Nichole Torbitzky: Student Beliefs & The Evolution of Faith on Campus

Tripp Fuller

I got an email from a retired university chaplain who’d hit a wall – after decades of ministry, he felt so culturally alienated from undergrad students that he didn’t think he could do the job anymore. It made me think about my friend Nicole Torbitzky, who serves as both philosophy professor and university chaplain at Lindenwood University in Missouri. We dove into how she navigates the shifting religious landscape on campus, from students deconstructing their faith to the rise of the “nones,” and what it looks like to facilitate interfaith dialogue when half your student body reports no religious affiliation. Nicole shares how she brings together student leaders from different faith traditions, handles the tension between Christian nationalism and Jesus’s actual teachings, and creates spaces where people can find common ground across difference. We also explored how the burden of meaning-making has shifted from tradition to the individual in late modernity, and what that means for campus ministry in an increasingly fragmented culture.

Nichole Torbitzky is an Associate Professor in the Religion Department and University Chaplain at Lindenwood University. As a theologian, philosopher, and chaplain, she works to bridge religion, ethics, and process thought across the University. She teaches a diverse range of courses spanning religious studies and philosophy, including World Religions, African American Religions, Christian Theology, Philosophy of Religion, and Introducing Judaism.

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