Let every student be plainly instructed … to consider well the main end of … life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life … and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.
-Harvard College Laws, 1642 There was a time when Harvard was considered a holy place and Princeton trained prophets, when students and professors could not help but pray because there were certain questions that could only be answered by an Intellect greater than our own. There was a time when student leaders galvanized campus movements, when young revolutionaries defied the status quo of their generation and engaged in sacrificial service that reshaped society and transformed culture. There was a time … God on Campus traces a remarkable legacy of spiritual awakening that stretches from the founding of the earliest colleges in the United States to a global movement of nonstop student prayer spreading across campuses today.
This is a book to help you remember your roots, Trent Sheppard writes, ordinary people like you and me–bold and timid, brilliant and insecure, disillusioned and dangerous, ambitious and naive, holy and fallen, fearless and afraid–people who prayed, people who conspired together with their friends in faith and action, people who believed their lives could actually help shape the unfolding narrative of history.
From the establishment of early American campuses during the Great Awakening to the rapidly spreading collegiate movements of the twenty-first century, Sheppard shows how students can integrate their passion in prayer with practical Christ-like living in culture. The goal, he explains, is not for us to abandon our studies in economics or education and all become preachers instead. The goal is to live like Jesus in the very soul of society.
Culminating in a movement to mobilize prayer on every college and university campus in the United States throughout 2010, God on Campus is an invitation for students to find their place in the story of God today.