Kelly Monroe Kullberg’s Finding God at Harvard is a modern classic and a bestseller since it was first published in 1996. A collection of 42 essays by leaders who have a connection to Harvard mainly as students or professors, the book tells the sometimes very personal journeys of how different intellectuals came to Christ and how they grew to combine their faith with their intellects. Some of the essayists are well known leaders such as Mother Teresa, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Elizabeth Dole and Charles Malik, while others are hitherto unknown figures who found Christ as undergraduates there. Included are interesting essays by professors such as Armand Nicholi Jr., Owen Gingerich, and Nicholas Wolterstorff.

As with any edited collection, the quality of the essays is uneven, but on the whole they make a fascinating compilation. The essays can be divided into roughly two kinds: one is a personal narrative about a search for meaning and how finding Christ quenched that thirst. The other is a more cerebral look at how Christian thought relates to different endeavors in the public sphere, such as the pursuit of science, government, education, or helping the poor. Each chapter of the book is a collection of four essays around a general topic, such as “A Crisis of Meaning and the Need for Change,” or “Government and the Gospel of Justice.”

The best essays combine a very personal journey with intellectual discoveries made along the way. For example, Robert Coles tells the riveting story of Ruby Bridges, a little African American girl who prayed for her white persecutors during the court-ordered desegregation of her Louisiana school in the 1960’s. Taken aback by her simple faith, Coles is unable to explain it away through the usual psychological reinterpretations. In “Christ and Karma: A Hindu’s quest for the Holy,” Krister Sairsingh shares his frustration with the holiness that meditation and yoga produced growing up in his native Trinidad. When he discovered that Jesus could “break the bondage of karma,” he became a Christian, eventually leading many in his Hindu family to Christ including this mother who had been a leader in the local Hindu temple.

One of the more interesting motifs in the book is the pressure toward perfectionism that the competitive environment of prestigious schools like Harvard engenders. Rodney Petersen’s “Perfectionism, Shame and Liberation” narrates a painful journey away from trusting in academic performance for meaning and purpose in life. Discovering grace for the first time, Petersen learns that it is in his weakness that strength in Christ resides, a prescient reminder to all involved in academic endeavors that success in one’s field does not bring true fulfillment.

Other essays are simply an intellectual defense of the place of Christianity in the public square. For example, Charles Thaxton briefly summarizes the Christian origins of modern science, while Owen Gingerich argues that scientific materialism does not explain “consciousness, creativity or conscience.”

But the true value of the book lies in the spiritual and intellectual struggles the authors have in their respective secular environments, and how those can be overcome through Christ. Through reading the journeys of those who have gone before, we can gain strength for the path ahead. Kullberg’s followup work, Finding God Beyond Harvard, is not an edited collection, but narrates her own spiritual journey through the secular wilderness. You can read our review of it here.

Boston Globe Bestseller
Winner of the ECPA Gold Medallion Book Award

Table of Contents

Preface to the 2007 Edition by Kelly Monroe Kullberg
Introduction: "Found by God at Harvard" by Kelly Monroe

Chapter 1. Questions and Turnings
"Questions in a Quiet Moment" by Rebecca Baer Porteous
"The Inexplicable Prayers of Ruby Bridges" by Robert Coles
"My Search for the Historical Jesus" by Todd Lake
"After the Gang, What?" By Evelyn Lewis Perera
"Disillusioned" by William Edgar

Chapter 2. A Crisis of Meaning, and the Need for Change
"A Professor Under Reconstruction" by Glenn Loury
"A Crisis of Meaning" by Richard Keyes
"Harvard, What of the Light?" By Hermann Hagedorn
"A World Split Apart" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Chapter 3. Finding Hope, Health, and Life
"On Gravity and Lift" by Paul Wylie
"Hope in a Secular Age" by Armand Nicholi Jr.
"He Send His Word and Healed Them" by Michael Yang
"Facing Death, Embracing Life" by Brent Foster
"Wonder and Wildness: On Sex and Freedom" by Poh Lian Lim

Chapter 4. The Recovery of Love, Family, and Community
"Childrearing Interlude" by Kathryn Donovan Wiegand
"The Grace That Shaped My Life" by Nicholas Wolterstorff
"Perfectionism, Shame and Liberation" by Rodney Petersen
"A Journey Toward Wholeness" by Betsy Dawn Inskeep Smylie

Chapter 5. Pluralism and the Global Gospel
"Harvard Square" by Habib Malik
"Christ and Karma: A Hindu's Quest for the Holy" by Krister Sairsingh
"Jesus, More Than a Prophet" by Lamin Sanneh
"Power and Gender at the Divinity School" by John Rankin

Chapter 6. Money, Race, and the Gospel of Mercy
"From Prophets to Profits at HBS" by Robert K. Massie Jr.
"In Sorrow, Joy" by Ruth Goodwin
"Conversion: One Journey Outside the Gate" by Jeffrey Barneson
"Salvation to the Streets" by Anthony Parker

Chapter 7. Government and the Gospel of Justice
"Crisis and Faith" by Elizabeth Dole
"How Did We Not Know?" By Peter Clark
"Cambridge, Countries, and Christ by Robert Beschel Jr.

Chapter 8. Science, Technology, and the Earth
"Christianity and the Scientific Enterprise" by Charles Thaxton
"More Than Machines" by Owen Gingerich
"Why Be a Scientist?" By Gregory Hammett
"Thorns in the Garden Planet" by Vera Shaw

Chapter 9. Renewing Education: A Light in the Yard
"Judeo-Christian Versus Pagan Scholarship" by Harold J. Berman
"Feasting at the Table of the Lord" by Peter Feaver
"Called to Teach" by Robert Fong
"A Sense of Mystery: Reflections of a Monk" by Brother John

Chapter 10. Conclusion: Veritas, Hope for the Twenty-First Century
"A Hunger for God" by Mother Teresa
"On Abundant Life" by Phillips Brooks
"Alternative to Futility" by Elton Trueblood
"The Wonder of Being" by Charles Mallik

Epilogue: "A Taste of New Wine" by Kelly Monroe
Postscript by Kelly Monroe Kullberg

Reviewed by: Mark Hansard