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Several weeks ago on Issues, I reported on the recommendation of Harvard University’s Task Force on General Education that Harvard add a required course on “Reason and Faith” to the undergraduate core curriculum. The effect of this recommendation was that all undergraduate students would be taking a religion course—for the first time in many decades! The goal of this recommendation was to “help students become more informed and reflective citizens.” In so many ways, this recommendation was coming to terms with a fundamental reality of our world—religion is a key dimension of a worldview. How could anyone argue with that?
John Schmalzbauer reports that, at a meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, psychologist Steven Pinker argued that “the persistence of religion is ‘an American anachronism . . . in an era in which the rest of the West is moving beyond it.’” Astonishingly, Pinker, by his comments, demonstrates the very need there is for this course at Harvard. Every poll shows that the religious worldview of Americans helps explain their voting behavior. You cannot travel in the southern hemisphere, the emerging center of Christianity and not see the importance of religious convictions, especially Christianity. If an educated and engaged citizen is one of Harvard’s goals, how can the undergraduate college ignore the importance of religion? Nonetheless, the task force withdrew its recommendation and substituted it with a course recommendation on “what it means to be a human being.”
But, Harvard is not necessarily on the cutting edge on this matter; in fact, Harvard is behind! Consider Princeton University, where sociologist Robert Whutnow runs the Center for the Study of Religion, one of the truly interdisciplinary religious programs in America. Equally important is UCLA’s National Institute on Integrating Spirituality into the Campus Curriculum and Cocurriculum. Alexander Astin, the founder of this Institute, has argued that “spirituality deserves a central place in liberal education.” To that end, Astin and his wife Helen have completed a massive study on “Spirituality in Higher Education.” I have heard Astin speak in January 2006 in Washington, D.C., where he presented a major paper on Spirituality. I repeat, Harvard is wrong and short-sighted to have concluded that a course on religion is not a need in undergraduate education. Nothing could be further from the truth! Harvard, with its $29 billion endowment is not a leader in this area. What a sad and tragic reality for such a rich institution.
See Schmalzbauer’s article in the Wall Street Journal (15 December 2006). |
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