As faculty become defined more by the professional norms of their discipline, the potential for conflict with the faith-based norms of religious colleges and universities should increase. Survey responses from over 1,900 faculty at six religious colleges and universities show that most faculty members support including religious criteria in hiring, contrary to professional, disciplinary norms, but most faculty reject religious constraints on academic freedom, conforming to professional norms. These seemingly conflicting positions are reconciled by a high level of commitment to the integration of faith and learning.A historical trend frequently discussed over the last several decades is a decline in religious identity among church-related or formerly church-related colleges and universities (Burtchaell 1998;Marsden 1994;Parsonage 1978;Ringenberg 1984). Typically, the decline is related to faculty attitudes becoming less reflective of local, sectarian understandings of higher education and more reflective of the national, disciplinary understandings of academic professions (Gleason 1995; Jencks and Riesmann 1968;Marsden 1994). What has not been investigated are faculty attitudes at religious colleges or universities toward both the norms of their academic profession and those of their religious school. This study seeks to explore the "what" and "why" of faculty attitudes on three widely discussed, highly visible, and extremely important issues at religious colleges and universities: (1) the level of academic freedom that should exist when research or teaching conflicts with the views of the sponsoring church, religious denomination, or religious community, (2) the degree to which a candidate's religious belief and practice are relevant in faculty hiring, and (3) the appropriateness of integrating faith with teaching and research.
THE ACADEMIC PROFESSION AND THE MODERN UNIVERSITYA major development in American higher education during the 20th century was the emergence and development of disciplinary academic professions (Geiger 1986;Jencks and Riesman 1968;Smith 2003). Social scientists and other scholars have identified three characteristics of professions relevant for our study. 1 First, professions require expertise of their members-a mastery of a specialized body of knowledge and techniques, usually acquired by formal education and apprenticeship. Second, professions claim the jurisdiction or autonomy to regulate themselves, including the right to determine who are members of the profession, what methods or practices are legitimate, and the standards of success and failure for its practitioners. Third, professions are cosmopolitan, transcending their particular locations, institutions, and communities.