Head, Heart, and Hand: John Brown University and Modern Evangelical Higher Education

By Rick Ostrander and George Marsden

Traveling evangelist John Brown believed that conventional colleges had become elitist and morally suspect, so he founded a small utopian college in 1919 to better combine evangelical Christianity and higher education. Historian Rick Ostrander places John Brown University in the long tradition of Christian education, but he also shows that evangelicalism had largely separated from mainstream higher education by the twentieth century. This engaging and objective history explores how John Brown University has adapted to modern American culture while maintaining its evangelical character. Brown set out to educate the poor, rural children of the Ozarks who had no other opportunity for schooling. He wanted to instill in them not only religious zeal but also his conception of what constituted significant work, namely manual labor. His concern with practical work is evident today in programs for broadcasting, engineering, teacher education, and business. His sons made academic excellence an institutional priority and gradually transformed the school into an accredited, respected liberal arts college. Head, Heart, and Hand deftly connects the story of John Brown University to the larger currents of American education and religion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
• Release date: Mar 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781610751797

Rick Ostrander

Rick Ostrander serves as Executive Director of the Michigan Christian Study Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He previously served as vice president at the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities and in leadership positions at Westmont College and Cornerstone University. A graduate of Moody Bible Institute and the University of Michigan, Dr. Ostrander earned his PhD in history at the University of Notre Dame.

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