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| The issue of teaching bible in schools has recently been covered by many major media outlet. This image is from Time Magazine’s piece. (Win McNamee/Getty) |
Alex Golub, a contributor to Inside Higher Ed, humorously recalls that when he was in college, “people were more likely to take acid than communion.”
At first glance, it seems that college culture is resistant to all things spiritual. Looking around in class today, I’m not so sure. There are more empty chairs than usual — some classes have been cancelled altogether. Passover is once again upon us, and many Penn students have gone home to celebrate with their families. Towards the end of the week, still more students will be seen hailing cabs, rolling suitcase in hand, as they head home to celebrate Easter.
And yet, while many students have religious backgrounds, they are surprisingly ignorant when it comes to religious history and thought. Last semester, my French lit professor expressed her alarm when none of us could intelligently discuss the religious references in the medieval romance Tristan and Iseut. She begged us, at the very least, to invest in a copy of The Bible for Dummies. Apart from the fact that none of us were really equipped with the vocabulary to talk about the Pentecost in French, she definitely had a point.
And religious literacy isn’t just important for medieval lit. or religious studies classes. Those seeking to completely sever religious life from public life will do well to accept the reality that American society is absolutely saturated in Judeo-Christian influences.
That’s why the Society for Values in Higher Education has come up with “The Windspread Declaration on Religion and Public Life: Engaging Higher Education.”The document urges colleges and universities to promote “religious literacy” in their curricula, because “students need to understand the historical relationship between religion and the disciplines — sciences, humanities, arts, and social sciences — and the professions, as well as the contemporary relevance of religion to the disciplines, the professions and public life.”
In order to provide students with a well-rounded, complete liberal education, colleges and universities must include and encourage religious discourse in serious intellectual inquiries. Students should be well-versed in Western religions, if not to make better-informed personal decisions about rejecting or embracing these faiths, to better understand a society that has been historically shaped by these religions and that continues to be influenced by them today.
Bringing religion into the classroom is undoubtedly a sensitive issue. As Golub, who teaches anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, puts it, “Like a lot of worthwhile tasks, it’s a tricky one.” But, he concludes, “the issue is not necessarily what is being taught, but how it is being approached.”
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April 3rd, 2007 at 11:21 pm
Religion? Pah.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jDTecQ9kTdY
April 4th, 2007 at 3:24 am
Atheists deserve the right to partake in an education free from religious discourse. You wouldn’t want to require me to take a course in “Traditional Superstitions,” so why would it be acceptable to force me to take a course on Traditional Eastern and Western Religions?
April 4th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Just because you don’t believe in religion doesn’t make you exempt from learning about it. Being a scholar means separating yourself from the subject matter to understand the importance it has for the world if not for you personally.
April 4th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
I mixed my dad’s ashes with a little blow and snorted him. I don’t think my dad would’ve cared.
April 4th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
But if you think Religion is nothing more than mystical superstition, why should we have to learn about it at an Ivy League institution? I’m happy to learn how religion has shaped history and how it affects voting patterns, as well as how it plays a role in society. But I’m not prepared to spend hours debating the merits of religion and or comparing religions. It’s all about context.
April 4th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
Why are atheists scared of religion? There’s no problem with them formulating their own views, but they seem to want to deprive others of an opportunity to learn about religion and are terrified that they might be exposed to it themselves.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
This article, and most of your own post, answers the question in the first sentence of your post. I’ve never seen a single class talk about the merits of religion or comparing them in such a way as to say “This is divine truth! That is not!” Instead, you talk about the influences and perceptions of religion across history and a number of other fields. For example, comparing and contrasting Luther’s & Jean Calvin’s versions of Protestant Reform isn’t objectively saying one was right and the other wrong, merely what their arguments were, how their perspectives contrasted, etc. in 16th century Germany. The only time a discussion turns into “this is how it is! No this is!” would be when stupid and ignorant students incapable of separating their personal beliefs from academic discussion take over the discussion. A good professor knows how to steer them back into a scholarly discussion.