The Role of the State in the Secularization of Christian Higher Education: A Study of Postcommunist Europe Perry L. Glanzer Although numerous scholars have written about the secularization of higher education in America, 1 few have extensively or directly addressed the secularization story of European universities. 2 The story of Christian universities in Europe, therefore, deserves additional attention since we now recognize that “different societies or cultures have had very different experiences of Perry L. Glanzer (BA, Rice University; MA, Baylor University; PhD, University of Southern California) is an associate professor in the School of Education and a faculty associate at the Institute for Church-State Studies, Baylor University, Waco, Texas. He is the coauthor of Christianity and Moral Identity in Higher Edu- cation (2009). His articles have appeared in Christian Scholars Review, Compa- rative Education Review, Educational Policy, Educational Theory, Higher Education, the Journal of Moral Education, the Journal of Church and State, Reli- gious Education, the English Journal, the Journal of General Education, the Journal of Education and Christian Belief, and Religion, State and Society. Special interests include church-state issues in education, moral education, and philosophy of education. Journal of Church and State vol. 53 no. 2, pages 161–182; doi:10.1093/jcs/csq118 Advance Access publication January 6, 2011 # The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com 1. James Turner, Language, Religion, Knowledge: Past and Present (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003); Jon Roberts and James Turner, The Sacred and the Secular University (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000); James T. Burtchaell, The Dying of the Light: The Disengagement of the Colleges and Universities from Their Christian Churches (Grand Rapids: Eerd- mans, 1998); George Marsden, The Soul of the American University: From Prot- estant Establishment to Established Nonbelief (New York: Oxford University Press,1994); George Marsden and Bradley J. Longfield, eds., The Secularization of the Academy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992). 2. For exceptions see James Arthur, Faith and Secularisation in Religious Col- leges and Universities (London: Routledge, 2006), and David Bebbington, “Chris- tian Higher Education in Europe: A Historical Analysis,” Christian Higher Education 10 (2011): forthcoming. Peter Berger and his coauthors Grace Davie and Effie Fokas have addressed the unique case of Europe as a whole in Religious America, Secular Europe: A Theme and Variations (Burlington: Ashgate, 2008). 161 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jcs/article/53/2/161/784539 by KIM Hohenheim user on 25 April 2022