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Liberal Education Imperiled3 1 3Liberal Education Imperiled: Toward a Resurrectionof Reason and Revelation in Higher EducationE r i k S . Ro o tWest Liberty Universitychaireconphil@me.comNo two cities have counted more with mankind than Athensand Jerusalem. Their messages in religion, philosophy, and arthave been the main guiding lights of modern faith and culture.—Winston ChurchillLiberal education is an ideal imperiled. Some say that it is past decline andin ruins. 1 That may or may not be true. But what seems certain is that ourmodern colleges and universities suffer because they lack an understandingof their purpose. If it is true that higher education is beyond repair, we as academics,who still believe in liberal education, are thus left to wander amongthe ruins. There has been an overabundance of articles and books recognizingthe inadequacy of higher education. Anthony T. Kronman’s Education’sEnd: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning ofLife is another in a long list reflecting on the demise of liberal education.As Kronman, a professor at Yale, tells his story, he left college at an earlyage expecting to find the meaning of life in political activism. That experimentfailed and forced him to reconsider the role of higher education. Highereducation should address the most important questions about life, such ashow it should be lived and the all-important question of what life is for. Eachindividual must answer these questions for himself. But we are living in a1A recent article along these lines appeared on the website Inside Higher Ed: Victor E. Ferrall, “Canthe Liberal Arts Be Saved?,” http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/02/11/ferrall (accessed February13, 2008).© 2015 Interpretation, Inc.