The work of Nicholas Wolterstorff, whether it concerns religious arguments in public discussion, political theology, aesthetics and religion, justice, liberal democracy, or many others, is always worth reading. A few years ago, I participated in a very worthwhile conference concerning Professor Wolterstorff’s short book, The Mighty and the Almighty: An Essay in Political Theology (here’s my little reaction)–an important meditation on the continuing relevance of political theology today written from a distinctively liberal Christian perspective.

And now comes Wolterstorff’s newest book, Religion in the University (Yale University Press). It’s a timely and rather fraught subject, and I’m sure that whatever Wolterstorff says will be enlightening.

What is religion’s place within the academy today? Are the perspectives of religious believers acceptable in an academic setting? In this lucid and penetrating essay, Nicholas Wolterstorff ranges from Max Weber and John Locke to Ludwig Wittgenstein and Charles Taylor to argue that religious orientations and voices do have a home in the modern university, and he offers a sketch of what that home should be like. He documents how, over the past ve decades, remarkable changes have occurred within the academy with regard to how knowledge is understood. During the same period, profound philosophical advancements have also been made in our understanding of religious belief. These shifting ideals, taken together, have created an environment that is more pluralistic than secular. Tapping into larger debates on freedom of expression and intellectual diversity, Wolterstorff believes a scholarly ethic should guard us against becoming, in Weber’s words, “specialists without spirit and sensualists without heart.”