God's army marches onto campus

A Washington Post reporter profiles Patrick Henry College, the school that aims to offer an Ivy education to evangelicals.

from the September 11, 2007 edition

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And yet life at Patrick Henry is not exactly what you'd encounter on the average US campus. iTune lists are monitored and dorm rooms are checked for cleanliness. Flip-flops are prohibited and the only dating permitted is a chaste form of courtship subject to parental approval.

Rosin does a good job of allowing individual students to emerge from the pack. There is free-thinking, stylish Farahn Morgan who's not quite sure she really belongs at Patrick Henry. There's star-struck, Hollywood hopeful Daniel Noa, a home-schooler from a family of Californians so mainstream that "you couldn't pick them out in a crowd." There are couples like Elisa and Aaron who struggle to integrate romance, family, and faith. (The standard assumption at Patrick Henry is that all women – no matter how stratospheric their SAT scores – will one day leave the workforce for motherhood.)

For the most part, Rosin's profiles of Patrick Henry's young charges are sympathetic and even affectionate, despite what occasionally seems to be her bemusement. As a reader, I was utterly intrigued by these kids yet in the end also frustrated that I never got to know any of them very deeply – although I understood Rosin's decision to gain breath by following several students rather focusing on one or two.

Rosin also interviews Patrick Henry faculty members and the showdown that eventually develops between them and Farris is one of the most fascinating parts of the book. Critical thinking slams up against dogmatic certainty and the inevitable collision is not pretty to watch.

"Experimental communities almost always implode," observes Rosin and Patrick Henry is indeed reeling by the book's final chapter. In this case, however, down is not out and there will certainly be more to be heard from both Patrick Henry College and the ambitious young graduates it will produce. "God's Harvard" is a good starting point.

• Marjorie Kehe is the Monitor's book editor. Send comments to Marjorie Kehe .

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