In order to advance his challenge to evangelicals to "develop a competent literature in every field of study," Carl F. H. Henry began working in the 1950s to establish an evangelical research university. Conversations with potential donors were initiated and plans were made to establish this institution in a community adjacent to New York City. While various challenges eventually brought the possibility of this particular institution to an end, Henry would not let the idea in general perish. At a conference hosted by Wheaton College in the mid-1980s, Henry was still issuing his call to evangelicals to establish a research university. Convinced that such an institution was a necessary agent in the struggle for what he called the "new world mind," Henry passed his idea on to the next generation of evangelicals.

That the dream survives at all is a small miracle. A number of evangelical colleges and universities were thought to be on the verge of extinction as late as the mid-1980s. But in the years leading up to Henry's death in 2003, many of these institutions experienced population explosions, and student enrollment increases initiated growing expectations. Masters and even doctoral programs were established at schools such as Azusa Pacific, George Fox, Seattle Pacific, Wheaton, and Indiana Wesleyan. As a result of this prosperity, several evangelical colleges and universities are now confronted with the possibility of leaping from being teaching institutions primarily concerned with serving undergraduates to being research universities.

Meanwhile, down in Waco, Texas, Baylor University's president, Robert Sloan, was spearheading an ambitious plan (Vision 2012) to make Baylor "one of the top [research] universities in the United States (and the world)." Central to the plan was a determination to deepen the university's commitment to the integration of faith and learning. Alas, this road was not an easy one to travel. After years of bruising controversy, Sloan resigned ...

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