The English-speaking world is also the Christianized world in enumerable ways. Whether or not we ought to use the term post-Christian can be debated. What is clear is that Christianity has played a major role in the shaping of these cultures for good and ill. Additionally it has never been more important to understand and respect our religious borders with the many and varied forms of Islam, Israel (both in concept and state), and a thousand permutations of North, East, South, and Southeast Asian religious expressions.
Yet religious literacy is valued less and less by the Christianized West.
I view this trend in higher education as a canary in a coal mine. If so, if university religious studies departments continue to close up shop, one wonders if seminaries and confessional institutions will become the last bastion for religious education in academe.
What do the readers of this blog think? Do we have enough evidence to warrant using the word trend? If so, what are the implications of this trend? How must confessional institutions change to accommodate students who cannot find places in secular graduate program(me)s?
-anthony
Stirling
ReplyDeleteThanks for the correction, Jim, and for the compliment.
Delete-anthony
And of course, the more religious studies becomes the province of confessional schools, the less objective it will inevitably become.
ReplyDeleteKen, of course I must play my part here and say that objectivity is in the eye of the beholder. But point taken. I might say it this way: there are power dynamics at work everywhere. Such a trend (if continued) will lend more power to confessional institutions. Speaking as a Christian, I see this as the worst possible problem. Christianity becomes its worst possible self when we are corrupted by power.
Delete-anthony
Professor Le Donne,
DeleteIs the statement, "objectivity is in the eye of the beholder" objectively true? If it is true, then it is also false, and thus self-referentially incoherent. Ultimately then, why should anyone believe it? ;)
What is truth?
Delete-anthony
Professor Le Donne,
DeleteI would begin answering by this from Philosopher Dallas Willard:
"By "epistemic realism" I understand the view that the objects of veridical thought and perception both exist and have the characteristics they are therein discovered to have without regard to whether or not they are in any way actually present to any mind of any type."
Timothy, quoting Willard is probably more appropriate than quoting Pilate, as I did. Hey, I don't mind a little realism peppered into my George Berkeley every once and a while! Still, since the above post is focused on higher education trends, I'm reluctant to jump into epistemology in this thread. Perhaps another time.
Delete-anthony
In my self-appointed role as contrarian, two things:
ReplyDeleteFirst, the Humanities in general are in contraction mode at the University level. Second, as you frequently point out here, there are precious few jobs out there for religious studies majors, not to mention those in the field with M.A.s and PhDs. Would you advise a young person with a mountain of student debt to study in this field?
Study? Yes. Would I advise such a student to pursue a career teaching in this field? No, not if their livelihood depends on it.
Delete-anthony
Yes it is a trend that is growing exponentially in Higher and Secondary Education ... I think they're trying to replace it with some idea of 'Britishness' which is somewhat ironic in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI support Religious Studies departments. But we should note that religion itself is shrinking in the EU. So fewer religion programs might not change things proportionately.
ReplyDeleteThen too, assimilation of religion programs into Philosophy etc. might actually improve their perspective a bit.
Here in Australia, it's not as dire as it looks. I regularly get invited to teach into a course in the Studies in Religion area because the enrolments are too high for one person to manage. The department has gone from Studies in Religion to Classics, History and Religion to Humanities without a significant reduction in permanent staffing, but it invites a range of people to teach on casual contracts to fill gaps. I think it's the equivalent of one extra member of staff per trimester, so one full time position. Probably from the students' perspective, this is good because they get taught by people with particular expertise in the area, but for people looking for reliable work it's bad because each of us only gets offered work occasionally. Studies in Religion is not the only area targetted, though - Classics and History are no longer individual departments, but it is happening right across the university as there is a drive to flatten the administrative structure and save money by not having to employ as many people as Heads of School, Heads of Department etc. The university where I teach has gone from five Faculties to two to none (!) while one of the ones for which I provide chaplaincy has gone from five Faculties to two Colleges and the other one has just issued a change document that proposes reducing five Faculties to three.
ReplyDelete