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Religion in higher education: Historic, personal, and public.

Article Excerpt
SOME SCHOLARS CALL IT the reenchantment of American culture: religion is back in the public square. Stories related to religion appear with regularity on the nightly news, in the paper, on talk radio. These stories range from the analysis of religious tensions that feed military struggles across the globe to the analysis of the spiritual journeys of presidential candidates. Others are local news stories: an urban church gives an award for community service to a Muslim leader, or an evangelical minister tells his congregation to protect both the environment and unborn babies. In less structured media events like those of Oprah or sportscasts, it is not uncommon for guests and commentators to mention casually that God is their source of personal strength.

Given that religion is so embedded in the culture at large, it is no surprise that religion is also part of the news that emanates from the domain of higher education. A college president is forced to resign after removing a cross from the campus chapel. Muslim students request places for daily prayers. A debate over general education at a prestigious university makes national headlines when a required religion course is proposed.

What is perhaps more surprising is that those of us involved in higher education--and particularly those of us committed to the liberal arts--have been so casual in our attention to this subject. An Internet search would reveal "religion" as a key word in all of the above stories, but the actual subject matter varies considerably from case to case. What is this thing we call "religion"? Are we using the term with sufficient precision to enable intelligent discussion across the academy? Lack of clarity about the subject and substance of religion has, at times, led to heated arguments, frustrating conversations, and the foreclosure of constructive debate.

Educators might be well served by differentiating among three roles that religion commonly plays in individual lives and in society. First, religion often appears in historic form as "organized religion." Second, religion frequently takes a more personal form, something contemporary Americans often call "spirituality." Third, religion has a public dimension that can have a part in shaping civic and civil interactions. Each of these three faces of religion can operate independently, but of course the three often coexist. Conceptual clarity about these three separate, but interrelated, faces of religion might help the academy engage in more coherent and fruitful conversations about when and how religion might either enhance or undermine liberal learning.

Historic religion

The early twentieth-century philosopher George Santayana once observed that it is as impossible to be religious in general as it is to speak language in general. Religion, he said, is always particular; a person belongs to one religious tradition or another. What Santayana described is historic religion--religion organized into sociological communities that define themselves largely in terms of normative...

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