_Rethinking the Future of the University_.  Edited by David Lyle Jeffrey and Dominic
Manganiello.  (Ottawa:  University of Ottawa Press, c1998).  xiv, 134 pp.

Reviewed by Dr. Brad Eden, beden@ccmail.nevada.edu, University of Nevada, Las Vegas


     A number of books have been published in the last 15 years which have focused on the future
of the university.  The most seminal work has been Alan Bloom's _Closing of the American
Mind:  How Higher Education has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's 
Students_ (New York:  Simon and Schuster, 1987).  This particular book is a printed version of
the 1995-96 McMartin lectures, held at the University of Ottawa in Canada, which focused on
the relationship of religious and ethical reflection to the life of the intellectual disciplines. 
Although this book specifically focuses on higher education in Canada, many of the issues relate
to American higher education and indeed higher education in general, but the focus on Canadian
universities must be kept in mind, as this viewpoint runs throughout the various lectures.

     The book is divided into three parts:  Where Did We Come From?, Where Are We Now?, and
Where Are We Going?  Parts I and II contain two chapters each, while Part III contains four
chapters.  Part I has chapters on the original idea of the university and its development in the
Middle Ages, along with a synopsis and comments on John Henry Newman's "The Idea of a
University" lectures from over a century ago.  Part II discusses the current politicization of the
university, especially in Canadian society, and the idea of literacy in today's society.  Part III has
chapters on the future of teaching, the future of research, the future of the university, and whether
technology will save the university.  Throughout the entire book, the issue of religion and
religious expression as tenets and basic underpinnings of the university are examined, and how
this missing element in today's higher education relates to the gradual decline of educational
quality and self-reflection within society and the university.

     Coming from a liberal arts education from a private Lutheran college, I appreciate many of the
arguments and observations presented by the authors. Given modern society's preoccupation with
materialism and its focus on the self, bringing religion and religious expression back into the
curricular and educational underpinnings of higher education is unfortunately a dream at best. I
too sense that the university is a "last surviving example of the nineteenth-century factory," as
one author puts it, and that we have lost the sense of the _trivium_ and _quadrivium_ of the
medieval educational system, but it is apparent that religion and its philosophical constants and
universals are a subsidiary and indeed unnecessary element in today's higher education system. I
personally liked one author's perceptions regarding the loss of wonder and of myth in today's
students, as well as comments on J.R.R. Tolkien's philosophy in the idea of subcreation and myth
as an essential element of self-realization. Unfortunately, few places integrate religion and
philosophy into higher education anymore.  This book is an interesting reflection on all of these
concepts, and more, and would be of interest to anyone wishing to reflect on the deterioration of
higher education in today's society.


University of Ottawa Press