One possible reason for a university losing its confessional moorings is an underlying worldview that divides the curriculum between divinity/theology on the one hand and so-called secular disciplines on the other, parallel to the historic scholastic division between sacred and secular. Because it was assumed that these latter disciplines were subject to the canons of a neutral reason, any connection with the faith would be extrinsic at least and unnecessary at most. In McMaster’s case, this approach is likely why the university could so easily restrict the historic Baptist element to the Divinity College, still situated uneasily on campus as a curious vestige of its earlier affiliation.
A connection with the institutional church, even if maintained, was no guarantee that the subjects taught at the school would be approached from an integrally Christian perspective. Once more, I could rattle off a litany of universities that remain under the auspices of Mainline Protestant denominations but where an effort to think Christianly beyond the bounds of theology is foreign to its educational mission and has been for a long time. At the same time, the lack of a church connection need not be a hindrance to a university maintaining a strong Christian identity, as seen at an institution of higher education in my hometown.
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