Peter Steinfels, in last Saturday’s NYTimes, on a book arguing that secularism has marginalized the university:

A century ago, American universities aspired to be the wellsprings of political, social and cultural leadership, Mr. Sommerville, a professor emeritus, argues in "The Decline of the Secular University," a slim volume published by Oxford in May and excerpted last month in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

But today, he maintains, "the secular university is increasingly marginal to American society," ceding influence to popular culture, talk show pundits, "populist bloggers" and political research organizations, even hiring out university laboratories to business and government in hopes of revenues from patents.

A major reason, he contends more controversially, is the secularism that in his judgment has come to dominate academic life the way that religion previously did. What "looked vital and self-sufficient in 1900," Professor Sommerville writes, has proved unable to provide "wisdom and leadership to American life."