Includes bibliographical references and index

The Congregationalists : Dartmouth College ; Beloit College -- The Presbyterians : Lafayette College ; Davidson College -- The Methodists : Millsaps College ; Ohio Wesleyan University -- The Baptists : Wake Forest University ; Virginia Union University ; Linfield College -- The Lutherans : Gettysburg College ; St. Olaf College ; Concordia College -- The Catholics : Boston College ; The College of New Rochelle ; Saint Mary's College of California -- The Evangelicals : Azusa Pacific University ; Dordt College -- The story within the stories

James Tunstead Burtchaell, who has extensive experience in American higher education as both a teacher and an administrator, provides case studies of seventeen prominent colleges and universities with diverse ecclesial origins - Congregational, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic, and Evangelical. Using published and archival sources as well as firsthand interaction with each institution he covers, Burtchaell narrates how each school's religious identity eventually became first uncomfortable and then expendable, and he analyzes the processes that eroded the bonds between school and church