Molly Worthen: Is College Killing Christian Faith or Awakening It?

Good Faith

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2026

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Have You Ever Met a Secular Professor Who Became a Christian?

In this episode of Good Faith, Curtis Chang talks with historian and UNC professor Molly Worthen about her surprising journey from secular skeptic to Christian believer—and what her story reveals about faith, doubt, college, and perceived crises in higher education. They explore why so many Christian students struggle with faith on secular campuses, how parents can help college-bound kids find mentors and community, and how Christian study centers are creating spaces for honest questions, intellectual formation, and spiritual growth. Molly also explains why the search for meaning in the age of AI may open new doors for Christian faith to thrive.

02:58 - Professor Molly Worthen Describes Her Faith Journey

06:22 - Is The Resurrection a Historical Truth?

10:23 - Molly's Leap of Faith Was Intellectual

11:25 - Why Do Students Leave Church in College?

13:48 - The Role of Christian Study Centers

19:49 - Students Seeking Mentorship

25:41 - Faith, Politics, and Crisis of Meaning

29:43 - The Timeless Questions of Faith Are Still the Dominant Ones

31:14 - What's The Professional Cost of Being a Public Christian on Campus?

34:01 - Can You Have a Healthy Relationship With Doubt?

39:28 - Advice for Parents of College-Bound Students

More about the Consortium of Christian Study Centers

More about the North Carolina Study Center

Mentioned in This Episode:

Molly Worthen's Spellbound
LifeWay Research: Most Teenagers Drop Out of Church as Young Adults
Tim Keller's The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

Transcript

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0:00.0	higher education has never been a static culture or institution. It is right now at a state of
0:08.7	certainly the most intense crisis I have seen in my career. And we know this, you know, all the
0:15.9	data we have now on the absolute collapse of public trust in institutions of higher education.
0:22.4	The fact that the economic model for so many, especially smaller schools, is kind of crumbling.
0:28.4	And the very real way in which the advent of generative AI has prompted people in, you know,
0:35.4	in all kinds of contexts to ask, well, you know, we can kind of
0:39.5	create various Band-Aid solutions, but really there's this deeper question that we have to answer,
0:45.2	which is what are we trying to do? What is education for? Welcome to the Good Faith podcast.
1:06.0	We're friends who follow Jesus help each other make sense of the world.
1:10.0	I'm your host Curtis Chang. This podcast
1:12.9	is produced by a nonpartisan 501c3 organization. Every year, about 15 million young people go to college,
1:23.3	either for the first time or as returning students. Some are going as Christians, many are not.
1:31.0	But for all of them, what can happen for them in terms of faith?
1:36.1	Will college cause some of them to lose their faith?
1:40.4	Will some of them find faith?
1:42.7	Or something in between?
1:45.0	Given that what happens in college now will significantly shape the future of our society,
1:52.0	tackling these questions will give you insight into the future prospects of Christian faith in America.
1:59.0	Someone who has intriguing experiences and insights on this big topic
2:04.5	is Molly Worthen, professor of religious history at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
2:11.4	And by the way, if you're a parent of a child nearing college or already in it, you'll especially want to hear Molly's
2:20.0	advice for you. Here's my conversation with Molly Wharton. Molly, welcome to the Good Faith podcast for the first
	...

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