quoting the Psalms (University of Calgary), Isaiah (Queen's University), and Ephesians (Brandon University) suggest they are unware of their biblical provenance. They describe the phrase “speaking the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15), for example, as “the new best piece of poetry in any language on the planet [—] and it's describing a university in Manitoba.”

2 This process is referred to as “confessionalization” because it entailed the formation of distinct, territorially-defined, state-enforced religious traditions or “confessions” (Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, and Catholic) (Gorski 2000).

3 An extinct discipline concerned with state management of the economy in the financial interests of the state.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kevin N. Flatt

Kevin N. Flatt is Associate Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History, Politics, and International Studies at Redeemer University, where he also recently served as Director of Research (2013–2019). His research focuses on secularization in Western societies and Protestantism in Canada. His publications include After Evangelicalism: The Sixties and the United Church of Canada (2013).