A Pilgrimage Of Faith, J.B. Toews, 1993

g and accepting these life principles for themselves.* The intent to "establish a clear sense of our identity" as given in the president's statement was not realized. The 1984 catalog changed the college's identification: No longer was it an Anabaptist Mennonite Brethren college, but rather: "Fresno Pacific College is a Christian College. *M How should this switch-from a "Mennonite Anabaptist College" to "Fresno Pacific College is a Christian College"-be interpreted? Paul Toews suggested it reflected a larger shift among local Mennonite Brethren. The problem with the Neo-Anabaptist ideal [referring to the Pacific College Idea] once it left the boundaries of the academic centers was that to many valley churchfolks it came not as recovery of a lost historical tradition but as a foreign import. Time and social movement had dimmed the Anabaptist part of the religious inheritance. Further- more it was not only recovery, but also adaptation. This new ideal immediately ran into several barriers. While the revival of Mennonite history might bring nostalgic memo- ries, the revival of Mennonite theology challenged the ac- culturation process with its embrace of the American order To some parts of the church this Neo-Anabaptism seemed like the resurfacing of the older sectarian curbs* By refocusing the peace doctrines it restrained the grow- ing patriotic identification with the American state; by revi- talizing the communitarian ideal it challenged the growing individualism in a society built on a radical individualism; 178 MENNONITE BRETHREN EDUCATION by reviving the ethic of sharing it restrained self-indulgence in an indulgent age.35 Further complicating the identity problem of Mennonite Brethren higher education was a regional outlook that insisted on developing two colleges that were ambiguously "Christian" rather than concentrating on a single school with theological and denominational definition. This was despite counsel from two outside evaluating agencies in the 1950s and 1960s. A study commissioned by the Board of Education in 1955 concluded that the Mennonite Brethren constituency was too small to provide the resources for two colleges.56 But the Mennonite Brethren evidently believed they could do the hu- manly impossible. Instead of consolidating to build one col- lege, they expanded Pacific College, then a junior college, into a second four-year college.37 A second evaluation of Mennonite Brethren higher education in 1968 by the Christian Service Fellowship counselled strongly against unrealistic at- tempts to maintain two colleges. It said the conference co