One of the most important purposes of a college is the development of the intellectual nature of its students. It appears that US Catholic colleges and fundamentalist Protestant colleges (representing Pentecostal, Baptist, and Lutheran sects) have failed to produce students who possess intellectual attitudes. In the case of the Catholics, students evince traits such as docility, dogmatism, intolerance, and defensiveness. A closed, authoritarian background involving strict Church-family-self relationships may partly account for this restricted and uncreative behavior which leads to a marked lack of scholarly or intellectual productivity. The most intellectual Catholic students, when compared to their classmates of lesser ability, indicate a need for religion, yet are critical of the policies, practices and customs of their faith. Intellectuality among these students may be interpreted as "critical devoutness" as contrasted with a docile acceptance of Catholicism. If this kind of criticism indicates a new trend of self-evaluation among the general Catholic population, colleges may have to replace authoritarian practices with innovative curricula, student personnel services, and professional counseling. (WM)