To some, the term “academic freedom” may have altogether negative connotations, conjuring up images of irresponsible professors on godless campuses. To others, the term “academic freedom” may have purely positive connotations, calling to mind images of high-minded, healthy, and spirited discussions among faculty and students on campuses committed to the relentless pursuit of truth. Still others may simply see in the term a puzzling problem. What does “academic freedom” really mean on a Christian college campus? In this book Diekema seeks to define and defend the term and to demonstrate that academic freedom is indeed essential for the work of faculty in Christian institutions of higher learning. Diekema describes in the preface the nature of the book: “This book is a personal, interpretive, and didactic treatise on academic freedom through the eyes of a practitioner.” He uses his twenty years of experience as President of Calvin College and his forty-year career in higher education to help his readers understand what academic freedom means for faculty and students at Christian colleges and for the church members who love, support, and, on occasion, come into conflict with those colleges.

Diekema acknowledges from the beginning that there is no universally accepted definition of academic freedom. He establishes early that “academic freedom is a ‘right’ that is more of an aspiration than fact,” that it is “functional only in the academy,” and that it is not to be confused with other kinds of freedom, such as freedom of speech or of the press. He begins with a tentative definition: “academic freedom is the right and obligation to constantly pursue truth, and to teach and publish it along the way toward the goal of finding ultimate truth.” Yet he emphasizes the importance of developing a meaningful definition in the context of Christian colleges.

In working toward that definition, Diekema describes several significant threats to academic freedom. He shows that while at times the threat to academic freedom has been “obvious waves of zealotry,” a subtler and more pernicious threat has been the tyranny of postmodern thought — the insistence that there is no truth to be pursued. And he warns that postmodernists will soon discover the high cost of championing the idea that there are no truths.

But, ironically, Diekema explains, perhaps “postmodernism's lasting contribution will simply be in opening doors to the legitimization of worldview in the academy.” That is, postmodernism may help us to acknowledge that “all scholarship, then, is conditioned by a worldview of some sort” and may encourage Christian scholars to articulate, clearly and boldy, the worldview that conditions their scholarship and their very lives.

Diekema examines what academic freedom means in the context of worldview. He argues that “for the true academic, truth is the end and academic freedom the means.” The true Christian academic must be willing to articulate his or her worldview and to pursue truth wherever it may lead. Diekema powerfully argues that “the Christian professor needs academic freedom as an integral part of her Christian freedom; that is, the uninhibited freedom to use God's gifts of scholarship and teaching in the pursuit of God's truth.” That freedom, he explains, “creates an environment — indeed, an academy — where people are involved in deep and fundamental arguments with each other and the world around them. All worldviews, including one's own and those embraced by one's college, come under intensive scrutiny and challenge. It is an environment that demands both responsible freedom and responsible tolerance. Differences and controversy become tools by which worldviews and truth are keenly honed. They are essential to sound and critical thinking. That is simply, and gloriously, the nature of the truly Christian academic enterprise.”

Diekema rejects completely the notion of academic freedom as license, insisting that Christian professors examine honestly their worldview to make sure it is in accord with the mission of the Christian institution. He also urges Christian colleges and the church members who love and support them to show mutual respect and appreciation, to “keep faith” with one another. He urges the church and the college to “covenant together that, whatever the formal or legal affiliation, the essence of their relationship is an interdependence based upon common mission.”

Christian faculty understand that the pursuit of truth can be threatening — to students, to colleagues, to constituents outside the university. But, Diekema argues, “if a Christian voice is ever to be heard on the great issues that trouble our society — issues of life and death, of global responsibility, of morality and justice — the Christian colleges must take a leading role. They must develop communities, led by Christian scholars, that cultivate intellectual life, that anchor it in the gospel, and that articulate it to the larger culture. They must take responsibility for bringing Christian alternatives to the marketplace of ideas and into the public square.” To do so, they must be free “from all those forces, both internal and external, which tend to prevent them from meeting all the obligations of the professorial office in the pursuit of truth.”
Diekema calls Christian faculty to a high office indeed. He describes the ideal professor in that office. “The ideal professor must be a scholar devoted to pursuit of truth. ... Her worldview and her scholarship are in constant communication within her. ...What she teaches, what she lectures, and what she publishes as a scholar are all the same — or ought to be the same. She cannot, upon demand, transform herself into an ‘objective’ teacher in the classroom, a pleasing soothsayer for the community, or a good soldier for her professional orthodoxy. ... It is demanded of her that she be a whole, consistent person of integrity. She must teach and profess the same truth.”

Diekema calls the college and the church to an awareness of their different yet complementary tasks and also to mutual faith as faculty seek to fulfill their high office. His call is crucial for all who seek to serve students and thereby to serve our Lord and his kingdom.