The year 2023 was not kind to the humanities and liberal arts. Many public universities, such as West Virginia University, continued the trend of cutting funding for these disciplines due to budget constraints. When a university faces declining enrollment, something has to give - and its usually not the administrators salaries. Moreover, the number of students majoring in the humanities has not been gently declining but rather plummeting mercilessly for almost two decades. With curricular overhauls reducing core humanities requirements, it seems that the prophets of doom are having their prophecies fulfilled.　　Many jeremiads on these trends abound, along with recommendations for solutions. Perhaps it would be more productive, though, to consider an alternate future that is possible, based on two examples of institutions where the humanities have been flourishing: the conservative Christian colleges Hillsdale and Grove City. While both are known as bastions of conservative politics, they share a more interesting commonality in this age when the humanities in secular institutions are withering away.　　The remarkably high numbers of students majoring in the humanities and liberal arts at Hillsdale College and Grove City College offer an idea that deserves our attention. At Hillsdale, the four most popular majors are Economics 12%, History 12%, English 9%, and Political Science 7%. Meanwhile, while Grove City emphasizes its engineering and pre-med programs, Literature still remains its third most popular major 5% of graduates. Both colleges continue to emphasize the value of the humanities in their general education curriculum, and the size of their tenure-track and tenured humanities faculty body reflects this value.　　What if the future of the humanities lies in Christian colleges like Hillsdale and Grove City? What if this means recognizing something distinctly premodern and transcendent about the value of the humanities - their role in shaping human souls and character to produce people and citizens who are not only more ethical and devoted citizens in a democracy but also more fulfilled, joyful, and loving? Such valuing of the humanities cannot happen at state universities, whose missions are divorced from matters of the transcendent and the care of souls. But in Christian colleges, this can and should be the mission.　　In a blog post in April 2023, the author asked: What do we learn if we calculate ratios of faculty per student in various humanities disciplines at different universities? What institution has the highest ratio of Classics faculty per student? The answers were surprising. Harvard employs one Classicist per 376 students 19 full-time Classics faculty for 7,153 undergraduate students, while Princeton had one Classicist per 280 students 19 Classics faculty for 5,321 undergraduates. By contrast, Hillsdale has one Classicist per 216 students 1,515 students and seven Classicists.　　Hillsdales History Department has a similarly impressive ratio: one historian per 80 students 19 faculty for 1,515 undergraduates. The largest Ivy League History Department - Yale, with its 68 faculty for 6,536 students - has a ratio of one historian per 96 students.　　At Grove City College, a student body less than half the size of Harvards has twice as many English majors. One might argue that this is a comparison of apples and oranges - institutions like Harvard have many more degree programs while Hillsdale is primarily a liberal arts college. However, James Pattersons concerns in The Economy of Prestige demonstrate the difficulties in which many Christian institutions find themselves. In this age of enrollment declines, including at small Christian colleges, both Hillsdale and Grove City College are doing quite well overall, unlike their many counterparts, secular or Christian, who have experienced severe enrollment declines and have been slashing the humanities in response.　　What do these numbers reveal? First, students vote with their feet, and if given the chance to partake in a robust general education curriculum that is rooted in the humanities, many rejoice in the opportunity. As Emma Greens New Yorker profile of Hillsdale College showed last spring, record numbers of students are involved in music - even if they are not majoring in it.　　Secondly, the institutional investment in the humanities at some Christian colleges, which have traditionally prioritized character formation in the virtues as an integral part of college education, is also a contributing factor. Because, as the cliché goes, the humanities teach us what makes us human, Christian colleges find this mission particularly close to their theological hearts. Spiritual formation is connected to character formation. We are what we read, what we think, what we study. The study of Great Books, history, art, and music forms us to love the good, the true, and the beautiful. The liberal arts have earthly significance and joy, but are also filled with transcendent revelations.　　Moreover, in this age of AI, a robust theology of personhood is essential for understanding the beauty of authentic humanity. AI can do many things more quickly and seemingly better than we can. It can learn languages, compose basic essays, play chess at world championship level or, really, any level ordained, write poetry, create art, and even deliver a sermon.　　The appreciation of the humanities requires, in other words, an appreciation for humans and for distinctly human creativity as valuable, significant, and important for a life of flourishing in the here and now. This makes the humanities both practical and transcendent. After all, forming character as a deliberate part of college education will result in graduates who are better people, imbued with virtues that too often are lacking. As philosopher and virtue ethicist Christian Miller has argued, there is a genuine character gap among the general population today. People believe that they are better than they really are, which means that they have little interest in growth in the virtues.　　In response to the AI revolution, colleges like Grove City have a taskforce considering the incorporation of monastic practices into the curriculum. Historian Molly Worthen outlined this strategy a few months ago in her exhortation that universities should be more like monasteries. By banning smartphones or presenting the opportunity for students to take a vow of silence for a period during the semester, these institutions hope to train minds along with souls, recognizing that human beings are not machines.　　To be fair, any college or university - secular just as much as Christian - could see the value of the humanities in educating beings who are not just mortal bodies but are also immortal souls. Any university could prioritize the formation of character and therefore emphasize filling students minds with good, true, and beautiful things as part of their mission. However, there is a worldview difference involved that transcends the usual red herring of woke politics. Secular state universities, in particular, are increasingly run based on utilitarian principles, focused on getting students into paying jobs but without much attention to job satisfaction. The result is an industrial-treadmill-style approach to the education of persons. If the worth of a degree or a person is entirely predicated on the money they can earn, the virtues seem irrelevant - and the humanities right along with them. Why bother with monastic practices if one has the narrow goal of preparing the student for a lucrative career in accounting?　　Christian colleges could be the best place for the humanities to thrive - but only if these colleges openly and consciously embrace this mission. If they do, the examples of Hillsdale and Grove City suggest that they may find themselves solving their overall enrollment crisis too, all while serving the American democracy and pointing students to genuine flourishing in an ever-changing and increasingly corrupt world.　　In his much grimmer take on the future of Christian colleges, James Patterson divides American higher education institutions into two categories: struggling mission-driven or formerly mission-driven colleges... and high prestige, secular colleges and universities. While the vast majority do fall into these categories, the authors suggestions here, based on two mission-driven colleges that are flourishing, offer a third option. In the case of Grove City, the flourishing of the humanities alongside an engineering program reminds us that a strong humanities focus in the general education curriculum can coexist and flourish alongside the kind of professional training that so many colleges are eager to add.　　In this age of AI scandals and plagiarism-prone college presidents, we need colleges that will teach students to be full persons - priceless image-bearers whose souls, just as much as minds, bodies, and earning potentials, matter. The humanities are integral to this goal, and Christian colleges and others like them, with a mission dedicated to forming whole persons, are best poised for the task.