In the eighteenth century Christian higher education faced several new challenges. Most notable is the Enlightenment. American schools generally incorporated moderate Enlightenment ideas into their teaching, especially the new moral philosophy growing out of the tradition of John Locke and Scottish Common Sense Philosophy. The religious dimensions of higher education were intensified by the Great Awakening and the associated New Light Movement. Yale College, founded in 1701, became by mid-century a leading New Light school. So was the College of New Jersey (Princeton), founded in 1746. A number of other new colleges had New Light connections. Thomas Clap at Yale, Jonathan Edwards, and Ezra Stiles each illustrate efforts to relate the new thought of the era to Christian teachings. The era of the American Revolution brought a new synthesis of Christian concerns and concerns for the right ordering of society, as best illustrated by the work of President John Witherspoon at Princeton.
Notice of the remarkable marine fauna occupying the outer banks off the southern coast of New England; No. 10, Brief contributions to zoology from the Museum of Yale College
