Participating in a symposium at First Things, James R. Stoner Jr., a professor at Louisiana State University, states that the public square was “left naked” — secularized — primarily because of the professoriate’s rejection of theology as a branch of knowledge. To be taken seriously on campuses, Stoner notes

professors [of theology] trained during the apogee of secularism have had to retool … The questions theology asks—about the nature of God, what can be known in revelation, how to live in the light of these things—are universal. Just to know how to formulate them as questions and where to look to weigh the most plausible answers is a kind of knowledge in itself.

Academics who study theology need a renewed sense of mission. Bring on, Stoner says, “a good, clean fight about what is true.” This battle in itself would go far to reforming cynical academia. Of course, he concludes, the going will be tough:

Obstacles are already in place: scientists who are not open to understanding the philosophical basis of their own work, counselors and coordinators who disseminate strictly secular doctrines and practices, entrenched scholars whose whole careers have been based on a contrary premise.