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The battle for young minds

VIC FROESE

How to Stay Christian in College
J. Budziszewski. Colorado Springs, Co.: NavPress, 1999. 143 pp. $8.00.

Faith can be lost anywhere, but as venues for confusing battles between competing philosophies, colleges and universities provoke more than their share of spiritual crises. Budziszewski should know. A professor at the University of Texas, he left Christianity for radical politics after entering college and only returned to faith a decade later. With this book, he tries to prepare new Christian students for college life and to help current ones deal with its intellectual and social challenges.

Budziszewski deftly cuts to the heart of the major intellectual currents on North American campuses: scepticism, naturalism, relativism and postmodernism. He sometimes distorts the positions he criticizes (postmodernism, for example, is in part a moral protest against the arrogance of modernism and not simply an empty celebration of nihilism), but his grasp of their spiritual and moral implications is sure.

The author also discusses sex, dating and the college lifestyle, with Dr. Laura’s panache. “Myths about love and sex”, a persuasive rebuttal of the romantic lies our culture tells us, is a “must” reading for all Christian students, and maybe for a few graduates as well.

Designed with Gen Nexers in mind, the pages of the book are adorned with sea bird images, Bible verses and quotations, and relevant Web site URLs are scattered throughout.

Churches are not college-prep schools, but I wonder whether the rejection of faith by students would be as common if churches did a better job of enlarging the minds of their young people before they enter university. A bolder engagement with current intellectual forces by churches could make books like this one less necessary.

Vic Froese is a member of the Steinbach (Man.) MB Church and is the library director at Steinbach Bible College.

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Last modified August 12, 2000.

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